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Look, Stranger
When Matthew Vereker arrives from the American Mid-West on a year's exchange as vicar of All Hallows on Helmsley Island, he thinks there are no people in England, but only 'members of classes dying behind their stockades'. He soon finds that the reality is more complicated. Helmsley Island, once known as Smugglers' Island, is cluttered with smart bungalows, decaying cottages, day trippers, squatters, archaeologists, agitators - and the ghosts of nuns who walk in the grounds of the old priory. Besides the normal if varied manifestations of Christianity there are the followers of the Ancient People, antedating Christianity, who dance in the nude at nights. As summer moves into winter Vereker strives to cope with a variety of problems; his patchwork parish; his young daughter, Nan; Zoe and Tudor Lindsay, cousins and once lovers; Milo, the strange vital boy who looks for gods and finds one inside himself . . . There are some problems that arose before we came on the scene and will continue after we have left, but one problem perhaps Vereker can his own. When the time approaches for him to return to America he knows that things will never be the same for him again.
Hardcover
Published January 18, 1979
2 people want to read
About the author
Mary Hocking
32 books8 followersBorn in in London in 1921, Mary was educated at Haberdashers’ Aske’s Girls School, Acton. During the Second World War she served in the Women’s Royal Naval Service (Wrens) attached to the Fleet Air Arm Meteorology branch and then briefly with the Signal Section in Plymouth.
Writing was in her blood. Juggling her work as a local government officer in Middlesex Education Department with writing, at first short stories for magazines and pieces for The Times Educational Supplement, she then had her first book, The Winter City, published in 1961.
The book was a success and enabled Mary to relinquish her full time occupation to devote her time to writing. Even so, when she came to her beloved Lewes in 1961, she still took a part-time appointment, as a secretary, with the East Sussex Educational Psychology department.
Long before family sagas had become cult viewing, she had embarked upon the ‘Fairley Family’ trilogy, Good Daughters, Indifferent Heroes, and Welcome Strangers, books which give her readers a faithful, realistic and uncompromising portrayal of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times, between the years of 1933 and 1946.
For many years she was an active member of the ‘Monday Lit’, a Lewes-based group which brought in current writers and poets to speak about their work. Equally, she was an enthusiastic supporter of Lewes Little Theatre, where she found her role as ‘prompter’ the most satisfying, and worshipped at the town’s St Pancras RC Church.
* Source
Writing was in her blood. Juggling her work as a local government officer in Middlesex Education Department with writing, at first short stories for magazines and pieces for The Times Educational Supplement, she then had her first book, The Winter City, published in 1961.
The book was a success and enabled Mary to relinquish her full time occupation to devote her time to writing. Even so, when she came to her beloved Lewes in 1961, she still took a part-time appointment, as a secretary, with the East Sussex Educational Psychology department.
Long before family sagas had become cult viewing, she had embarked upon the ‘Fairley Family’ trilogy, Good Daughters, Indifferent Heroes, and Welcome Strangers, books which give her readers a faithful, realistic and uncompromising portrayal of ordinary people caught up in extraordinary times, between the years of 1933 and 1946.
For many years she was an active member of the ‘Monday Lit’, a Lewes-based group which brought in current writers and poets to speak about their work. Equally, she was an enthusiastic supporter of Lewes Little Theatre, where she found her role as ‘prompter’ the most satisfying, and worshipped at the town’s St Pancras RC Church.
* Source
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June 27, 2014
Having enjoyed my Mary Hocking reading this month so much I decided to squeeze just one more in – having originally planned to read only three. Look, Stranger arrived from ebay last week – a nice ex-library copy with an attractive dust jacket – it may have been the cover that convinced me to read it right away.
Look, Stranger is a novel about change, changes in people, lives, and landscape and the challenges these changes bring to the people of a fictional island community. The arrival of a stranger shines a light on this odd little community and its problems. Widowed Matthew Vereker arrives on Helmsley Island from the American mid-west on a year’s exchange as vicar of All Hallows. Vereker brings his own brand of religion with him as well as his own baggage, and both he and the community must start to get to know one another. There are naturally pre-conceptions on both sides – Vereker arrives at the vicarage to hear himself being discussed by two parishioners who are getting the house ready for his arrival, and Vereker himself thinks he knows what kind of people he will be living among.
“In Virginia Close, the trial was over and the case had been lost. They were polite, they poured sherry and gave donations, one or two offered him a day ‘s sailing; but as far as they were concerned, the Church had outlived its purpose. They were sophisticated people, moderate and sceptical, and they had outgrown religion. If there had ever been a voice inside them that cried out for help, they had rationalised it away. When he left, they would turn on the television and settle down to watch a play about the struggle of the working classes, written by a member of the middle-class. Class. Class. Always class. There weren’t any people in England, only members of classes dying behind their stockades. England had no breadth; he felt it crowding in on him, over-peopled and cramped, bedevilled with intricate, baffling complexities which can only ravel up existence when people are closely confined. Yet there were depths. Suddenly, without warning, they were there at your feet, black, bottomless, terrifying; you skimmed along on the surface thinking you were managing pretty well, then suddenly the ground had shifted and you had stepped into a well.”
Once a haven for smugglers, now Helmsley Island is crowded with smart modern bungalows, dilapidated old cottages and holiday day trippers and space is at a premium. Vereker finds the community rather more complicated than he had expected; conventional Christians vie with the Ancient People – who dance naked at night, while political agitators, archaeologists, and homeless squatters squabble over land. Living close by at Carrick Farm are cousins and former lovers Zoe and Tudor Lindsay, Tudor a volatile tortured soul, and Zoe who sees the ghosts of nuns in the priory ruins.
Vereker and his daughter Nancy living in the large vicarage, consent to house one of the squatter families in their basement; Mrs Anguilos and her son Milo, one of the Ancient People – who looking for gods finds one in himself. Following her recent sexual awakening aboard the ship that brought her to England Nancy finds herself infatuated with rather unsuitable Tudor, while Zoe gradually becomes closer to Vereker as she works alongside him at the vicarage each day. Over the long scorching summer of drought – tempers flare over future use of the priory site, fires break out on scorched ground and a window and altar at All Hallows are damaged in the continuing conflict between Christianity and the Ancient People. As summer draws out Vereker sets the cat among the pigeons from the pulpit, following a surprising battle at the summer fair.
“ ‘I can’t pretend that I am in sympathy with the charismatics, but neither can I bring myself to dismiss them. We have pared down our faith until there is nothing in it which could be objectionable to anyone or of much interest, either. Can we be surprised that people cry out for something more?’ ”
As winter comes to Helmsley Island Vereker, Zoe and Nancy all face changes – and as the time for him to go back to America draws closer Vereker realises that his life will never be the same.
Look, Stranger is a very good novel I enjoyed it enormously although it may not ever be a favourite Hocking, I enjoyed the mix of eccentric characters and peculiarly English disputes. This has the feeling of a fairly ambitious novel, melding questions of faith and religion with that of people’s sense of themselves and where they belong. For me there were one or two moments of mild confusion – but overall I enjoyed Look, Stranger and you can be sure I will continue to read Mary Hocking novels.
Look, Stranger is a novel about change, changes in people, lives, and landscape and the challenges these changes bring to the people of a fictional island community. The arrival of a stranger shines a light on this odd little community and its problems. Widowed Matthew Vereker arrives on Helmsley Island from the American mid-west on a year’s exchange as vicar of All Hallows. Vereker brings his own brand of religion with him as well as his own baggage, and both he and the community must start to get to know one another. There are naturally pre-conceptions on both sides – Vereker arrives at the vicarage to hear himself being discussed by two parishioners who are getting the house ready for his arrival, and Vereker himself thinks he knows what kind of people he will be living among.
“In Virginia Close, the trial was over and the case had been lost. They were polite, they poured sherry and gave donations, one or two offered him a day ‘s sailing; but as far as they were concerned, the Church had outlived its purpose. They were sophisticated people, moderate and sceptical, and they had outgrown religion. If there had ever been a voice inside them that cried out for help, they had rationalised it away. When he left, they would turn on the television and settle down to watch a play about the struggle of the working classes, written by a member of the middle-class. Class. Class. Always class. There weren’t any people in England, only members of classes dying behind their stockades. England had no breadth; he felt it crowding in on him, over-peopled and cramped, bedevilled with intricate, baffling complexities which can only ravel up existence when people are closely confined. Yet there were depths. Suddenly, without warning, they were there at your feet, black, bottomless, terrifying; you skimmed along on the surface thinking you were managing pretty well, then suddenly the ground had shifted and you had stepped into a well.”
Once a haven for smugglers, now Helmsley Island is crowded with smart modern bungalows, dilapidated old cottages and holiday day trippers and space is at a premium. Vereker finds the community rather more complicated than he had expected; conventional Christians vie with the Ancient People – who dance naked at night, while political agitators, archaeologists, and homeless squatters squabble over land. Living close by at Carrick Farm are cousins and former lovers Zoe and Tudor Lindsay, Tudor a volatile tortured soul, and Zoe who sees the ghosts of nuns in the priory ruins.
Vereker and his daughter Nancy living in the large vicarage, consent to house one of the squatter families in their basement; Mrs Anguilos and her son Milo, one of the Ancient People – who looking for gods finds one in himself. Following her recent sexual awakening aboard the ship that brought her to England Nancy finds herself infatuated with rather unsuitable Tudor, while Zoe gradually becomes closer to Vereker as she works alongside him at the vicarage each day. Over the long scorching summer of drought – tempers flare over future use of the priory site, fires break out on scorched ground and a window and altar at All Hallows are damaged in the continuing conflict between Christianity and the Ancient People. As summer draws out Vereker sets the cat among the pigeons from the pulpit, following a surprising battle at the summer fair.
“ ‘I can’t pretend that I am in sympathy with the charismatics, but neither can I bring myself to dismiss them. We have pared down our faith until there is nothing in it which could be objectionable to anyone or of much interest, either. Can we be surprised that people cry out for something more?’ ”
As winter comes to Helmsley Island Vereker, Zoe and Nancy all face changes – and as the time for him to go back to America draws closer Vereker realises that his life will never be the same.
Look, Stranger is a very good novel I enjoyed it enormously although it may not ever be a favourite Hocking, I enjoyed the mix of eccentric characters and peculiarly English disputes. This has the feeling of a fairly ambitious novel, melding questions of faith and religion with that of people’s sense of themselves and where they belong. For me there were one or two moments of mild confusion – but overall I enjoyed Look, Stranger and you can be sure I will continue to read Mary Hocking novels.
Displaying 1 of 1 review