The Birds Began to Sing by Jeffrey Buchanan

The Birds Began to Sing is a combined coming of age/crime-mystery story told through the eyes of the main character, a fourteen, “nearly fifteen” year old, part-Lebanese boy, Godfrey.

Jeffrey Buchanan has set his story in the coastal town of New Plymouth in the year 1968. Godfrey’s parents own the colourful Balmoral Hotel, known for fact that single men always seem to stay in its rooms. There are numerous colourful characters in this story including Reggie, the openly effeminate, but very likable and popular barman.

After Godfrey and his father help a drunk Reggie back to his flat, Godfrey is shocked to hear that he has gone missing. His personal belongings are found in a park and at the beach, but news quickly spreads around town that Reggie has taken his own life, “as so many of his kind do”. The police decide it’s an open and closed case of suicide even though no body has been found.

Godfrey, with his thirst for knowledge and a passion for watching murder mysteries like Perry Mason, sets out to discover what really happened to Reggie and who murdered him. To do this, he has to interview everyone who knew the barman, and he starts to discover there are lots of secrets hidden in the community.

At the same time, Godfrey is becoming sexually aware and realises he prefers men to women. The thought of being caught and arrested for homosexual offences looms over him in the story, but he participates willingly in numerous sexual acts on his journey of self-discovery. Each encounter moves Godfrey closer to finding out the truth about Reggie’s disappearance.  

The Birds Began to Sing won the Michael Gifkins Prize for unpublished manuscript in 2024. Buchanan has managed to make the town and its characters very realistic of the 60s. There are lots of unspoken understandings, warmth and humour spread throughout the story, but it’s also sprinkled with an underlying sadness of lost innocence.

Reviewer: Carole Brungar

Text Publishing