20th Century Notts Presents The 1930s
1930
The Virgin and the Gipsy and Other Stories by D H Lawrence (1930)
The Virgin and the Gipsy was discovered in France after D.
H. Lawrence's death. Immediately recognized as a masterpiece in which Lawrence
had distilled his ideas about sexuality and morality, The Virgin and the Gipsy
has become a classic and is one of Lawrence's most electrifying short novels.
Returning from overseas to a lifeless vicarage in Papplewick are Yvette and
Lucile, daughters of an Anglican vicar. With their scandalous mother having
done a runner, the sisters find their new home dominated by a blind and selfish
grandmother. Thankfully they encounter a free-spirited young gypsy and his
family, unleashing sexual curiosity and the yearning for a life beyond that
which a young woman seems destined.
They called her The Mater. She was one of those physically
vulgar, clever old bodies who had got her own way all her life by buttering the
weaknesses of her men-folk. (from The Virgin and the Gipsy and Other Stories)
D. H. Lawrence died, aged 44, in Vence, a town in the French
Riviera. He had moved there on the advice of a doctor, thinking that the
high-altitude location would benefit his failing health. Underweight and in
pain, Lawrence was given morphine. He said, ‘I am better now’ before falling
asleep, never to awaken. Among those consoling Frieda was her former lover
Angelo Ravagli. Tasked with shipping Lawrence’s remains to Taos, New Mexico,
Ravagli is said to have left them on a train. At this point it’s said that he
either returned to collect them or bought another urn and filled it with
‘other’ ashes, but Ravagli later claimed that he had dumped the original ashes
back in Vence and replaced them with cindered wood.
1931
Wild Rye by Muriel
Hine (1931)
In Wild Rye a young woman breaks with expectations to become
engaged with a man whose only creed is freedom. Muriel Hine, who lived in
Nottingham at the time, explores the challenges faced by women in this locally
set novel (the city is known as ‘Lacingham’). A sequel was published the
following year.
Hine’s father was the architect George Hine, a specialist in
asylum architecture and the designer of Mapperley Hospital, and her grandfather
was the famous local architect T. C. Hine, behind many fine creations from the
Park to the Lace Market including The Birkin Building. There is a book by Ken
Brand (1980) featuring the local buildings of T. C. Hine entitled, Thomas
Chambers Hine: Architect of Victorian Nottingham.
Newstead Abbey, which had been sold by Lord Byron in 1817,
is given to the Corporation of Nottingham for use as a city park and museum.
Sir Julian Cahn - who had bought the Abbey in 1930 - and a previous owner,
Charles Ian Fraser, handed over the keys to the historic ruin and its house to
the Corporation at a ceremony attended by the Prime Minister of Greece.
1932
Greenbanks by Dorothy Whipple
Dorothy Whipple’s Greenbanks (1932) was chosen as the
‘Choice of the Book Society’ in this year and it became the author’s
breakthrough novel, bringing with it great success. It follows an ordinary
family's joys and sorrows before and after the Great War. It's a tale of
infidelity, divorce, autocratic parents and rebellious offspring. Two
characters, the emotional and irresponsible grandmother Louisa, and the
unsentimental, charming granddaughter Rachel, were particularly well received,
producing comparisons with Jane Austin.
It was queer, it was frightening, she thought, how in life
you got what you wanted. Men, for instance, who admired above everything else,
beauty in women, married beauty and, more often than not, found themselves with
nothing but beauty. (From Greenbanks)
In 1932 new housing was created in the Narrow Marsh
district, at the foot of the Lace Market, formerly a notorious thoroughfare at
the foot of St. Mary's cliff. Dick Turpin was known to have appeared in
dangerous Narrow Marsh and his dealings here are recorded in a pamphlet
published in 1924 by Mr. Louis Mellard. Many burglars, spies and
trouble-rousers are associated with Narrow Marsh. One such character was
Charlie Peace who lived there. The career criminal has featured in much popular
culture such as penny dreadfuls and children’s comics. Charlie Peace: his
amazing life and astounding legend is the title of a 2017 book by Michael
Eaton. Nottingham Playhouse hosted a production of Eaton’s play about Charlie
Peace.
A. R. Dance’s novel Narrow Marsh is set in the area during
the early 19th Century when it was one of Nottingham’s worse slums.
1933
New Harrowing by Mollie Morris (1933)
Nottingham born Katharine ‘Mollie’ Morris was 23 years old
when she wrote New Harrowing, decades before she penned most of her light
stories set in England's green and pleasant land. The daughter of a lace
manufacturer and his artistic wife, the family lived in a small country house
in Blesaby. Morris took advice that ‘each character should speak with his or
her own individual voice' and that she should write about the village where she
lived. That advice helped her first book achieve publication by Methuen in this
year. It was received with some acclaim both in the UK and the United States.
Morris became known as a novelist of the English countryside.
The Ritz Cinema on Angel Row was completed and opened in
1933. The opening film was The Private Lives of Henry VIII starring Charles
Laughton. It was re-named Odeon in 1944 and also hosted live performances with
the Beatles, Roy Orbison and Buddy Holly all appearing live. By 1964 it became
the first cinema in the United Kingdom to be split into a twin-screen venue
with two modern curtain-walled auditoriums. The upper Odeon 1 opened with The
Sound of Music whilst the Odeon 2's first showing was Mary Poppins - somebody
was a fan of Julie Andrews. The Odeon had six screens by the time it closed for
good, in 2001.
1934
Bows Against the Barons by Geoffrey Trease (1934)
A children’s classic, Bows Against the Barons has been
called ‘a seminal work of socialist literature for children’. The rich and poor
clash in medieval England, yes, it’s a Robin Hood tale, in which a young lad
from Nottingham is made an outlaw for killing one of the king's deer. His fight
against injustice is aided by the commoners’ great leader. Robin Hood and his
band of rebels stand against the elite – in Trease’s hands they are not on the
King’s side – in this radical telling of the story.
Everything in the forest was sacred to the King. To fell a
tree was a crime, even to cut a branch. ... As for shooting one of the deer!...
Only in the forest would he be safe. ...Fold said it was full of outlaws, old
soldiers who had no work, escaped serfs and men who had broken the law... (from
Bows Against the Barons)
Helen Cresswell was born in this year. Cresswell created
hundreds of stories for children during a 45-year career. A former student at
Nottingham High School for Girls and a member of Nottingham Writers’ Club,
Cresswell inspired generations of young readers with her mix of comedy and
mystery. The character Lizzie Dripping in among her best-known no doubt helped
by its TV adaptation. Her best-known book is Moondail (1987), also a BBC TV
series.
1935
Means-Test Man by Walter Brierley (1935)
Walter Brierley was born over the border in Derbyshire but
the teenage colliery worker used his Miners’ Welfare Scholarship to apply to
study at Nottingham University College. He returned to mining but was made
redundant in the early 1930s. His first book Means-Test Man has been called ‘one
of the most powerful and original novels of that decade’ and a ‘key work of
working-class literature’. The novel draws on his first-hand experience of
unemployment and poverty. Its title stems from the trauma of having to deal
with a dreaded means-test when out of work. We follow the lives of Jack and
Jane Cook and their young son. To get welfare help, families needed to
establish that they had no other possible sources of income. The means-test man
would check their most private circumstances in humiliating ways. It has
parallels with today’s government/outsourced ‘interviews’. Means-Test Man was
republished by the Nottingham based Spokesman Books in 2011.
The Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Historical Pageant took
place in the summer of 1935. Nottingham was suffering from the economic
downturn of the time with unemployment and low wages producing poor living
standards. The pageant was held to raise money for the local hospitals and for
promoting the city both economically and socially. Despite poor weather, the
pageant proved successful with 53,600 people paying for admission to Wollaton
Park, many of the visitors being from outside Nottingham. There was a stylish
handbook produced, subtitled ‘The Peerless Story of Nottinghamshire’s Glory’.
Events were also held in the city centre.
1936
A Gun for Sale by Graham Greene (1936)
Nottwich - the city a few hours from London in which A Gun
for Sale is set - is Nottingham; the ‘gun’ for hire is Raven; his hit a Czech
Minister for War. After returning to England Raven is paid in stolen notes.
Bent of revenge the ruthless anti-hero pursues the agent who crossed him. A
cat-and-mouse chase follows as a detective-sergeant tracks Raven to Nottwich.
With American gun and girl noir at its peak (Chandler, Hammett, Cain etc),
Green’s Nottingham novel is a worthy addition to the genre. The author’s
Nottwich is the grim Nottingham he remembered from his time here, the town that
“makes one want a mental and physical bath every quarter of an hour." As
the action takes place it appears to the reader that the killing Raven was
hired for might have been intended to trigger a world war.
He had been made by hatred. (A description of Raven, from A
Gun for Sale)
The last journey was made by the old Nottingham trams in
this year; from Daybrook Square to the Carter Gate depot. Several of today’s
modern trams are named after our writers. Look out for Tram 202 – D. H.
Lawrence, Tram 205 - Lord Byron, Tram 219 - Alan Sillitoe, Tram 221 - Stephen
Lowe and Tram 232 - William (Billy) Ivory.
1937
War On Saturday Week by Ruth Adam (1937)
Arnold born Ruth Adam became a school teacher in Notts. Her
first book, War on Saturday Week, examines political extremism of the time, on
the left and right. It depicts children of the Great War and how they are now
dealing with the effects of a pending conflict as young adults. The children’s
father, like Ruth’s own father, is a clergyman. A feminist writer of twelve
novels exploring social issues Adam worked for a time in the Ministry of
Information. Her husband Kenneth joined the BBC, where he later became Director
of Television.
The year of J M Barrie’s death witnessed the first issue of
The Dandy (for Nottingham’s connection see 1907) and Tolkien’s The Hobbit is
published (for Nottingham’s connection see 1914).
1938
Brighton Rock by Graham Greene (1938)
Given that Graham Greene only spent a few months in our city
it’s stretching it to call Brighton Rock a Nottingham novel but without the
author’s time here the book would not exist. Greene arrived as an atheist but
was baptised in the Roman Catholic faith so that he could marry his fiancée
Vivian. During his time in the city Greene became convinced by Catholicism and
Brighton Rock is his first Catholic novel. The book, which begins as a
detective story, exposes social problems of the time, notably cruelty and the
violence of gang warfare. Without his Nottingham experience Greene may have
been too sheltered from the dark realities of working class life to have
written Brighton Rock, and Nottingham has direct influences. The character Mrs.
Prewitt, the bitter ‘hag’ with a penchant for tinned salmon, was based on
Greene’s landlady in Nottingham, the nosey Mrs Lonely. A version of his digs
also appears in the book. And Raven, the anti-hero of A Gun For Sale, plays a
role in the promotion of young Pinkie to the leader of the mob.
Hale knew, before he had been in Brighton three hours, that
they meant to murder him. (from Brighton Rock)
1939
A Great Adventure by Muriel Hine
Muriel Hine (1873-1949), the daughter and granddaughter of
important Nottingham architects, wrote several works of popular fiction, some
of which are set in Nottingham, or Lacingham as she names it. One of these, set
in the 1880s, is A Great Adventure. Based on Hine’s childhood, the story
features her family home on the corner of Oxford Street and Regent Street (not
far from the Playhouse). There is a plaque on the wall. For more on Muriel Hine
I recommend that you read Exploring
Nottinghamshire Writers by Rowena Edlin-White.
Following Germany’s invasion of Poland, war is declared with
Germany by the United Kingdom and France. Nottingham at War by Clive Hardy
& Nigel Arthur (1987) is a pictorial account of Nottingham between 1939-45.
1900-02, 1903-05, 1906-08, 1909-11, 1912-14, 1915-17, 1918-20, 1921-23, 1924-26, 1927-29, 1930-32, 1933-35, 1936-38, 1939-41, 1942-44, 1945-47, 1948-50, 1951-53, 1954-56, 1957-59, 1960, 1961-63, 1964-66, 1967-69, 1970-72, 1973-75, 1976-78, 1979-81, 1982-84, 1985-87, 1988-1990, 1991-93, 1994-96, 1997-99
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