Strap in for another Spud roller-coaster ride

Excitement mounts as we count down to the best reunion yet. The author of the popular Spud series, John van de Ruit, will launch Spud: The Reunion at Exclusive Books, V&A Waterfront, on Wednesday, November 20, at 6:30pm.

We caught up with Van de Ruit to chat about what readers can look forward to in his latest edition.

Q: It's been a decade since we last caught up with Spud Milton and the crazy eight. What inspired you to revisit these characters and their stories after so many years?

A: It’s a good question and there’s more than one answer. Creatively, the idea had been ticking over since Covid times, but it only became a concrete reality in May 2023. The reason I had been mulling a return was connected to my post Spud years after 2013. I think I assumed that when I was done with the school series and the films that I would never return to Spud. The natural way of these things is that the world moves on, and so do you, but in this case a curious thing happened: I stepped off the Spud rollercoaster but it's almost like it kept trundling along without me. As the years ticked by, I achieved some critical distance and was able to digest those rollercoaster years from 2005-2013. I suppose it finally sunk in that Spud had changed my life and shaped my identity and that he continues to exist in readers’ minds. A decade on and I still couldn’t go out into a public setting without somebody approaching me to talk about Spud. Finally, it’s unlikely I’ll ever write a memoir but you could say that Spud’s diaries are quasi fictional memoirs, using the events of my life to feed the particularities of Spud’s world. This adds another fascinating layer to the writing process particularly if Spud outlives me which I now think he will.

Q: What new aspects of Spud's life can readers look forward to in Spud the reunion. How has it evolved or do we still see traces of the same character from his school days?

A: I anticipate this book might take a few readers by surprise. In some ways it’s a return but it’s also a departure. It’s structurally different, as I am mostly dealing with a reunion weekend rather than a year in the life of Spud. This shapes the trajectory of the story with sharper spikes in action rather than the school diaries which often meandered their way towards a climax. When it comes to the characters – the fascination for me was not just how they had evolved or changed over a decade, but what had informed those changes. What were the key events that had shaped the lives of The Crazy Eight as young men and how had they turned out because of those events? Likewise for those that hadn’t changed that much. Why? Also, how do these evolved personalities gel as a group of men and what new agendas and power dynamics are at play behind the scenes?

Q: Spud is now facing a "one-third life crisis". Can you tell us more about the challenges he is dealing with and how they compare with the teenage struggles we saw in earlier books?

A: Poor Spud has always had his struggles but in those struggles much heart and humour lies. You might say a few of them are the same. He’s still searching for a meaningful relationship and he’s still poor, although this takes on a different tenor in this new book for Spud’s poverty is a result of his stuttering creative career and this brings his adult life choices into question. This is the nub of Spud’s one – third life crisis. Throw in a twenty-eight year old who thinks thirty-one sounds ancient, his abode being a granny flat in his parent’s backyard, oh, and an invite to his ten -year school reunion. (Just in case he needed another reminder that he was getting old with nothing to show for it).

Q: How do the relationships between Spud and the crazy eight change in the book. Are there any surprises readers can expect in their dynamic?

A: Yes. I believe this is where the real surprises lie for the reader. Beyond their individual changes the Crazy Eight has always been a combustible group of boys now men. At school Rambo kept a tight lid on dissention, negativity, copping out and the like, but will he be able to achieve that now that he is dealing with grown men including Spud. This reunion was never going to be a nostalgic stroll down Crazy Eight memory lane – the setting, past events and the characters at play dictated that it would surf the line of a fiasco.

Q: We know Spud is reluctantly attending the ten-year reunion. Did any of your own school memories influence this novel?

A: Yes, but in indirect ways. Michaelhouse has an incredible mythology. By this I mean a fusion of history, folk law, legend and rumour that over time becomes entrenched as accepted fact. You can meet almost any Old Boy over a beer or coffee and he will tell you stories about characters and events that went down at school that will astonish you. This community mythology is at the essence of The Crazy Eight’s understanding of the school even now as adults. The freedom of fiction allows me to draw on this mythology when building Spud’s world. At no stage do I ever stop to consider what really happened in my life on a day to day basis when I was twenty-eight because I had my one-third life crisis when I was twenty-six and that year of my life is more of an influence on Spud in this book.

Q: The book hints at behind-the scenes machinations and mysterious phone calls. Are there thriller elements in the novel or do these elements add a different layer to the story?

A: That’s a fascinating question. I don’t think I’ve quite reached the definition of a thriller – I’d still say this book exists in the same genre as the previous Spud books which I’ve been told is Bildungsroman. That said, The Reunion is darker than the school diaries and some of that darkness emerges from those behind-the-scenes machinations, fronts and hidden agendas that Spud is attempting to figure out as he negotiates his reunion.

Q: Wombat returns in this novel. What role does she play in Spud's life now, and how does she continue to bring humour into his story?

A: Wombat is the closest character to the original inspiration. I nicknamed my grandmother, Wombat, when I was about seven years old and I have no idea why, but the name stuck. Even my mother called her mother Wombat (when she wasn’t around obviously.) Wombat was highly-strung, neurotic, flighty, imperious, thrifty, English and peculiar. She was of course very entertaining too with a shrieking laugh and a penchant for gin and tonic. In Spud The Reunion, Wombat’s dementia is becoming more worrisome. Spud doesn’t think she should be living at home but she’s very much part of the Milton family. And yes, she’s still funny, the image of her waving Spud off to the reunion in her underwear still afflicts me.

Q: With so much nostalgia around this series, what is the one thing you're excited for readers to see or feel when they pick up a copy of Spud the reunion?

A: Nostalgia is a powerful force because it’s an umbrella for countless other emotions too. We look back with nostalgia but at the same time we might feel pain, happiness, pleasure, yearning or regret. The irony is that the Spud novels aren’t intentionally nostalgic but they certainly take people back to that time in their lives with a warts-and-all immediacy and Spud’s humour-tinted glasses. I feel this most when I meet readers and sign their books – it’s like they want to share their nostalgia with me about their old days, and how Spud has crept his way into their picture.

I’m excited for readers just to return to Spud’s world which, as always, exists at the confluence between heart and funny bone.

Cape Times