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... The High-Wire (Part Two)

After the performances, Farini performed at other close by fairs. The walks had taken place during the month of October. During that time Hunt’s father had been in England and could not have interfered with Bill’s activities. With Hunt’s father’s return, everything changed! The father called his son a “mountebank” (Defined as - bastard, bluffer, charlatan, cheat, counterfeit, crook, deceiver, double-dealer, fake, forger, four-flusher, hoaxer, horse trader, impostor, mechanic, phony, play actor, pretender, quack, racketeer, sham, shark, swindler) He said to Bill “Why do you seem quite proud of having disgraced the whole family. I’m astonished and ashamed.” Bill was, of course, taken aback. He didn’t feel that he had done anything wrong. Soon after the confrontation Bill Hunt left the families Hope Township Farm for a life full of adventure! His thoughts are outlined in Shane’s book … “But Farini simply could not accept that the world was wicked: like the circus, it could be a place of wonder and possibility. So he threw away his so-called respectable career, and put provincial little Hope behind him for good. It had plagued and hounded his dreams for too long already.”…“Only his mother came to say goodbye at the Grand Trunk Railroad station in Port Hope.” “Then he left on the next train for Bowmanville. And so a twenty-one-year-old medical man from a respectable family ran away from home and headed for glory”. This chapter of his life ended. He was on to great things!

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)