The Albatross
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The Albatross is a 1971 novella written by Susan Hill. It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1972.[1]
It concerns Duncan, a mentally retarded teenager who has grown up with his wheelchair-bound mother in Heype, a Suffolk seaside town based on Aldeburgh[2]. Duncan finds it difficult to cope with anything outside his daily routine, but is forced to interact with a wider world when his claustrophobic relationship with his mother reaches breaking point.
The story was partly inspired by local composer Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes.[3]
