Brian Fawcett

Brian Fawcett (1944-2022) is a founding co-editor of dooneyscafe.com. He's the author of many books, including "Cambodia: A book for people who find television too slow" (1986), "Gender Wars" (1994), "Virtual Clearcut, or The Way Things Are in My Hometown" (2003), "Local Matters: A Defence of Dooney's Cafe and other Non-Globalized People, Places, and Ideas" (2003) and "Human Happiness" (2011).

The Martian Invasion: (Ch. 2) Travel Morons

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 June 19
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In Ch. 2 of “The Martian Invasion,” Brian Fawcett, a coming-of-age young Canadian, is on the Grand Tour of Europe in 1963. The “Rover Boys” (Brian and a pal) are driving a 1953 Opel through a blizzard in the Alps, eventually ending up behind the Iron Curtain in Belgrade, Serbia. The adventures of “travel morons.”

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The Martian Invasion: A Love Story: (Ch. 1) An Incident in an Alley

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 June 12
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Brian Fawcett relates an incident in an alley in Brighton, England in 1963 that involves dope, Rockers, switchblades, and books. But how to tell a story that doesn’t violate the principles of the Creative Writing Department Manual or the fact that there is no fiction in the real world? “The Martians are always coming,” as one writer once said.

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 15) Nightingales, and a Short Journey Through the Darkness

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 June 5
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In the concluding chapter of Brian Fawcett’s “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars,” the young Canadian acquiring an “education” on an English pig farm in 1962 is still learning about the birds and the boars. “Nightingales, and a Short Journey Through the Darkness” features robins, starlings, nightingales and a deadly dangerous boar.

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 14) The Rules of Life and War According to Ronald Surry

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 May 30
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Brian Fawcett learns the rules and wisdom of life and war, at least according to Ronald Surry, on a pig farm in England in 1962. Yes, a coming-of-age story but, more important, a story of coming-into-intelligence, which belongs to the world, not to the individual. Ch. 14 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 13) Doom

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 May 22
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Brian Fawcett, coming of age on a Sussex pig farm in 1962, is trying to secure the facts in a world that seems doomed by nuclear weapons and a population explosion. Ch. 13: Doom, of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars: (Ch. 12) Insolence

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 May 15
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Brian Fawcett, coming of age on an English pig farm in 1962, reads Voltaire’s “Candide” and wonders if the whole world is sliding back into the perils of “blind faith.” Ch. 12 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 11): Death

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 May 8
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Brian Fawcett thinks about death, on a pig farm in 1962, in the trenches of World War I and during the London Blitz. Ch. 11 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 10): The Third Boar

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 May 1
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Oh, yes, there was a third boar on the Sussex pig farm in 1962 where a visiting Canadian with literary ambitions learned a lot about life and livestock. Ch. 10 of Brian Fawcett’s “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 9): Clear Instructions

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 April 23
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Brian Fawcett on the importance of clear instructions, the use of “hogwash,” and the art of playing ping pong in Ch. 9 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

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The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars (Ch. 8): Writers, and Boars

By Brian Fawcett / 2023 April 16
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An 18-year-old Canadian with writerly ambitions, working on his uncle and aunt’s Sussex pig farm, gets to meet the butler of famed English literary critic, Cyril Connelly. Ch. 8 of “The Sussex Variations, or Two Boars.”

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