I was a little late in the day to R.C. Sherriff, but have now read and loved all three of his novels that Persephone publish – with Greengates being my favourite, I think. And naturally it made me want to read more of his. Bello have republished a few as ebooks and POD, but I got this quirky little paperback online relatively cheaply – and, while on holiday, read The Wells of St Mary’s (1962). It’s a few decades later than the Persephone novels, but every bit as good.
Our narrator is Peter Joyce, who lives in a large house on the outskirts of a village called St Mary’s. He is a magistrate and retired colonel. The Joyces have lived there for many years, but being landed gentry doesn’t bring the same riches it once did. Joyce is rather down on his luck financially, at least compared to his family’s former wealth – he does still have a butler – and its made him a bit cautious to invite old friends to stay. But one old friend does come – Lord Colindale (whom he also calls Colin – is his name Colin Colindale??) They haven’t been in touch for a while, and when Lord Colindale arrives, Joyce sees why – Colindale was renowned for being a powerful man of politics, journalism, and public life, and now he can’t move more than a few feet without the use of crutches. His vitality has been taken by rheumatism.
Don’t stop reading, if you think a novel about rheumatism doesn’t sound very gripping! I should also mention that, very early on, Joyce says that the account he is writing is connected with a murder. We don’t know who will be murdered, and we are constantly watching out for developments in the novel, to see who the victim and perpetrator will be, and why.
While taking his friend on a short tour of the village, they come across St Mary’s Well. It is on Joyce’s land, and still manned by an old man who has worked for the family since Joyce’s grandfather’s time – if ‘worked’ is the word, since he is often drunk and very few people come to the wells. It has been used since Roman times, and there is a building around the well, but the locals wouldn’t dream of going – and the number of tourists fighting their way down the overgrown path to the well is dwindling. But it has supposedly miraculous health-restoring qualities, and Colindale decides to take a drink.
And – yes! He finds the next morning that he doesn’t need his crutches. He is miraculously cured by the water of the well!
From here, things in the village start to change. Colindale uses his public position to tell the world about the well – and the next day the roads are jammed with cars getting there. The village puts together a committee to decide how they will make the most of this potential windfall, and most of the villagers sink their savings into shares. After all these highs, obviously not all will go well… but that’s all I’m going to say. And it’s obvious from early on, because Sherriff ends an awful lot of chapters with things like ‘but that was before the worst day of our lives’ etc.
I love fantastic fiction, and the premise of this novel puts it in that category. But more than that, I love Sherriff’s writing. In all of his novels, he is so, so good at unshowy writing that just drags you in and keeps you captivated, while being constantly gentle and character-led. It’s a real gift, and the sort of talent that doesn’t come around all that often. Whatever his genre or his idea, he gets us right in the midst of the community – he can sell any premise without the reader blinking an eye, and there is as much nuanced humanity in his sci-fi post-apocalypse as in the tale of a retired couple buying a house as there is in this novel about a miraculous well.
I was a bit worried that there wouldn’t be enough fiction on my end-of-year list, but this would be a worthy addition. And now I need to track down the rest of his novels, evidently…
Ooh this sounds fabulous. I have loved the RC Sherrif I have read thanks to Persephone. I feel I need to go in search of a copy.
Do, do!
I haven’t read the book, but it seems quite possible to me that “Colin” is a shortening of Colindale (which, if he is Lord Colindale, isn’t his family name but his title; e.g. George Lascelles became Lord Harewood when he succeeded to the title of earl), and that it’s the nickname that his friends call him. The English gentry are especially inclined toward this sort of naming-for-the-insiders, it seems (see the novels of Julian Fellowes), and the person you knew as Bucky or Googie or Whiffler at boarding school will be that name to you forever.
I thought different types of Lords did different things – is it never the surname? Interesting.
Well, again I’m replying without having read it — there could be nuances I’m unaware of. But the usual procedure is that if you succeed to the title, that becomes the way you’re referred to and addressed, and though your original surname still exists in a sense, it’s no longer used for you. (It IS used for your younger brothers, who after your elevation use the form “Lord Firstname Lastname,” as with Lord Peter Wimsey, who could also be referred to as Lord Peter, but NEVER Lord Wimsey. But again, that’s a younger brother.
With your example, it’s CONCEIVABLE that his parents coincidentally gave him the first name Colin so that he grew up as, say, Colin Harkness, who after his father’s death became Lord Colindale (still addressed by close longtime friends as Colin without title), but with no way that “Colin” and “Colindale” can be used together. It does seem unlikely to me that parents would intentionally duplicate a future title in that way, but I’m an ignorant Yank, what do I know?
Sounds absolutely fab! I loved The Hopkins Manuscript so I really should read the other Sherriffs I have on the shelves and then track this one down. You’re spot on – he writes so well! :D
He hasn’t put a foot wrong in the ones I’ve read!
This sounds like a fun, clever read and a great new (to me) author to explore!
Hope you do! Enjoy :)
This sounds fantastic. My one prior Sheriff experience was The Hopkins Manuscript, which I just loved. Edgar Hopkins was such a convincing, real character in the middle of that horrifying situation. I loved how Sheriff could take him from vindictive and scathing, to lonely and wistful, to caring and kind. His writing about regular people in a community is so good. It sounds like this book hits those strengths as well.
Yes! Absolutely all of that. He makes his characters so human and vivid, whatever the circumstances.
Thank you for this review Simon. I have read The Fortnight in September and Greengates and loved them both and have The Wells of St Mary’s and The Hopkins Manuscript waiting in thee wings. I have also bought Sheriff’s biography. It’s called From Journey’s End to the Dam Busters and I can’t wait to dive in. It sounds like he had a fascinating life.
Oh lovely! I haven’t heard of the biog – though do have the autobiography. Could be an interesting compare and contrast.
I loved Fortnight in September, which I read in non-Persephone, and Greengates, and he’s on my “watch out for in second hand shops” list. I presume the murder isn’t too gruesome?
Not at all! And it happens off the page, as it were.
Sounds like jolly good fun! Merenia x
I am so grateful for Simon recommending this. I immediately downloaded a copy on Kindle (very reasonably priced) and found it almost unputdownable. This is my second R.C. Sherriff, Greengates being my first. Somewhere I have Persephone copies of The Fortnight in September and The Hopkins Manuscript so my next job will be to unearth these. He’s a consummate storyteller and employs interesting litle devices to keep you reading…hints at what is to come without giving anything away. Very clever. I adored it!