Keith Dewhurst: a new Spring of writing

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Keith Dewhurst (whose Wikipedia entry does not log half his achievements) was born in 1931. I would say he is the greatest survivor of the British post-war theatrical renaissance that is often compared to the Elizabethan-Jacobean phenomenon. As well as being one of the original Z-Cars writing team and author of over twenty TV plays, he has created many plays for the Royal Court, the National Theatre and elsewhere, including Lark Rise and Black Snow, and written the screenplay The Land Girls, the novel Captain of the Sands, and a fantastic book about Manchester United entitled When You Put on a Red Shirt.

So Keith Dewhurst is ninety-one… You might expect something diminuendo, then, even autumnal, from his latest book (see above), published in March. Far from it! This and the other two works of fiction he finished in lockdown are as vibrant, original, mind-bending, comedic and unputdownable as anything out there by a young writer.

The actual key to the title of his latest book can be found in the eponymous first novella, but to say more would be a spoiler. Take it from me, the ‘faery kingdom’ of Autumnia is an exceedingly ingenious element in the plot, which concerns the absolute self-belief of an upper class matriarch, Mercy Runacre, married to Hector, an MP in Attlee’s government, and the return of their eldest son who disappeared on a bombing mission over Germany in 1943. As a boy in the 1950s I knew families like this and Dewhurst’s evocation of post-war Britain is uncanny. There is a lot of class, bounders and cheerless sex, but bags of humour too. One of my favourite moments is when, having lost the 1951 election, Attlee summons Hector to offer him a Barony. ‘How are you?’ Hector asks. ‘The dry little man scraped at his pipe with a match-stick. “Slugs all over the garden,” he said, “but I suppose we mustn’t complain.” He tapped down fresh tobacco and tried to light a match.’

The second novella, ‘Art Movers’, will really keep you on your toes. In all of the novellas Dewhurst tells his story through short scenes that knit beautifully together, but in ‘Art Movers’ the scenes are shorter than ever and not titled as chapters, because the essence of Charlie March’s job is flitting from one place to another with his van and managing a cast of about thirty characters and bit parts (his part-time employees). March is an ex-soldier who fought in Iraq and suffers from bad PTSD, but has discovered his métier as an efficient, no-questions-asked transporter of valuable art works, mainly in London. You have to work out, then, what exactly is going on in his daily life, and with whom, which is demanding. But as I have implied, Dewhurst’s vast theatrical experience shines through his prose here: each scene moves at a terrific pace on the page (there is not a redundant word), so the effect for the reader is really like watching live theatre. Arcing the whole narrative is the question of whether Charlie will accept Beth’s demand that they live together. It is not resolved until the last two pages — and very movingly.

The novella that you might assume is ‘autumnal’, even autobiographical, is ‘After’, whose hero is an elderly widowed dramatist, Wilf, who has serious heart problems, a carer aptly named April, and an undying drive to write. Like Keith Dewhurst, Wilf lives on the Isle of Wight, but that’s as far as the resemblance goes. Wilf’s situation (‘Old Man Desperation’, the title of chapter 2) enables him to deliver himself of choice comments about life in Britain today, of which this is a representative sample:

‘Look at them. Bloody newsreaders. All they do is read autocues but they think they are philosopher kings.’

Wilf asked [the Help Line] if any of the self-righteous wanking do-gooders running British television had any artistic rigour at all, and was cut off.

‘If only transgenders play transgenders I suppose only serial killers will play serial killers?’ Wilf mocked.

But such Meldrewism is incidental. There are two plotlines, both superbly handled. A young relation named Cookie turns up, who is curious to know Wilf as she believes he is her grandfather. She also resembles him as a loner and black sheep. Covid and lockdown strike. ‘Self-isolation, Wilf had observed, was what writers sought above all, but for the most part the world denied them.’ Cookie stays for the duration and again Dewhurst achieves a brilliant twist of a resolved ending…which again I must not spoil.

The other plotline, however, is not resolved. When Wilf tried to write, ‘there was the ache behind his forehead again, and a blank when he sought a situation that would be the metaphor for what he wanted to show’. But that situation is found in the death of theatre in the English Civil War. An actor who was there tells the story of the demise of the King’s Men (‘Shakespeare’s company’) in chapters parallel to the main plot, evoking the life of these actors as marvellously as Dewhurst did with Victorian actors in The History of Polly Bowler. The great theatrical renaissance of the first Elizabethan age is killed by the zealotry of Puritans and Cromwell’s soldiers…a metaphor for the death, as Wilf sees it, of the theatrical renaissance of the second Elizabethan age at the hands of militant wokery.

Keith Dewhurst, the Isle of Wight Literary Festival programme, 2022. (Copyright Andy Butler)

It is very rare for me to re-read a new work of fiction immediately, but I have done just that with Autumnia and enjoyed it even more the second time. It seems to me these three novellas would be perfect for a reading group, as each is so different and bound to stoke interpretation, discussion and even argument. They are all utterly up to date. Dewhurst’s knowledge of life in Britain today puts my own to shame. ‘Art Movers’ and ‘After’ are particularly topical. And he always writes fast, vividly and punchily. Autumnia is so fresh and alive that it leaves you feeling Keith Dewhurst has not entered ‘Autumn’ as a writer, but a new Spring. The book is pure Primavera!

SOME RESPONSES TO GEORGE CALDERON: EDWARDIAN GENIUS

‘This meticulous yet nimble book is bound to remain the definitive account of Calderon’s life’ Charlotte Jones, The Times Literary Supplement

‘The effort of detection, it must be said, was worth it. The biography is a delight to read.’ Emeritus Professor Laurence Brockliss, The London Magazine

‘It is a masterly synthesis of your own approach with scholarship and very judicious discussion of the evidence.’ Emeritus Professor Catherine Andreyev, historian

‘This comprehensive, meticulously researched and highly readable biography, which the author describes as a “story” rather than an academic biography…’ Michael Pursglove, East-West Review

‘A monumental scholarly masterpiece that gives real insight into how the Edwardians viewed the world.’Arch Tait, Translator of Natalya Rzhevskaya’s Memoirs of a Wartime Interpreter

‘The book is written with great assurance and the reader always feels in safe hands. I liked the idea of it being a story and I read it the same way I would read a novel.’ Harvey Pitcher, writer

‘Presents the Edwardian age, and Calderon in particular, as new and forward-looking.’ Emeritus Professor Michael Alexander, in Trinity College, Oxford, Report 2017-18

A review by DAMIAN GRANT appears in the comments to Calderonia’s 7 September post.

A review by JOHN DEWEY appears on Amazon UK.