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
Tagged with working-class fiction …
Kiddar’s Luck (1951), by Jack Common
By Val Hewson This month we read working class fiction and I discovered a book which makes me think about where I come from. … Newcastle being a fine town to roam in, especially after dark. Its natural features are excellent, that’s why, since it is all hills, vales, bridges and one view succeeds another … Continue reading
All Things Betray Thee (1949) by Gwyn Thomas
Book Review by Sylvia D. Gwyn Thomas (1913-1981)is one of Wales’s great literary figures. He was born in the Rhondda and won a scholarship to read Spanish at Oxford where, Chris tells me, he was very unhappy because he felt totally out of place.
Love on the Dole by Walter Greenwood (1933)
Book review by Chris Hopkins. Having now posted blogs about most of Walter Greenwood’s fiction, I realise that these pretty much all refer back to his first novel, Love on the Dole (1933), so for the sake of completeness and to help the blog reader, I ought to add a blog for that first novel. … Continue reading
The Trelooe Trilogy by Walter Greenwood [So Brief the Spring (1952), What Everybody Wants (1954) and Down by the Sea (1956)].
Book review posted by Chris Hopkins (the review is slightly longer than usual – it seemed best to review the whole trilogy in one post). Between 1952 and 1956 Greenwood completed his Trelooe Trilogy (published by Hutchinson – all references are to the first editions). The trilogy was set in Cornwall, where Greenwood had holidayed … Continue reading
The Secret Kingdom (1938) by Walter Greenwood
Book review by Chris Hopkins. Walter Greenwood’s father was a hairdresser and by the time he married Elizabeth Matilda Walter he had opened his own hairdresser’s shop (‘Tom’s Hairdressing Saloon’) at 56 Ellor Street, Salford (the premises are pictured in the frontispiece to Greenwood’s memoir, There Was A Time, 1967 and also on the Salford University … Continue reading
His Worship the Mayor (1935) by Walter Greenwood
Book review posted by Chris Hopkins. In 1934, after the success of his first novel, Love on the Dole, was becoming apparent, Greenwood stood (for the second time) in local council elections in Salford, this time winning the very deprived St Matthias ward for Labour by 750 votes (see the Working Class Movement Library article … Continue reading
Standing Room Only (1936) by Walter Greenwood
Book Review posted by Chris Hopkins. Walter Greenwood is best remembered (indeed often only remembered) for his first novel, Love on the Dole (1933). This review is one of a series of blogs where I will try to start reviving a fuller memory of his literary career through introducing the other novels he wrote after … 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
Miss Mannering by W. Pett Ridge (1923)
Review by Sylvia D: I enjoyed W Pett Ridge’s Miss Mannering (1923) for three reasons. First, the novel had an unlikely theme, focusing as it does for much on the time on the proprietor, staff and customers of a basement cafe in the City of London at the beginning of the twentieth century. Second, I … Continue reading
Reading 1900-1950 