Out of the Ordinary: FM Alexander's early life: a novel - Paperback

by Kate Jenkins (Author)

Out of the Ordinary is a fictionalised biography that explores the early influences on Frederick Matthias Alexander, founder of the widely practiced Alexander Technique.

The story begins in 1879 when a new teacher arrives in remote Wynyard, Tasmania, where ten-year-old Fred lives with his family. His life is changed forever when the teacher, frustrated by Fred's unruly behaviour, removes him from the classroom. Recognising Fred's potential, the teacher tutors him privately, instilling in the young boy a deep love of Shakespeare. Fred clashes with his illiterate father, a blacksmith, and at the age of sixteen he leaves home and finds employment as a bookkeeper with the Mt Bischoff Tin Mining Company in Waratah, Tasmania. The lively mountain town is a stimulating place for Fred's passage to adulthood, and thanks to a thriving amateur theatre company, he develops his talent for acting and dreams of making a career as a performer.Working at three jobs, Fred saves enough money to resign from the mining company and he leaves for Melbourne. By day working as a bookkeeper and by night studying elocution and acting with an amateur company, Fred starts to gain recognition as a performer. Then disaster strikes: Fred loses his voice. When doctors can do nothing for him, he embarks on a period of intense self-scrutiny. Using mirrors, he discovers the problem lies not in his throat, but in the connection between the head and neck, and in his own mind.With his voice restored Fred resigns from his job in Melbourne and returns to Tasmania as a professional teacher and performer. In Hobart he is helped to prominence by an unconventional young couple with whom he forms a lifelong relationship, and it is there that he realises the implications of his discovery and how to teach others to benefit from it.