Tony Klinger, the writer of the Butterfly Boy, also makes films and occasionally lectures at universities. His current films are “THE MAN WHO GOT CARTER”, “SOLO2DARWIN” and “SISTER”, all in various stages of completion for release in 2019/20.

Asked why he had chosen this complex and controversial character as the hero of this novel he smiled and responded, “Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and for me anyone who was against Hitler has me on his or her side.”

We talked about the book’s central character being disabled and Tony raised a hand to stop me, “It isn’t about his not being able to use his hands because he has polio, it’s about what he does do, his triumph over adversity, over anything that life throws at him, it’s that which makes him heroic. Don’t forget my fictional character was gifted to me by real examples of men and women who, every day, find a way to beat seemingly impossible odds to lead wonderful and productive lives. It so happens that my hero is a brilliant artist doesn’t stop him being a red-blooded man with all the lusts and loves and weaknesses of most people.”

Tony was born in London. At school he won prizes for his writing and with some friends ran a successful underground school magazine. He described it as a cross between an early Private Eye and a school rag that managed to make his schoolmates happy and his headmaster furious.

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By the age of 18 Tony was making small professional films that received wide public distribution. This started with The Festival Game about that year’s Cannes Film Festival, and this went on to be one of the most successful documentaries in British cinema history. His next film, Extremes, was selected as an Outstanding Film of the Year at The London Film Festival and this set a pattern for a lifetime of winning awards for his film making and other skills approaching fifty and still counting.

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Following this Tony worked on more than 500 media productions of all types and written articles, columns, blogs, screenplays. His film making has taken him and his family around the world, working on films and TV shows like, The Avengers, Gold, Shout at the Devil, Rachel’s Man, The Butterfly Ball, Deep Purple Rises Over Japan and many others, “I have loved many aspects of film making but ultimately find it unfulfilling creatively, that’s because it’s a craft for a group of people and that dilutes any pure ideas you might have had. That’s why I prefer writing books; it’s down to me if it works or if it doesn’t. The reason’s simple, when I make a film, even a small one it costs millions, but if I write a book its comparatively cheap, so publishers are much more prepared to let you have your creative head than film financing can permit. Also it’s a mechanical prerequisite that to make a film you need a big team of people, but to write a book it’s basically just you and a computer screen. I love being a writer, and to allow myself that title means that every day I’m writing I sit down in the morning and write, and I don’t get up until I’ve written between two and three thousand words.” 

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Over a distinguished career Tony headed several media companies both in the UK and USA. In 2009 the story behind the making of the film he produced about the legendary rock band, the Who, The Kids are Alright, featured in his book, Twilight of the Gods, which was published to acclaim world-wide and in its second edition reclaimed the title “The Who and I”. More recently his second novel, “Under God’s Table” was published on Gonzo and there are more exciting books from the pen of Klinger on route.

Tony now lives in Northampton, England, where he and his wife Avril moved recently to be nearer to family.

 

ABOUT THE BOOK:                      “The Butterfly Boy”

 

The Butterfly Boy is a powerful book that takes the reader on a dramatic, sweeping journey through two World Wars in Germany and races on around the globe throughout the tumultuous twentieth century. The Butterfly Boy is the story of Arnie, who is born to a Jewish woman, Bertha, and a German man before the First World War in the sleepy small town of Darmstadt in Germany.

 

Arnie’s parents are shunned by their respective communities for daring to try to bridge the great racial divide of the time. Her parents pray for her as if she were dead, and swear never to see her again. Arnie will never know his grand parents or the rich traditions of his true heritage. Arnie is gleefully unaware of this as he seeks the simple pleasures of play and the love of his mother common to small children everywhere. His father, Bertie, is away fighting for the Fatherland in the Great but ultimately fruitless World War 1 when Arnie tragically loses the use of his arms through polio, a paralyzing disease common in the early twentieth century.

 

Arnie struggles with both the normal tribulations of growing up, his mixed parentage, the nascent racism of the rise of Germany’s early Nazism and his attempts to turn his natural artistic ability and sharp mind into fully realized artistic accomplishment.

 

During Arnie’s early boyish battles at home his father returns from the War, defeated and bitter at the enemies of the Fatherland. Now he discovers that Arnie, the son he’d never seen is, in his mind, a cripple!  He rejects his son and his wife for defending the boy. The once passionate love between mother and father degenerates into a bitter war of attrition and spite. Despite this, as an adolescent Arnie negotiates a path through life, finding a method to demonstrate his burgeoning talent as an artiste despite his handicap and his appeal to girls who find his handsome face, growing physique, ready smile and easy charm irresistible.

 

A boyhood enemy, Ratwerller, nurtures an undying hatred for Arnie, and he is to haunt the young artiste’s life as their battles become epic and in time, tragic. He is jealous of Arnie even though he seems to have the upper hand being his senior at school, able bodied and the Head Boy.

 

Arnie’s boyish journey through life takes a different turn when he discovers how wonderful and delightful girls can be. Women are drawn to Arnie, they want to look after him, to succour him and then it seems natural for them to bed him.  His powers as a painter echo his appreciation for all that is beautiful.

 

Arnie qualifies to enter the finest art school in Hamburg where he meets Helmut, the son of Prussian aristocrats, who becomes his best friend. Together they party through the decadence of Germany’s Weimar Republic but the thuggish realities of the looming Nazis begin to haunt their blissful, fun filled existence.

 

They realize that they need to make money from their art if they want to be independent of their families. Together with a determined young woman they start to exhibit Arnie’s paintings and he begins to find fame. But he soon realizes that the buying public wants his art because they think he’s like a circus freak, rather than because he’s a good painter. This discovery nearly destroys Arnie and he has to harden his heart or go under emotionally.  

 

By a process of trial and error the small group of artistes stumble on the idea of giving postcards depicting Arnie’s paintings to people in their homes and suggesting that they might like to make a donation to the mouth painting association, another name for Arnie and his business. This small enterprise blossoms into a hugely successful national commercial organization.

 

The Nazis win power and with this everything changes. Arnie, fast becoming rich and successful, rises to become one of Hitler's favourite artistes despite his handicap and his Jewish mother. Arnie risks his like to undertake covert activities for the allies and the Christian resistance movement. In a dramatic twist of fate Arnie kills his own father because he believes he has no choice.

 

Arnie matures into a great handsome bull of a man, who, despite not having the use of his arms still manages to be a great womanizer and hell raiser. The conflict between Arnie and his childhood nemesis, now senior Nazi officer, Ratwerller, is a battle to the death that slashes through their lives like a sharpened razor. They stop at nothing to seek the destruction of one another. Ratwerller even blackmails Arnie, forcing him to give the Nazi his wife to enjoy as his plaything.

 

Arnie never reconciles himself to this loss but discovers some respite when he marries another woman who makes him happy, they have twin boys together but before they can enjoy this she is killed in an Allied bombing raid. Arnie manages to smuggle his children and friends out of the country just in time to avoid them joining some of his mother’s family in the Nazi death camps.

 

After the war Arnie, The Butterfly Boy builds the Mouth Painting Charity around the world from which he makes tens of millions of dollars whilst destroying anyone that stands in his way. Arnie’s final commercial and moral test comes when a Congressional Committee of Enquiry into whether his business qualifies as a charity or is a giant fraudulent enterprise nearly tears his life apart.

 

As an older man, satiated by every indulgence and excess Arnie finally understands that his life is empty and vacuous. When his mother dies in Israel Arnie is too late to be with her at the end. But in his rush to be with her he reconnects with his sons, now handsome young Israeli men. This experience humanizes Arnie, and it rounds the circle of his tempestuous life; but not before he finds Ratwerller in a most unlikely hiding place and finally gains his revenge on the Nazi.

 

This is the story of Arnie, an extraordinary man, taking an extraordinary journey during extraordinary times. You will love and fear for Arnie, and be hypnotized by him. Arnie conquered all adversity to become the "greatest mouth painter in the world,” but he never eliminated all his demons until he had painted one more picture, bedded his last woman, took a reluctant last breath, smiled, and was free to dance with the butterflies.

 

Tony had one request when we were ending our discussion, “I hope anyone who reads my book, will, if nothing else, remember to think about what everyone does, their contribution to our society, rather than focus on the things they can’t do.”

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