A Poor topic
A Poor Topic
Deciding what to call this post was rather a challenge – it was inspired by reading The Little White Horse by Elizabeth Goudge but isn’t fully a review of the book. What caught my attention was the opening scenes where Maria was left an orphan with no financial means when her parents died and had to be sent to her nearest relative to take care of her. This immediately reminded me of Frank Parker’s book Called to Account which is an historical novel set in Ireland during the famine and families trying to get by. How many books I wondered (and still do) concern the poor and poverty stricken among us?
Peter Lilly has a poetry collection, An Array of Vapour, based on his experiences of working with the homeless in Watford. Ray Wooster’s The Miller’s Boyis about an English family which indentures itself to pay its bills, while Michael Lansdown has young Billy (William) sent to Australia after being caught stealing in The Land Beyond the Seas. John Samson has a poverty stricken family in Shaka are Dead, while Beatrice Holloway has a play entitled From Commoner to Coronet. I’m intrigued at the number of books published by TSL that touch on the topic in some way.
Then there are the classics – Oliver Twist probably being the most well-known by Charles Dickens. Tess of the D’urbervilles could fit into the collection as could many stories set in Africa. Thinking about it, most tend to be historical or set in previous centuries when life was rather different. Talking to a genealogist a few days before writing this post, she was talking about her great grandmother working on the Shropshire mines picking up iron ore while the men worked below ground. For a holiday, she would walk to London – a week on the road one way – and further south to pick strawberries… more back-breaking work.
How many modern stories touch on the topic? or is it a matter we hide away from? Looking at what we see on our screens, I get the impression we do hide away from this uncomfortable side of life unless it suits a particular political or funding agenda. Again, African titles and refugee stories spring to mind… but focusing on those disguises the and hides the reality in wealthier communities.
What is striking about most of the stories and accounts mentioned, and which came across very strongly in The Little White Horse, is the survival instinct, improving life opportunities for self and others, and rising above adversity. This too is strong in The Miller’s Boy. Another theme is that of working toegther and changing past habits.
I’m also taken back to George Orwell’s The Road to Wigan Pier where libraries played such an important role during the 1930s in providing a warm safe haven for the destitute. Literature plays an important role in bringing topics and issues to consciousness – some more obvious than others – and perhaps offers a solution or two as well if we care to reflect on our reading.
