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The Author
and his British Conscience
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We can do anything. Except speak English. |
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Rainer Triller was born and educated in Germany. In
1974 he spent a year in England improving his English. He worked for an
electrical contractor in the Bedfordshire area and was interested in English
literature and society in his spare time. Back in Germany he pursued his new
interests concluding his courses in electrical engineering. He subsequently
commenced a new course in social studies and general education. In 1979 Rainer Triller started studying English,
History and Social Sciences at the universities of Bielefeld, Paderborn,
Coventry and Nottingham. During and after his studies he spent much time with
his English friends in Bedfordshire picking up a lot of the British sense of
humour and gaining a deeper insight into the idiosyncrasies of the
traditional way of British life. During 1981/82 while studying in Coventry
and Nottingham Rainer Triller took the opportunity to travel to many regions,
towns and historic sites in Britain. He regularly watched the plays of the
Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon and started preparatory work
for his thesis on the unity of Shakespeare’s popular play "The
Merchant of Venice" adding some original viewpoints to the
discussion of this complex play. |
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In 1984/85 Rainer Triller
spent an eventful year in London teaching German at the City and East London
College. He thoroughly enjoyed the life of Britain's great metropolis
roaming through its streets, squares and alleys, chatting leisurely to
people in the pubs and visiting the museums, theatres and opera houses.
He listened attentively to the rather astute verdicts of senior
citizens in and outside the Old Bailey, frequently attended the
constitutionally controlled slanging matches at question time in the
House of Commons and occasionally absorbed the splendid and more
peaceful atmosphere of the House of Lords. 1984/85 also was the
year of the British Miners' Strike to prevent the closures of
collieries. Ever since that time Rainer Triller has taken an interest in the
social developments of the former British mining regions. |
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From 1988 to 1992 Rainer Triller taught
English, History and Civics in what was then
West Germany's homely capital of Bonn trying to come to terms
with the harsh realities of everyday school life. |
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Between 1992 and 1997 he commuted to the historic
German border town of Aachen to teach at what seemed to be a
typical German comprehensive. Spending half his week in rather monastic
rented accommodation and lacking the comforts of his own home in Bonn
Rainer Triller started to fill the long eventless evenings by
occupying his mind with painting illustrations for a friend's CD as
well as writing poems and satirical stories in English, thus partly
counterbalancing his strenuous yet intellectually undemanding work at
school. Many of his ideas were thought up in the cafés of the
neighbouring Dutch town of Maastricht and the Belgian town of
Liège, which he frequently visited with a sympathetic colleague to
recover from the daily turbulence of teaching. |
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Rainer Triller now lives in Bonn. For many
years he was a board member of the Oxford Club Bonn www.oxford-club-bonn.de, where
he first introduced his satirical stories and
poems, which were warmly received by British and German
audiences. Encouraged by this success he published a book called Apprecihated World in December 1997. This
book not only includes satirical stories
like ‘The British Revolution’ and ‘Dangerous Passage to the
Continent’, but also a variety of entertaining poems, some of
which have been set to music by his friend and composer Uwe Gronau and were released on
CD. Since the publication of his first book Rainer Triller has written and
published more poems and stories focusing on life’s shortcomings as well as
on Anglo-European / German relations. Rainer Triller’s
latest books in English are called The Literary Battle of Britain and The Führer-Shine. The author
describes his modest last volumes as milestones in modern European literature
and sees himself in the vanguard of those German and European writers that
are set on conquering one of the most important bastions of British society:
the British Sense of Humour itself.
The Literary
Battle of Britain is also an attempt to challenge the British and their
sense of humour in the hope that there will be similar types of stories
written by British nationals in German!
His texts are now
also available in German. |
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On
behalf of the Hickling / Parsons family When a
German attacked our nation for fun using
rhymes and slick verses instead of a gun we most
kindly provided linguistic support for in Britain we hate not to be a good
sport! |
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Anne Parsons - the Author’s British Conscience Anne
Parsons met Rainer Triller in 1972 when he spent a holiday with her parents’
family. This first visit developed into a very close friendship, which has
now lasted for more than 50 years. Anne is
married and lives in Bedfordshire. She worked for many years as a teacher.
When Rainer started his latest books on Anglo-German relations and asked her
if she could revise his texts, Anne very kindly offered her help and advised
him on various aspects of British life and the English language. The Literary
Battle of Britain is the result of their good understanding and
long-lasting friendship and is seen by both of them as a “serious” humorous
contribution to further Anglo-German relations. |