CUDDON RETURN
Set in a Yorkshire mining village during
the war years, this novel is the story of Ted,
determined to go down the pit after a defeated father who has not worked since the
General Strike, and Denis whose family retains its tenuous connections with the
more genteel background from which Denis's mother came. There is Jessie,
whose fragile chance of escape from The Square, with its cracked windows and
newspaper curtains, is threatened by her responsibility for her brothers and sisters.;
and Jean whose provocative manner belies and understanding beyond her years.
It is a story about life as lived below
the surface, and about the chains that bind to a
painful but emotionally charged childhood. It acknowledges the destructiveness of
deprivation, but also the spirit to survive. It is also a glance back at the roots of
some of the tensions that have formed our world of today; why some of us are as
we are, and where some of the current conflicts in society may have originated. It is
a story of today, as well as yesterday.
1. Sam
