The Great Farini

Shane Peacock
Biographer, Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, Screenwriter
Author of The Great Farini - The High-Wire Life of William Hunt

The Lives of Farini Hunt ... Youth

Even as a youth growing up, William Hunt was full of energy and was always searching for adventure. His early years were spent first in Lockport, New York until he was 10 years old and then in Bowmanville, Ontario. Although Hunt’s parents were very “respectable people”, William had a rebellious streak. This showed up in Bowmanville when William and his friends were caught, during their “un-parent approved” circus demonstration, by William's father, who had interrupted the show and was in the process of giving William a beating. This punishment was interrupted by a neighbourhood lady who yelled, “He ought to be whipped until he can not stand! Give it to him! You wicked, sinful boy! You are the ruin of all the boys in town!” Undaunted, William's future dreams were visualized after sneaking in and watching a circus that came to Bowmanville. Here is an except from Shane Peacock’s book … “Bill Hunt was beginning a day that would change his life. He not only met a famous show-business star and learned some of his secrets, but later, at great personal cost, sneaked into the big tent and actually saw the performance. From that day forward his life was infused with the bold spirit of the circus”. From Bowmanville the Hunt family moved back to Hope Township, to a farm that Bill’s (as he was now called) father had purchased. It was here that Bill started to hone his athletic and acrobatic skills and ultimately taught himself to become a “rope walker”. Through determined experimentation and constant practice, Bill increased his skills. It was in 1859 that Bill started to develop his “imagined future”. Here is another excerpt from Shane’s book … “As he approached his twenty-first birthday that summer, all he had been—a country boy from the Canadian backwoods, a medical student, an at-least-somewhat-respectable citizen—was about to die. A new persona was ready to surface. The greatest single impetus that created it came from the actions of a French acrobat. Late in June, Monsieur Blondin walked the greatest high wire in history, and the idea for Farini took root”.

NOTE: Mr. Peacock has written several books. His latest series is about "The Boy Sherlock Holmes" This is a wonderful look at the legendary Sherlock Holmes, in the beginning! To learn more about Shane and all of his works, please visit his website at www.shanepeacock.ca.
(To Be Continued)