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South of the River
Intimate and disconcerting, compelling and comic, an anatomy of the way things are, "South of the River" is the big British novel for our times - and a tour de force. It opens on the 'new dawn' of Labour's election victory in 1997, and ends five years later. But this is not so much 'state of the nation' as state of our souls, marriages, families, hopes and careers - a sharp and sexy portrait of a dysfunctional group of characters, all different yet connected. There's Nat, failed dramatist and reluctant lecturer, falling for a younger woman; Anthea, an eco-friendly lost soul obesessed with foxes; Libby, hardworking mother and advertising executive, the family breadwinner; Harry, Nat's friend and ex-pupil, a journalist on a local paper, with a guilty secret of his own; and Jack, Nat's blimpish but unexpectedly poignant uncle, who lives for fox-hunting, and runs a failing engineering company in East Anglia.Beneath the bright familiar world of Blair's Britain, there's a dark undertow of political and personal disillusion, of mythologies and urban myths that circle round our apparently comfortable lives. "South of the River", is a tale of five people, two rivers, and many Englands, metropolitan and rural, black and white, is gloriously readable and brimming with art and life.
528 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2008
About the author
Blake Morrison
77 books65 followersBlake Morrison was educated at Nottingham University, McMaster University and University College, London. After working for the Times Literary Supplement, he went on to become literary editor of both The Observer and the Independent on Sunday before becoming a full-time writer in 1995.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and former Chair of the Poetry Book Society and Vice-Chair of PEN, Blake has written fiction, poetry, journalism, literary criticism and libretti, as well as adapting plays for the stage. His best-known works are probably his two memoirs, "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" and "Things My Mother Never Told Me."
Since 2003, Blake has been Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. He lives in south London, with his wife and three children.
A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and former Chair of the Poetry Book Society and Vice-Chair of PEN, Blake has written fiction, poetry, journalism, literary criticism and libretti, as well as adapting plays for the stage. His best-known works are probably his two memoirs, "And When Did You Last See Your Father?" and "Things My Mother Never Told Me."
Since 2003, Blake has been Professor of Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths College. He lives in south London, with his wife and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews
June 3, 2015
Alas not at all to my liking.
Too fragmented. South Of The River is not so much a story as a catalogue of events some of which the reader only becomes aware of some time after they have occurred which only adds to the overall confusion. The synopsis is at least right in that this is not so much a 'state of the nation' novel as a novel of middle-class adultery.
Never have I been so indifferent to a novel's characters. Unable to like/dislike them - yes, I found them that mediocre. The nearest I came to having any feelings about them one way or another was when one of the characters whilst acknowledging that she was partly to blame for her children (seven and five) being unable to read ('if only she had more time, if only when she did have time she wasn't so exhausted') laid the blame firmly with the school.
And then what is it with the odd little asides, the fox theme that ran throughout? Like the subjects at the revealing of the Emperor's new clothes I'm afraid I was left wondering just what exactly was happening.
Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper.
Too fragmented. South Of The River is not so much a story as a catalogue of events some of which the reader only becomes aware of some time after they have occurred which only adds to the overall confusion. The synopsis is at least right in that this is not so much a 'state of the nation' novel as a novel of middle-class adultery.
Never have I been so indifferent to a novel's characters. Unable to like/dislike them - yes, I found them that mediocre. The nearest I came to having any feelings about them one way or another was when one of the characters whilst acknowledging that she was partly to blame for her children (seven and five) being unable to read ('if only she had more time, if only when she did have time she wasn't so exhausted') laid the blame firmly with the school.
And then what is it with the odd little asides, the fox theme that ran throughout? Like the subjects at the revealing of the Emperor's new clothes I'm afraid I was left wondering just what exactly was happening.
Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper.
May 16, 2013
350 pages good, 150 pages zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
And what was with the retro porno section?
And what was with the retro porno section?
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July 16, 2023I can understand the attitudes expressed in the blurb (above) but this book never quite reached me with that kind of intensity. I found it hard to get really interested in the characters (as I do increasingly these days). I found no one to really like, or empathize with. Many of the various obsessions of the characters are things I care little or nothing about, and when I do find their concerns personally interesting, many of their decisions, motivations, actions, etc., about those concerns, seem to me everything from odd to repellant. It is a fair "slice of life" of the 1997-2002 era, but, for the most part, apart from obvious things like 9/11, not a slice of my life.
July 14, 2025
Het was oké. De verwijzingen naar vossen doorheen het boek (wat duidelijk de rode draad was) waren niet altijd nodig, waardoor het aanvoelde als onnatuurlijk. Het was wel goed geschreven en makkelijk om te lezen met interessante personages. Iets te langdradig.
June 26, 2014
I enjoyed the first half of this book and the gradual getting to know the five main characters. Unfortunately, by the time I got to the last third of the book I was really fed up with the lot of them. The book was too long and I just couldn't wait to get to the end. I enjoyed looking back at the events and current affairs of the times though - seems a long time ago now
April 28, 2020
This should have been about half the length - disappointing when he is such a good writer but I didn’t feel this was evidenced here
July 11, 2023
Very much enjoyed this book, a bit unusual but good.
December 12, 2024
I have a very clear memory of the 5 year period that the book is set over. Amusing and poignant, what an excellent read!!👏👏👏
August 6, 2011
Interesting proposition, I thought – a novel covering the first few years of the Blair government; I could barely remember what those years were all about, tucked away behind the mountain that is 9/11, Iraq and the War on Terror. And what those years were all about, according to this book was....foxes. At least that is what preoccupies all the characters, when they aren’t preoccupied with sex and lawnmowers.
Good things about this book – an interesting and even handed look at the fox hunting debate, and consistently superb writing. I particularly liked the two Englishmen playing tennis – summed up in eight words (‘pock, sorry, pock, sorry, pock, pock, pock, sorry.) Unfortunately that brevity was the exception rather than the rule. This was a huge book, and had it not been for the teeny tiny writing it might have been on a par with War and Peace. It gave me eye strain: admittedly a small price to pay for the salvation of further acres of rain forest, but it could only be read in small bursts. Having reached the end, I am sure the events could have been told just as effectively in half the space. Every scene seemed to go on for ages, until every micro-detail had been examined and analysed to the nth degree.
I was annoyed, too, by the back cover blurb which described one of the characters as ‘unexpectedly poignant’. Can a person be poignant? Hmmmmm, not sure about that. And though I was expecting a novel with a bit of political commentary what I actually got was chick-lit. Okay, it’s written by someone with a butch name but chick-lit all the same.
Good things about this book – an interesting and even handed look at the fox hunting debate, and consistently superb writing. I particularly liked the two Englishmen playing tennis – summed up in eight words (‘pock, sorry, pock, sorry, pock, pock, pock, sorry.) Unfortunately that brevity was the exception rather than the rule. This was a huge book, and had it not been for the teeny tiny writing it might have been on a par with War and Peace. It gave me eye strain: admittedly a small price to pay for the salvation of further acres of rain forest, but it could only be read in small bursts. Having reached the end, I am sure the events could have been told just as effectively in half the space. Every scene seemed to go on for ages, until every micro-detail had been examined and analysed to the nth degree.
I was annoyed, too, by the back cover blurb which described one of the characters as ‘unexpectedly poignant’. Can a person be poignant? Hmmmmm, not sure about that. And though I was expecting a novel with a bit of political commentary what I actually got was chick-lit. Okay, it’s written by someone with a butch name but chick-lit all the same.
September 14, 2016
Mooi geschreven boek waar 5 personen 5 jaar gevolgd worden tijdens het Engeland ten tijde van Blair. Vond het wel vrij moeilijk om te lezen, want rode draad is 'vossenjacht'; een thema dat me niet echt interesseert. Toch vind ik het een aanrader. Heb het boek intussen ook gekocht.
June 14, 2012
Cold Feet in book form and so undemanding that the publisher may as well have provided a free starter of Pizza Express dough balls as an appetizer.
That said, it was enjoyable to read a novel about relationships set against the backdrop of Blair's first half decade - Stephen Lawrence, the foot and mouth outbreak, the 1998 World Cup and Damilola Taylor all make appearances although this is very much a novel about the central, fictional characters. The portrait of those times is well judged and as someone who lived through the same period in the same city, it's a relentless aide memoire .
The protagonists are not too sympathetic - in particular an old duffer of a hunting fan and a feckless lecturer who I imagined as a David Gower lookalike. The female characters are less self-centred, more likeable and more dignified - a probable reflection of a universal truth. Dust jacket reviews from Tony Parsons and The Daily Mail do reflect the territory the book encompasses although Morrison is no reactionary. The literary equivalent of a good pinot grigio.
That said, it was enjoyable to read a novel about relationships set against the backdrop of Blair's first half decade - Stephen Lawrence, the foot and mouth outbreak, the 1998 World Cup and Damilola Taylor all make appearances although this is very much a novel about the central, fictional characters. The portrait of those times is well judged and as someone who lived through the same period in the same city, it's a relentless aide memoire .
The protagonists are not too sympathetic - in particular an old duffer of a hunting fan and a feckless lecturer who I imagined as a David Gower lookalike. The female characters are less self-centred, more likeable and more dignified - a probable reflection of a universal truth. Dust jacket reviews from Tony Parsons and The Daily Mail do reflect the territory the book encompasses although Morrison is no reactionary. The literary equivalent of a good pinot grigio.
November 2, 2010
really wanted to enjoy this book. It had all the ingrediants - London, a backdrop of recent political events, middle class people going around their middle class lives and a Tony Parsons endorsement.
However - it didnt quite ring true for me and a tad disappointing.
It is told in chapters - each by one of the five or so characters, over 5 years from the tories getting into power in 1997 till just after 9/11.
The characters are all middle class-ish - A newspaper writer, a professor, a environmental health work, a fox hunting toff and they each have their issues. Nat is leaving his wife and children. The tories are outlawing fox hunting, which is all jack lives for etc.
I have two major problems with this book. For the first 150 pages or so, I couldnt tell how the characters related to each other apart from the obvious and the more disturbing aspect - nothing really very interesting happens.
A shame - it looked like my sort of book.
However - it didnt quite ring true for me and a tad disappointing.
It is told in chapters - each by one of the five or so characters, over 5 years from the tories getting into power in 1997 till just after 9/11.
The characters are all middle class-ish - A newspaper writer, a professor, a environmental health work, a fox hunting toff and they each have their issues. Nat is leaving his wife and children. The tories are outlawing fox hunting, which is all jack lives for etc.
I have two major problems with this book. For the first 150 pages or so, I couldnt tell how the characters related to each other apart from the obvious and the more disturbing aspect - nothing really very interesting happens.
A shame - it looked like my sort of book.
July 29, 2011
Wonderful. Everything a good book should be: rich in detail (period and personal), characters who don't polarise your opinion of them, a quirky leitmotiv running throughout (and rogue urban foxes are ever more topical), keeps your interest by changing narrative style every so often. Reminded me very much of Jonathan Coe which can only be a good thing.
Personally, I also love how it started in 1997, being probably my favourite year of my life so far. And how there were a few references to Michael Portillo's losing his political seat, reminding me of exactly what I was doing at that moment. Nope, not telling - my mum might be reading this!
Personally, I also love how it started in 1997, being probably my favourite year of my life so far. And how there were a few references to Michael Portillo's losing his political seat, reminding me of exactly what I was doing at that moment. Nope, not telling - my mum might be reading this!
May 21, 2012
I am being kind rounding up to three stars because this is just about passable but no more. The writing is competent but no more, the story just wibbles on and on, the characters are hard to care about because they are such archetypes, and the whole fox theme is just weak beyond description. A bitter disappointment.
December 14, 2015
Did the book really portray how people lived during the first five years of the Blair government (as per the front cover)? Fox hunting was the only subject that got a detailed mention; apart from that it seemed to be business as usual. I enjoyed the inter-relationships between the main characters but the ending was TOO tidy.
October 15, 2016
A state of the nation book covering five years in the lives of a group of characters living in London. It opens with Blair's landslide in 1997. It's patchy, some characters more interesting than others and way too long. I was ready to be done about half way through, it's 500+ large pages. With some judicious editing this could have been great.
August 30, 2011
Love Actually for a more mature audience, this has characters you actually (ahem) care for. Mercifully, although a state of the nation novel, this doesn't try too hard to drive home a political message. I can't say I cared too much for the various endings, though.
May 3, 2016
Just a bit too convoluted for its own good. Too many separate stories not always contributing massively to a main thread and this long book just fades away despite a potential "bringing it altogether" last scene.
December 9, 2014
Loved it, I don't read much fiction but really got into this story that has links to real events
May 30, 2010
A good read but a bit disappointing after my favourite "When did you last se your father". Maybe he's not really a novelist.
December 22, 2013
It took me a long time to get to the end of this book, and I wasn't entirely convinced I should have made the effort. Probably a case of wrong choice for me. Onwards and upwards!
April 10, 2015
Too long and slow. The characters aren't likable as a whole and Nat in particular is quite whiny. I got through the first 350 pages and nothing had happened so I gave up.
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November 9, 2016Really enjoyed it in a does for South London what Nick Hornby does for North sort of a way!
Displaying 1 - 23 of 23 reviews