I’ve just finished as satisfying a novel as I have read in a long time: "South Riding" by Winifred Holtby, published in 1936. I don’t read a lot of fiction these days, but I like to follow coincidence where its leads. It started with seeing the recent film version of the early part of Vera Brittain’s autobiography “Testament of Youth,” a book which I’d had on my reading list for a long time. It should be required reading for everyone who thinks there is anything glorious or desirable about war. From there, I became curious about the group of women students who ended up with Vera Brittain at Somerville House, Oxford, after World War I, and their service in the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) of the Red Cross. And thus, I came to Winifred Holtby who died at age 37, four months after finishing this book, which became a best-seller, and vow to read more of the books re-published by Virago Press. Oxford professor, Valentine Cunningham, has praised Virago for “trawling most impressively and fruitfully in the novel catalogues" of the 1930s for women's fiction to reprint.” This is a good place to start.
According to Brittain’s daughter who wrote the preface, “South Riding” was born of two powerful factors in Holtby’s life: her deep roots in the Yorkshire country side and her fascination with the comedies and tragedies of local government.” Holtby’s own mother had been deeply involved in municipal politics. As Mrs. Beddows, one of the novel’s most sympathetic characters, observes: “All this local government, it’s just people working together - us ordinary people, against the troubles that afflict us all ” - hardly the stuff one associates with great literature, but then as now, it is often at this level, that concrete things are accomplished. The tensions of conservative and progressive vie with opportunism and less than noble motives to produce enough drama to engage the reader from chapter to chapter. In the process of shedding light on a range of social issues such as education, unemployment, building projects, poor relief and the mental hospitals, Holtby has created a large cast of believable and complex characters, who experience life in all its varied joys and sorrows. Sarah Burton, a veteran of the nursing volunteers in WW1, the chaotic 20's, and principal of the local girl’s high school life is a graduate of Cambridge. She is convinced of her progressive principles, but her situation brings her into conflict with the local gentry, represented by Robert Carnes, a noted sportsman. It is slowly revealed that in the post-war period, the life of the gentry is in flux, as is Carnes' own life.
Sarah is well aware that the possibility of war has not been removed in spite of her advocacy of the League of Nations, an activity shared by both Holtby and Brittain. Throughout the novel there are hints of the growing dangers posed by Germany and Hitler. Holtby and Brittain had experienced young fascists first hand in their travels in Europe.
The novel reaches its conclusion as the community is set to celebrate the 25th Jubilee of George V. Sarah, cynical of such “ballyho”, finds herself caught up anyway in spite of receiving a letter from a socialist friend who has left the municipal government to fight on a larger stage:
"I can’t rejoice here. We have miles of docks with grass growing between the truck lines. Men I used to know as the finest workmen in the world, skilled artisans, riveters, engineers, are rotting on the dole. Oh, no, they don’t starve; but they suffer from heart disease, T.B., and worst of all, perhaps, hopelessness. And the tragic sickening fact is that their only chance of re-employment lies in this arms race. They can return to life only by preparing for death."
From the perspective of the 21st century, many of us perceive the two decades between the two great wars as a mere cease-fire in the proceedings of international carnage, and find ourselves hopelessly watching the loss of meaningful work for so many people on the planet, and the near enslavement of others. In my own country, where we’ve heard recently of both government and unions trying to quash news of an enormous job-creating arms deal with Saudi Arabia, these words are as fresh as when they were written.
South Riding was made into a BBC mini-series in 2011. I think I’ll have a look for it.
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