Western Morning News (Saturday)
A Devon story of real hardship – and hope
It’s rare to hear authentic Devon voices in novels today, but DAVID HILL found a new book by local author Liz Shakespeare ticks that – and many other boxes.
IN the publishing world, October has become the month when books, aimed at the Christmas market, come thick and fast on the shelves in bookshops large and small nationwide. In this article I wish to point you in the direction of a novel, which you may otherwise miss and which would make an excellent present for anyone who enjoys a beautifully crafted strong narrative, and with the bonus of it being set in the Westcountry; North Devon to be precise. In fact, why not treat yourself to a present which can be read through these long periods when you aren’t going out as much as you once did, you’re beginning to tire of daytime television and the nights are drawing in and you want a good book to curl up with in front of the inglenook or the wood burner.
The novel, by local author, Liz Shakespeare is The Song Of The Skylark, published by Letterbox Books. It is a gem of originality. This is not her first book, her bibliography lists six other titles. The joy, which flys off the pages, is the exuberance of the language, as rich as the notes of the bird in the title. The painstaking historical research which goes into her writing is meticulous. Interspersed throughout the text are short newspaper accounts which took place at the time and relate to the events in the text and add so much to the story line.
This is a painstaking account of what rural life was like in mid nineteenth century North Devon. Many think they can write an historical novel but give up when they realise the time which has to be spent on researching their chosen period. Liz has obviously spent many, many weeks and this shines through on every page. In fact it has taken her three years to write.
The Song of the Skylark tells the story of Mary Mitchell and her older brother Thomas. It is 1842 and nine year old Mary and her eleven year old brother are assigned to be parish apprentices to a local farmer. As soon as I read the opening pages I was in a way reminded of the selling of Susan Henchard and her daughter by her husband Michael in The Mayor Of Casterbridge by Thomas
Hardy. And before I write any more, let me say that if you enjoy the novels of Thomas Hardy you will certainly enjoy this one. Strong story telling and characterisation, and love of location, in this case real places in North Devon. Most importantly a love of the English language and the speech of the Devon man.
So it is that a brother and sister are apprenticed to a farmer, Mr Phillips, and thus spared a childhood life in the workhouse. Mary, instead of being an in-house servant, has to suffer the tortuous work of an outdoor apprentice like her brother. This assigning tradition still remained in Devon, a strong agricultural county where a mother and father with a large family would apprentice off a sibling to a farmer, who would in return provide board and lodge until the son or daughter reached the age of 21, and could become wage earners contributing to their parents’ household. In the 320 pages we follow the teenage years of the two children on a farm through the farming year with all its trials and tribulations, and their eventual finding of a new life and a new world.
When only a couple of pages in, and I read the word ‘cutround’ to describe a certain item of food, a word particular to North Devon, I knew the treatment of the authentic Devon dialect and use of ‘Debm’ words was in safe hands. Throughout the book the words are used so naturally and beautifully within the text and dialogue and they add so much to the realism of the narrative.
Three such words teddy for potato, chiel for a little child and vitty, very well, spring to mind. An old remedy – the use of the juice of the plant plantain used to soothe whip burns on the back of another apprentice on the farm of Mr Phillips who takes bread and bacon for his starving brother and family – add an authenticity to the novel
Throughout the story line, small vignettes relating to the seasonal work on the land are a joy to read - stone picking in the fields, teddy planting, bird scaring, weed pulling in the cornfield, the scythe cutting of corn, and my favourite which has nothing to do with farming: The first glimpse of a grandfather clock and Mary working out how to tell a simple form of time keeping is an absolute joy and lingers long in the memory. The inspiration given by the preacher Mary O’ Bryan and the effect it has on Mary is tenderly described and also stays in the memory. The first sad fumblings with Mary by John Phillips, the slow son of the farmer are also finely described as is the magistrate’s court scene, and the subsequent scenes when Mary becomes a number and prisoner. Actually there are too many to list.
Mary’s realisation that she won’t be seeing her parents and that she will be on the farm until she is twenty-one brings a tear to the eye and one realises how harsh rural life was in the nineteenth century.
This is to the fore in the depiction of farm life and successive potato blights. There are numerous sub plots - the rise of the chapel in the area, the relationship between Mr Phillips and his son John. The relationship between Mr Phillips and his wife, and the lives of the other apprentices and indoor servants, to name but four.
The skylark symbolism features throughout the text, including in the cornfield when Mary is weed pulling, the song heard overhead when they make their escape from the farm and finally when a new life beckons.
The destruction of a nest by Mr Phillips shows the latent anger in the man when he feels he must destroy beauty, as his farm continues to fail. But farming, like the skylark will survive.
The skylark is, as Mary says in her thoughts when going through a hard time, “....if she listened carefully she would hear the song of the skylark, because it was always there....”
I can promise you will not be disappointed with your purchase. I mentioned Thomas Hardy in an earlier paragraph. Liz Shakespeare’s novel certainly stands the test when compared with the writer from the past. But more importantly she has her own style and it is one to be relished.
Two years ago I wrote about Melissa Harrison’s novel All Among The Barley, set on a Suffolk farm in the 1930s. Liz Shakespeare’s novel set in rural Devon in the 1840s will, with the former, certainly stand the test of time.
ISBN 978-0-9516879–6-3 from any bookseller or direct from the Letterbox Books, The Old Post office, Littleham, Bideford, Devon EX39 5HW and the website – www. lizshakespeare.co.uk. The book can be author signed if requested.It costs £9.99. Free postage – and much better to order direct.