onstanleyon
kickbox
A novel's power to engender empathy must be one of its strongest features, and this is nowhere better illustrated then in painting a realistic picture of a
character's workplace, particularly if the work is strenuous, threatening, dirty or dangerous.
I think this can be seen in 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' by Alan Sillito. His word picture of the Nottingham bicycle factory, with the smells of suds
and oil, and the capacity that these agents have to create pimples the size of eggs, is indeed evocative.
The pictures painted in 'A Fateful Aberration' by Les Jones of the coal mine in which the leading character works are equally evocative. These are given even
more force by the fact that the Morefield Colliery in the novel is Moorfield Colliery at Altham near Accrington, and the draught doors were in fact manned by
door tenters, little lads who must have sat terrified in the darkness of the pit, waiting to operate the doors when the coal tubs arrived. The main shafts of the pit also have their actual names, and the incident of
the tub colliding with the door really points up the hard and dangerous lives that these miners had.
character's workplace, particularly if the work is strenuous, threatening, dirty or dangerous.
I think this can be seen in 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' by Alan Sillito. His word picture of the Nottingham bicycle factory, with the smells of suds
and oil, and the capacity that these agents have to create pimples the size of eggs, is indeed evocative.
The pictures painted in 'A Fateful Aberration' by Les Jones of the coal mine in which the leading character works are equally evocative. These are given even
more force by the fact that the Morefield Colliery in the novel is Moorfield Colliery at Altham near Accrington, and the draught doors were in fact manned by
door tenters, little lads who must have sat terrified in the darkness of the pit, waiting to operate the doors when the coal tubs arrived. The main shafts of the pit also have their actual names, and the incident of
the tub colliding with the door really points up the hard and dangerous lives that these miners had.