The Man Who Meant Well

This tragic novel, published in 1936, is set in rural northern Belgium and in Brussels. The central character, Thys Glorieus, is the son of a poor craftsman living in a district whose inhabitants are looked down on by the people of the local village. From a young age his mindset is governed by a desire to oppose injustice and this a recurring theme throughout his story. He works as a farmhand on a large farm nearby and Rosa, one of the daughters of the family there, becomes enfatuated with him in spite of the gap in class. After a dispute he leaves home and moves to Brussels in search of job. When old enough he joins the army and serves as a batman to a prosperous captain, who retains a personal interest in Thys after he leaves. The remainder of the novel resembles the tragic fiction of Thomas Hardy. An interesting device is the alternating narration between the conventional single narrator and the gossip merchants of the village — this reflects the importance of personal reputation within the community as a theme in the novel. An eight-part dramatisation of the novel appeared on British television in the summer of 1976.

The author, Gerard Walschap (born 9 July 1898), grew up in rural Brabant. Much influenced by the poet-priest Jan Hammenecker, he began training for the priesthood in Leuven but did not complete his studies. In 1923 he became editor of a Flemish weekly magazine. In the mid-twenties he wrote several plays and collections of poetry. His first novel was published in 1928 and he went on to write more than 30 novels in a long career. He received the Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren (the most prestigious Dutch-language literary award) in 1968.

The central character, Thys (rhymes with 'ice'), as a schoolboy was vehemently opposed to injustice and got into trouble for his dogged protection of the girls who were picked on after school. He even took umbrage during history lessons:
“He hated the Romans who conquered Belgium which wasn't theirs to take. The schoolmaster described the savage battles in the forests; the Belgians were so brave that they fought till there were hardly 50 out of 1,000 left. Thys put his hand up and asked, ‘What about those 50? What did they do?’
‘What could they have done except take to their heels, the battle was lost, the Romans were master.’
Thys snorted contemptuously at those 50 out of a 1,000 and had to swallow the bitter truth that injustice had prevailed. No matter how hard he argued that, after all, there ahd still been 50 of them, the schoolmaster shook his head with a smile and said, just like mother: that’s life.”

South Riding

This novel, written in 1934 and published posthumously in 1936, is set in a fictional part of Yorkshire (the south in fact refers to the maritime East Riding). The central character, Sarah Burton, has come back to her native county from London to become headmistress of a small school for girls. She brings with her a socialist mindset and she attempts to improve the conditions of the poorest in the community. Much of the action of the novel involves the local councillors, some conservative, including Robert Carne of the big house, some socialist. Carne’s personal life is tragic and Sarah sees him as something of a Mr Rochester as she grows in affection for him in spite of their political differences.

The author, Winifred Holtby (born 23 June 1898), grew up near the Yorkshire port of Bridlington. On finishing school, she had the option of a place in Somerville College, Oxford but chose instead to volunteer in early 1918 for service with the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps. She was, however, only posted to France at the very end of the war. She took up her place in Oxford in 1919 and became a close friend of Vera Brittain — on graduating, they shared a home in London where they hoped to establish themselves as writers. Her first novel was published in 1923. She went on to write a further five novels and two volumes of short stories as well as some poetry (including some about Edward Brittain, Vera’s brother, who was killed in the war). This novel received critical acclaim and won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Fiction in 1936.

The central character, Sarah Burton, was tormented by what she had known of the First World War. The playing of patriotic songs at a civic function brought her to tears —
“For though, apart from the death of young Roy Carbery, she had suffered less from the war than many women, seen less of it, remained less keenly conscious of its long-drawn catastrophe, the farther it receded into the past, the less bearable its memory became. With increasing awareness every year she realised what it had meant of horror, desperation, anxiety and loss of her generation. She knew that the dead are most needed, not when they are mourned, but in a world robbed of their stabilising presence. Ten million men, she told herself, who should now have been between 40 and 45 — our scientists, our rulers, our philosophers, the foremen in our workshops, the headmasters in our schools — were mud and dust and the world did ill without them.”

Last Cage Down

This novel, published in 1935, is set in a coal-mining village in Durham. The central character, Jim Cameron, is the local lodge secretary of the miners’ union. He carries the psychological burden of the death of his father in a pit accident and is determined to oppose the mine owner’s plan to introduce a high-risk industrial process to a dangerous seam. He predicts that the plan will inevitably lead to deaths and is jailed for threatening to kill the mine owner over his reckless scheme. The foreseen disaster would necessitate the closure of the mine and the destruction of the village economy. The novel was republished in 1984 during a period, as the foreword points out, of “massive pit closures and government ministers publicly discussing the privatisation of parts of the industry”.

The author, Harold Heslop (born 1 October 1898), grew up in a large mining family near the Durham town of Bishop Auckland. He left school at the age of 15 and began working as a miner. He was called up for army training at the end of 1917 and was based at Tidworth Camp in Wiltshire for the remainder of the war. He wrote, “The summer simply drooled on. Men died in Flanders while we played at being soldiers in and around Tidworth... We contributed nothing... The tale of disaster went on and on, killing ruthlessly the young men, while we stayed in Tidworth.” After the war he returned to the mines and became involved in the militant labour movement that looked to the Soviet Union for inspiration. In 1924 he wrote an essay that won him a two-year scholarship at the Central Labour College in London. While there he met other young activists, including Lewis Jones, whose novel, Cwmardy, featured in this project last year. Heslop’s first novel was written during his time in London — having come to the attention of a Soviet diplomat, it was translated into Russian and published in the Soviet Union in 1926. He went on to write five more novels as well as an autobiography.

The author describes the miners’ dispute with the mine owner in terms of warfare:
“The war was set. The old class enemies were erecting the barriers across the streets of industry with feverish anxiety; they were lining up ready for the encounter. Industrial strife is a remarkable phase of life, for it is in this strife that the meek and the lowly come forward with the mighty and the strong to form one solid phalanx of endeavour. Great companions. Strange weapons. Strange tools. Strange battle. The one holds all and is impatient; the other has nothing and is quietly determined, listening to every kind of counsel but that of despair, girding about them incalculable powers of resistance.”