Mr Bunting In the Promised Land by Robert Greenwood (1949)

Turning its focus to post-war England and the shape of things to come, this ‘sequel’ to Mr Bunting Goes to War (1941) retains traces of the wry humour which marked its predecessor, but the shift to a new milieu soon becomes clear. Opening in the immediate aftermath of the war, this novel picks up where … Continue reading →

The Cleft Stick (1937) by Walter Greenwood

Review by Sylvia D: The Cleft Stick is a collection of 15 short stories. Although the book wasn’t published until 1937, all but two of the stories were written between 1928 and 1931. As Greenwood says in the Preface, they ‘were the products of the ‘prentice hand’ – (p9). They are all set in the … Continue reading →

Only Mugs Work (1938) by Walter Greenwood

Book Review by George S: Only Mugs Work is subtitled ‘A Soho Melodrama’, so Walter Greenwood is a long way from the Salford of Love on the Dole. The novel starts promisingly with a bustling description of Soho, centre of the theatre and film worlds by day, and by night something more sinister: