Signed with their Honour

The action of "Signed with Their Honour" takes place in Greece at the beginning of World War II. The Greek Patriots fight against the German and Italian fascists. But the upper levels of society are indifferent to the destiny of Greece. More than that, they betray the state interests to the invaders. The writer portrays the heroic fight with the occupants. The main char­acter of the novel is John Quayle, a young English pilot. He honestly does his duty, fighting bravely against fascists. At first he is indifferent to the fate of Greece and the Greek⁴ people. He is not much con­cerned about the cause and purpose of the war. But step by step, he realizes that the people fight against

both the occupants and their own rulers. The young man guesses where the truth is, he comes to know that the British Government is guilty of the defeat; its actions are directed to the suppression of the patriots rather than the rout of the enemy: "He mistrusted the whole war as an inanimate thing. He mistrusted the group he felt were misrunning it completely and utterly and with no feeling towards what it was all about. [...] And standing above the whole thing was this desire not to go back into active operations until he knew where to go from this mistrust". John "was movement, and without hopelessness. [...] His slight cynicism was real. [...] He was very sure of himself and he did not make mistakes. He would not be shot down in an airlane by accident..". But John Quayle has a tragic fate, and he is killed in the end.

The writer could brilliantly reflect the social and political situation in Greece. Moreover, he captured the certain historical period. His novels are permeated with sorrow and bitterness over the loss of lives, though lack of despair is characteristic for all novels of James Aldridge.

THE DIPLOMAT

The name of James Aldridge is inseparable from one of the tendencies in postwar English literature — that of the "anti-colonial" novel. His work "The Dip­lomat" (1949) is one of the best novels. It deals with politics with a philosophical accent. Lord Essex, a traditional British diplomat, is sent to Moscow on business. A young scientist, McGregor, who was brought up in Iran, has been appointed to help the

diplomat. Thus the plot centres around these two characters. Essex is a typical English diplomat, and McGregor is an intellectual who carries the illusion that science is independent of policy. The author reveals a wonderful atmosphere of the relations be­tween Essex and McGregor. Soon McGregor becomes aware of Essex's aims. The writer depicts very vividly the real aims of Essex's diplomatic mission and the way he weaves his net of intrigues. The novel ends with a dramatic debate in the House of Commons, because McGregor has disclosed the real essence of Lord Essex's expedition. Much attention is paid to the depiction of courage of the Iranian people, fighting for their rights and independence.

"The Diplomat" has become an important landmark in English Literature. In June 1953 the World Peace Council awarded Aldridge the gold medal for the novel. This is a definite acknowledgement of the writer's achievement.

John Osborne (1929-1994)

John Osborne was born in 1929 in a suburb of London. He lived there until the beginning of World War II. He was educated in a boarding school in the west of England. At 16 he left school for journalism. Then, quite by chance he became an actor and worked in different provincial theatres. At the beginning of the 1950's he was invited to play in Lon­don's English Stage Company.

In 1956 he became a playwright. Since then Osborne has written over fifteen plays, among them were "The Entertainer" (1957) and "The World of Paul Slickey" (1959). These plays describe the laws and traditions of the British society.

In 1956 the Royal Court Theatre was established in London. It was greatly interested in performing new plays, because it was the first theatre with a permanent company of actors, the English Stage Company. Os-borne's "Look Back in Anger" was staged in the Royal Court Theatre on 8th of May, 1956. The author introduced a new kind of drama, a psychological play-monologue. The play reflects the life of the postwar youth with special emphasis on the new intelligentsia, the repre-sentatives of "Angry Young Men". They get a university education, but can't find their proper place in society.

LOOK BACK IN ANGER

People with their beliefs and disbeliefs, their de­sires and thoughts are in the centre of the play. The main characters are Jimmy Porter, Cliff Lewis, Alison Porter, Helena Charles. Jimmy, the central one, "is a tall, thin young man of about twenty-five; wearing a very worn tweed jacket and flannels. [...] He is a disconcerting mixture of sincerity and cheerful mal­ice, of tenderness and freebooting cruelty; restless, importunate, full of pride, a combination which alien­ates the sensitive and insensitive alike. [...] To many he may seem sensitive to the point of vulgarity. To others he is simply a loudmouth".

In fact, the plot of the play is of no importance at all. It is one of Osborne's new devices in dramatic art. "Look Back in Anger" is a play in which the personal theme of Jimmy Porter stands above action. He is a

graduate of a second-rate university, and he is dissat­isfied with his life, and rebels. The events take place in the Porters' one-room flat in a large Midland town. It is "a fairly large attic room, at the top of a large Victorian house", where there is "a dark oak dressing table. Most of the furniture is simple, and rather old, [...] the bed, a heavy chest of drawers, covered with books, [...] a small wardrobe. [...] Below the wardrobe is a gas stove, and, beside this, a wooden food cup­board, [...] two deep, shabby leather armchairs." Jimmy is sitting in an armchair reading a paper; Alison, his wife, is ironing in the middle of the room. Thus the picture is ordinary, and quite familiar. The action of the play can hardly be called action, for there is very little of it There are a lot of Jimmy's monologues in the play, revealing his attitude to life. Jimmy's speech­es are full of irritation; his anger takes the form of swearing:

"— God, how I hate Sundays! It's always so depress­ing, always the same. We never seem to get any fur­ther, do we? Always the same ritual. Reading the papers, drinking tea, ironing. A few more hours, and another week gone. Our youth is slipping away. [...]

— Let's pretend that we're human beings, and that
we're actually alive. [...]

— [...] Oh, brother, it's such a long time since I was
with anyone who got enthusiastic about anything. [...]

— Nobody thinks, nobody cares. No beliefs, no
convictions and no enthusiasm. Just another Sunday
evening.[...]"

Jimmy's speeches disclose the development of the main idea which permeates the whole play. Jimmy hates the established order of things, but his anger is nihilistic and uncertain, it only comprises his weak-

ness. His retreat into his own inner world, however, makes him a self-pitying egoist. Jimmy protests against religion, against H-bomb, but achieves noth­ing. His anger is meaningless. His bitterness and cru­elty come from his demand for recognition. That is why much of his anger is turned against Alison, his wife. His life becomes a continuous attack on Alison because of their misunderstanding. As a result, he ruins their love, and she leaves him.

Alison's friend, Helena, appears to be fascinated by Jimmy. But with Helena life seems to take a very similar pattern.

Nevertheless, at the end of the play Alison returns to Jimmy. They are together again. They invent an amus­ing game: he is a bear, she is a squirrel. It helps them to escape from reality into their own lonely world.

Most British people felt that the future was full of uncertainty. They were disappointed with the loss of economic and political power. Unemployment and bad housing led to riots in London, Liverpool and Bristol. Moreover, the relationship between white population of Britain and black immigrants sharpened. Women also tried to gain equal rights, they wanted to get the same work opportunities and wages as men. Industrial prob­lems intensified the differences between the rich south and the poor north. British society was going through a difficult period.

But people have always looked at history in the way that suited their system of beliefs. The writers also respond to changing social values and the changing shape of society. The society affords greater freedom to the writers. Some of them render social reality in a rich expressive prose, revealing everyday life. Others use their wit and imagination to escape from social prob­lems, fly away from them. But the writers' skill makes

both the reader and the author come to a cor­rect understand­ing of the world and the human nature.

Windsor

The acade­mic novel has become popular among the read­ers who are in­terested in universities and can recognize many of the issues discussed: "The History Man" (1975) by Mal­colm Bradbury was a great success. The short story has continued to be popular. It was Roald Dahl (1916-1990) whose "short stories make pretty well the whole world shudder, and smile yet is himself a mys­tery..." ("Roald Dahl: The writer who gets paid for what he throws away" by Stephan Merrick, Argosy)

Roald Dahl (1916-1990)

The Welsh writer Roald Dahl was

born on 13th of September, 1916 in Llandaff, South Wales. He studied at Repton, a private school not far from Derby in Derbyshire in Middle Eng­land. After school Roald worked in London for the oil company "Shell". Later he was sent to East Africa. During World War II he became a war correspondent. He was badly wounded*, then recovered and was ap­pointed assistant air attache in Washington. There he was encouraged to write some notes about his war

experience. The notes were published as they were in "The Saturday Evening Post" in 1942.

His first book "The Gremlins" appeared in 1943. The stories about the Gremlins, the fairytale creatures, were very popular among the English pilots. Roald Dahl was the first to write about them. In 1956 his twelve stories were issued under the title "Over to You", and Roald Dahl became popular. His book was published in many countries, and the author gained international reputation.

In 1959 Roald Dahl married Patricia Neal, the ac­tress. Their life was full of sorrowful events. First, the death of their daughter at the age of seven. Then their little son was hit by a taxi in New York. On top of everything, Patricia suffered several strokes.

It was Roald who struggled for getting her full health back. He wrote Pat's story which was widely published and well paid for.

Since then Roald Dahl became a creative writer. He produced many thrilling stories and tales for children. His stories are grisly. Children love the grisly. "The grisly is real." Thus the volumes of his stories came to life: "James and the Giant Peach", "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "The Witch", "The Magic Fin­ger" and many others. The author smiled like the "merry mortician... The smile... of his grisly stories." But Roald Dahl said that his grisly stories were not serious. Meanwhile, his stories for adults were being written: "The Best of Roald Dahl", "Kiss Kiss", "Someone Like You". The novel "My Uncle Oswald" was among them. People in his stories are more often unpleasant than pleasant. This is fun. The plot is in­triguing and the end is unexpected. More than that, all

his stories are extremely psychological. The writer gives his readers the chance to have an idea about the end of the story and form their own opinion about the narrative.

Roald Dahl was "a slow writer". He was searching for the right word or phrase, he didn't want the quality of his stories to suffer. He was the honest writer who created his own principles in writing. Firstly, whatever a writer writes must contain a bit of himself. Thus the writer writes for himself not for an audience. He must be free, "be his own boss". Secondly, writing is "a methodical business". Therefore, the writer must give his best, to the smallest detail. Moreover, "write a plot down the moment you think of it, or it's gone". As a result, the writer must be afraid of boring the reader. And, "writing is a self-cure. The writer gets rid of worries in his writing."

Roald Dahl worked two hours in the morning and two hours in the afternoon. A lot of time he spent with his family. He was fond of his wife and children. He took his children to school, played with them; he cooked up with his wife; he was fond of gardening; he loved to write and entertain his audience; he enjoyed life.

PARSON'S PLEASURE

One of the best stories for adults is "Parson's Pleas­ure", which was filmed in 70's.

The story is about Mr Boggis, a dealer in antique furniture, who is "a talented salesman". Mr Boggis "had surprisingly good taste, he was quick to recog­nize a graceful design." His gift is to "become grave and charming for the aged, sober for the godly, arch and saucy for the spinster". His business is to visit large farmhouses on Sundays and gain admittance

there. If he is inside and spots something he wants, he knows "a hundred different ways of dealing with that". He uses his skill to make income, to buy cheap and sell dear. Mr Boggis doesn't let the countryfolk know he is a dealer. The reader follows Mr Boggis "combing the countryside", from one farmhouse to another, having disguised himself as a parson. The author depicts him as an experienced psychoanalyst who becomes a magician in his "interesting, exciting and lucrative business." The reader can't help admir­ing Mr Boggis who distracts the farmers' attention from a very valuable ancient piece of furniture, the Commode of the Victorian Age, to make them sell it at a very low price. Mr Boggis manages to assure them that the Commode costs nothing, despite the fact that the farmers are highly suspicious and are a long way from trusting him."

The art of deception is his mighty weapon. But this time, his common sense, his "habit of buying cheap, as cheap as it was humanly possible to buy" lets Mr Boggis down.

He makes a mistake when he says that he needs only the legs of the Commode to "use them on an­other table". His aim is to reduce the price of that Commode. But he doesn't foresee the consequences... Meanwhile, the suspicious and silly farmers are afraid of being deceived by the parson who could start "knocking the price if he doesn't get every single bit of this (the Commode) into the car". Therefore, they cut the legs close and smash the ancient Commode of Late Victorian period to pieces. Now the valuable thing becomes firewood and it is worth 20 pounds. The irony of the situation is reached by the parson's

desire to make the Commode look deceptively cheap and, on the other hand, by a strong desire of the farmers to get money for the thing which is made by them really cheap.

The idea of the story is that deception often fails and gets you into trouble. Mr Boggins falls into his own trap. This story is a good lesson. We are to make the conclusion ourselves.

Life is shown as it is. The author is talented and intelligent. He knows life. He never steps aside from his main principles of writing and establishes himself as a psychological writer whose stories are not only thrill­ing, but are also very important. We call them morality stories.

Roald Dahl died in 1990.

Among the notable Scottish writers of the 70s Nan Shepherd was the most known one. She was bom near Aberdeen and lived there most of her adult life. She attended Aberdeen High School for Girls and Aberdeen University. Later she lectured in English Literature at Aberdeen College of Education until her retirement and was a great encourager of other writers such as Jessie Kesson and Neil Gunn. She wrote three novels, a book of poetry and a volume of non-fiction. "The Living Mountain" which was published in 1977 depicts her love and knowledge of the hills of Scotland. The writer possessed a deep feeling of understanding of the spirit­ual world of landscape; she revealed her characters, especially her female characters with perception and realism. She paid great attention to human emotions.

Nan Shepherd died in 1981.

A kind of magic can be found in the novels of An­gela Carter, a writer of wit and rich imagination. Her novels "Nights at the Circus" (1984) and "Wise Chil­dren" (1991) are called magic realism novels where day-to-day realistic events mix with "unexpected ele­ments of dream". Mythology, fairy tale are combined with "a strong narrative drive". Angela Carter died in 1992.

Margaret Drabble has written many novels usu­ally with female leading characters. She follows her heroines through their education and their careers and family relationships: "The Radiant Way" (1987), "A Natural Curiosity", "The Gates of Ivory" (1987-1991). Margaret Drabble's novels deal with the moral condition of England. She has a respect for physical reality, that's why her novels often lack imaginative power. The strength of her fiction rests in its 19th century seriousness. She cares about the way we live, and her attitude to the contemporary English society is harsh. On the other hand, Margaret Drabble admires those characters who manage to live their own way, by standards they have chosen for themselves. Thus it is not easy to solve the problems of modern living. But she is sure that her books help to make our understanding of society more profound.

Nicholas Evans (1950)

Among the most outstanding writ­ers of the 90's is Nicholas Evans,

who was born in 1950 in Bromsgrove. He was educated at Oxford and then he worked in Newcastle. Later Evans became a war correspondent in the

United States and the Middle East. Be­sides, he made TV programes about the famous people. But since 1985 Nicho­las Evans settled in England, in South London and entirely devoted himself to fiction. His bestsell-

er "The Horse Whisperer" appeared in 1995 and brought him fame.

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