The Plebeian’s Progress, (1933) by Frank Tilsley

Book review by Chris Hopkins. This is a novel about the representative (though as we shall see not all reviewers were convinced about that) lives of Allen and Jane Barclay, starting in Manchester before the First World War, but then mainly set in the twenties and thirties. They both come from very poor circumstances, but … Continue reading →

The Haunting of Toby Jugg (1948) by Dennis Wheatley

Book review by George S: The premise of this story is a gripping one: During the Second World War, Toby Jugg, a fighter-pilot, crashes and is paralysed from the waist down. He is being looked after in a country house in Wales, under the care of Helmut, a teacher from his old school. The book … Continue reading →

The Black Baroness (1940) by Dennis Wheatley

Book Review by Jane V: Bond meets Biggles – way out of my comfort zone. But what interested me most about this story is the speed with which reporting on contemporary events, as they happened, was written up and published in no more than three and a half months. Wheatley must have written fast (376 … Continue reading →

Steel Saraband (1938) by Roger Dataller

Book Review by Sylvia D: Roger Dataller was the pen name for Arthur Eaglestone who was born in Rotherham in 1888 and started working in a steel mill at the age of thirteen. He then worked for a number of years as a miner and in 1925 published “From a Pitman’s Notebook” This won him … Continue reading →

Children of the Dead End (1914) by Patrick MacGill

Book review by George S: The book’s subtitle is ‘The Autobiography of an Irish Navvy’ and its hero, Dermot Flynn, has many experiences in common with Patrick MacGill’s own life. The early chapters describe his upbringing in rural poverty in Donegal. In Glenmornan, money is scarce: ‘In my own house we had flesh meat to … Continue reading →