Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Northern Clemency” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview

The Northern Clemency

Philip Hensher

3.47 · Rating details · 2,292 ratings · 362 reviews

Beginning in 1974 and ending with the fading of Thatcher's government in 1996, 'The Northern Clemency' is Philip Hensher's epic portrait of an entire era, a novel concerned with the lives of ordinary people and history on the move. ...more

Get A Copy

Hardcover, 738 pages

Published April 1st 2008 by Fourth Estate (first published 2008)

More Details... Edit Details

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A

To ask other readers questions about The Northern Clemency, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy by Mackenzi Lee

Asexuals In Fiction

298 books — 433 voters

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Contemporary British Novels

506 books — 567 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

Showing 1-30

Average rating 3.47 ·

Rating details

· 2,292 ratings · 362 reviews

More filters

Sort order

Start your review of The Northern Clemency

Sep 06, 2019 Paul Bryant rated it it was ok

Shelves: novels

Alex opened the blinds and pulled open the glass doors to the balcony, did the washing-up quickly, rinsing out the milk carton of its clotted curds before throwing it in the kitchen bin. She put a couple of bottles of beer and some water in the fridge for later.

If you like that kind of thing, you’ll love this novel.

****

STUFF DOES NOT HAPPEN MUCH

This is about two English families growing up between the 1970s and 1990s in a town up north called Sheffield. There are five people in one family and f ...more

flag 42 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2009 David rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2009

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: IF YOU LOVED (HATED) "THE CORRECTIONS", YOU'LL LOVE (HATE) THIS.

OK. Let's get the whole rating thing out of the way right now. Objectively speaking, this is a three-star book. But I enjoyed it very much - and read all 600 pages in about a day and a half. Which I think deserves some acknowledgement. There are many, many books that are far superior to "The Northern Clemency", but are way less fun to read. So I'm giving it 4 stars.

Here is an example of Philip Hensher in action a ...more

flag 27 likes · Like · see review

Nov 01, 2008 Maya Panika rated it liked it

THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY by PHILIP HENSHER

This is a most interesting book. A truly epic tale (around 300,000 words) of the everyday that follows the lives of two Sheffield families from the seventies to the mid nineties – and it really is a story of the everyday. Nothing truly momentous happens, even the ‘Big’ events are the Big things that happen to us all; death, sudden life threatening illness, emigration, job change, a court case. Nothing world-shattering happens. There are no startling twists THE NORTHERN CLEMENCY by PHILIP HENSHER

This is a most interesting book. A truly epic tale (around 300,000 words) of the everyday that follows the lives of two Sheffield families from the seventies to the mid nineties – and it really is a story of the everyday. Nothing truly momentous happens, even the ‘Big’ events are the Big things that happen to us all; death, sudden life threatening illness, emigration, job change, a court case. Nothing world-shattering happens. There are no startling twists of plot because there’s actually, very little plot – just a vast, spidering tapestry of the normal things of Life .

Which is what makes it such an unusual and compelling book. I can’t say I found it hard to put down – I did put it down, frequently (it’s a very big book, my wrists got tired) but I always picked it up again. I wanted to know what was going to happen to these ordinary, fascinating, dreary, hateful, selfish, kind, cruel, indifferent, loving and loveable people.

Some I grew to dislike intensely; vain, self-centred Sandra, the oftentimes cruel and selfish Katherine. For all his deceits, I rather liked Nick. I adored poor sweet nerdy, Francis but most of all, my heart went out to Tim. I never really worked out whether the author wanted us to hate him, sometimes it felt like that, but I liked him. Life dealt him a rough hand and he didn’t often deal with it well but from the moment his mother did the cruellest thing imaginable, he consistently broke my heart.

I didn't care for the political slant and that coloured my feelings for the book and the characters. The times were dealt with... correctly, probably, bearing in mind the overwhelmingly middle-class-suburban background of the characters. At the height of the Miner's Strike, the only true supporter is the (slightly clichéd) middle-class Marxist.The only representative of the miners themselves is a right-wing would-be-scab-if-he-had-the-nerve. It's not how I remember it - and for that reason, it's the lowest point in the book for me, but there are stronger things here to outweigh the weaker bits.

The style is smooth, unremarkable, intense in detail – in an almost Dickensian way at times. It doesn’t get in the way of the characters and their world. It’s a world I know quite well. My family are from that side of Sheffield described so meticulously and the places - Broomhill, Sheffield City Library, the Rivelin Valley, Cole Brothers – so very well drawn this book was special to me in that respect above all others. You don’t have to be from Sheffield to love this book, but it does help. It's a good book (but imo, not half as good as some reviewers are claiming) ...more

flag 13 likes · Like · see review

Jan 11, 2009 Michael rated it it was amazing

What is it about Brits and novel-writing? Must be something in the water. They are so good at it. Or, rather, they are very good at a particular type of novel (what F.R. Leavis would call "The Great Tradition") that I really gravitate toward. The finest American novelists tend toward the mythopoetic (Ellison, Morrison, Cormac McCarthy, Faulkner, Hawthorne, Melville) whereas the best Brits tend toward the secular and social. This is a reduction, but not a gross one, and many implications (and str ...more

flag 10 likes · Like · see review

Apr 19, 2010 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, fiction, c21st, britain, booker-shortlist

I loved this. I don't think it's 'great' literature, but for nearly three weeks as I listened to it en route to work, I found it vastly entertaining - in the way that a well-constructed soap opera is entertaining.
Other reviewers haven't been especially kind to it, see http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/... or http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/... and http://www.theage.com.au/news/book-re...
Would I have enjoyed it as much without the excellent narration by Carole Boyd? Maybe not. But if yo ...more

flag 7 likes · Like · see review

Apr 06, 2009 Ian Mapp rated it it was ok

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. One word to sum up this behemoth of a book is a chore.

It plots the lives from 1970-2000 of two families in sheffield - The glovers and the sellers. They live in the same street, with a house party happening at the time when the sellers move up from London.

It uses the standard technique of plotting the family lives against the key political events of the time, mainly the miners strike.

So what is wrong with the book. Let me count the ways.

At 737 pages it is far too long. Nothing of any real note h One word to sum up this behemoth of a book is a chore.

It plots the lives from 1970-2000 of two families in sheffield - The glovers and the sellers. They live in the same street, with a house party happening at the time when the sellers move up from London.

It uses the standard technique of plotting the family lives against the key political events of the time, mainly the miners strike.

So what is wrong with the book. Let me count the ways.

At 737 pages it is far too long. Nothing of any real note happens that requires this length. The initial chapter sums this problem up perfectly. Its about 150 pages of attention to detail to tell the story that the glovers matriach has foreclosed a one night stand with her dodgy boss at a flower shop (its a front for drugs money laundering) and she hasnt embarked on a full flung affair. This is summarised by the unlikely event of her stamping to deaths her youngest sons (Tim) pet snake in the street. As clumsy a metaphor as you could ever expect.

Next is the characterisation. Its very poor and I struggled keeping up with who was a member of which family, having to write this on note paper in the inner sleeve of the book to remind me. This is a crying shame from the author as over a 12 day read, we should really now and care for the characters. But this doesnt happen. It doesnt help when new characters - such as the boy dying from some disease - are introduced, given a chapter and then disappear from the story. It also doesnt help when Sandra character changes to Alex half way through the book.

The politcis are a missed event. The tension of the period never materialises and it seems a missed opportunity to educate, inform or discuss the key events of the time.

I really am unsure how this made the prize list. I would give it 2 stars for ambition but this was a real chore to get through and i know (apart from the weight of the book) this will be instantly forgotton in a few weeks.

A shame. It was my time of book. Rumours of a hurricane is a similar example of this type of book that does things so much better. ...more

flag 6 likes · Like · see review

Jan 16, 2009 Alex Csicsek rated it it was amazing

This sweeping novel covers decades in the lives of two families in suburban Sheffield in a series of episodes of varying length exploring family life, love and romance, growing up, Thatcher-era politics (particularly the miners' strike), the death of the English cities, and identity in all its shapes and forms. With nine main characters and plenty of peripheral ones, it's not surprising a book of such scope comes to 750 pages, but it is an easy read and can be done quite quickly and enjoyably.

Al ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2016 Adrian White rated it really liked it

Good enough to read over 700 pages but nowhere near as good as I thought it was going to be. An engaging ( and occasionally overwhelming) collection of people like you and me: living mundane lives; fucking each other up and fucking each other over; hearts of gold and hearts so cold. All of human life isn't here in these pages but a fair slice of it is. Just . . . expected more. ...more

flag 5 likes · Like · see review

Feb 23, 2009 Jen Padgett Bohle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: literary fiction enthusiasts

Recommended to Jen by: my mom

Shelves: realism, booker-prize-list, sprawling-family-drama, british-contemporary

Take two random families living on the same street and write a novel spanning 20 years that chronicles their lives and fortunes and you have Philip Hensher’s The Northern Clemency. In this case, the novel centers around two British suburban families --- Malcolm and Katharine Glover, their children Daniel, Jane, and Tim and the Sellers family across the street, consisting of Bernie, Alice, Sandra, and Francis. I’ve seen reviewers describe these as “dysfunctional” families, but one of the points o Take two random families living on the same street and write a novel spanning 20 years that chronicles their lives and fortunes and you have Philip Hensher’s The Northern Clemency. In this case, the novel centers around two British suburban families --- Malcolm and Katharine Glover, their children Daniel, Jane, and Tim and the Sellers family across the street, consisting of Bernie, Alice, Sandra, and Francis. I’ve seen reviewers describe these as “dysfunctional” families, but one of the points of this work is presumably to illustrate that every family defies any norm or prescribed standard. Indeed, the individual quirks of the characters, when magnified by Henshaw’s writing, serve this same normalizing function. We’re all weird.

The work is, paradoxically, about everything and nothing. I was attempting to explain to a friend of mine what this novel is about (his wife writes mystery and suspense novels) and when I was finished all he said was, “so basically nothing happens?” Well, erm, yes, nothing much, really. We’ve got a Jonathan Franzen/ Virginia Woolf combo writing the sublime of the everyday and the tragedy of the everyday. And unless you’re a wealthy jetsetter or adventurer, it is the banal everyday where most everything happens --- dinner parties, illness, quiet mistakes, marital complacency, child rearing -- this novel encompasses the realm of domesticity beautifully (and perhaps better than even Franzen’s zeitgeisty novels). This is a thoroughly British novel, and one that will likely resonate more with British readers as locales and shops and Thatcher era politics are evoked. Northern Clemency is the literary equivalent of a still life painting; I can now fully detail middle class dinner menus from the 70s and 80s (coronation chicken or vol au vents, anyone?), fashion (polyester neck tie blouses) and home interiors. National and world politics is, appropriately for this work, not often mentioned except for Tim Glover's forays into socialism and the 1984 Miner’s strike.

Ok, so admittedly, I set this novel aside twice, determined that I would begin something else. And then I couldn’t stop thinking what the characters might be doing and about how odd the children are and what would become of them. It helps that the sentences are beautiful, full of unusual imagery and thoughtful metaphors. I imagine Hensher laboring for hours over various dazzling descriptions.

Part of the problem with this novel’s likeability is that there’s no character with whom we can really sympathize. They’re all either a bit pathetic or somehow insufferable. I suspect, though, that this is because Hensher lets us know them intimately over a long stretch, and few of us would look particularly pleasant under an author’s dissecting gaze. There’s also an undercurrent of bleakness coupled with an expectation that something unspeakably horrific is going to occur, and I‘m not sure if that was just me or if this was intentional and others have noticed it as well. I kept waiting for something apocalyptic to happen, especially with regard to inflexible and obdurate Tim, the youngest son of Katherine and Malcolm Glover.

The Northern Clemency, though occasionally humdrum and plodding, will become a classic of late 20th century British life. Hensher’s consistently measured and poetic prose and his ability to illuminate the everyday compromises and small acts of forgiveness that make ordinary peoples’ lives livable ensure his place in the modern canon, or at the very least in the pages of the New York Times book review.

...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Nov 20, 2009 Clif Hostetler rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: novel

Reading this book gave rise to mixed feelings of fascination and wearisomeness. The Northern Clemency is part history, part sociology and totally compelling—but too long—read. The story is sprawling, detailed and ambitious in scope and design. Hensher’s superbly nuanced and detailed writing makes the relative mundanity of these family’s lives almost compulsively readable. The book was so compelling that it kept me listening* even though I kept thinking to myself, “Gaaawd, I can’t stand all this Reading this book gave rise to mixed feelings of fascination and wearisomeness. The Northern Clemency is part history, part sociology and totally compelling—but too long—read. The story is sprawling, detailed and ambitious in scope and design. Hensher’s superbly nuanced and detailed writing makes the relative mundanity of these family’s lives almost compulsively readable. The book was so compelling that it kept me listening* even though I kept thinking to myself, “Gaaawd, I can’t stand all this excruciating detail!” It’s just too long and has more extraneous detail than I wanted to know.
(*I listened to the audio format of the book)

This book is much the same as life for most of us, ordinary and boring. That doesn't mean life isn't worth living. And it also doesn't mean that this book isn't worth reading. If you like sprawling literary evocations of familial drama, then this book is for you. After getting half way through the book I began to care a bit about the characters and wanted to know where life took them. I kept thinking, surely a book this long must have something worthwhile in the plot somewhere. In the end the story was pretty much like real life—some things are resolved, some are not; some things are better, some are not; there is a death, but life goes on for others.

This book comes about as close as possible to providing the experience of living 20 years without actually using up 20 years of time to do so. I guess a another way of saying this is, reading this book seems like it takes 20 years, but actually it only takes 20 hours to read.

Defenders of the book have suggested that it was inspired by “the great nineteenth-century Russian novels.” On the other hand, critics say they see more influence from Desperate Housewives than from Tolstoy. I think they're both right. Hensher has given us a 21st Century update to the great 19th Century novels. If we don't like it, it may be an indication of how we feel about 21st Century literary styles.

Frankly, I am intrigued with the comparison of this book with War and Peace. Just as War and Peace follows life on two different Russian estates within the context of the Napoleonic war, The Northern Clemency follows the members of two neighboring families during the anti-union and pro-privatization economic policies of the Thatcher government. And of course, they are both very long stories filled with much detail. However, I suspect that War and Peace will still be a classic one hundred years from now, and The Northern Clemency will be forgotten.

This book can be classed as a historical novel because it deals with the economic and political changes in the 70’s and 80’s in northern England. The second half of the book in particular addresses politics and policies of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (i.e. privatization of public services and coal miners' strike). But in the end the surrounding politics is a pale backdrop for the lives of the fictional characters. Besides, the 70’s and 80’s aren’t so far in the past to be called historical. So I’ve classed the book as being just a novel. ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2010 Isabelle rated it liked it

I should have loved this book; it has everything that makes a novel I cannot put down... loads of character, great settings, multi-generational plot spanning over decades etc...
The story takes place in Yorkshire, Sheffield actually and follows the trials and tribulations of two middle-class families living across from each other. In turn and through time, we "touch base" with each character: the two couples, together and separately, and the five children whose paths cross every so often. There i ...more

flag 4 likes · Like · see review

Dec 10, 2010 Felice rated it it was amazing

I have to warn you I'm going to need some extra adjectives here. I might be saying brilliant, wonderful, impressive and glorious so often that I have to resort to using multi-layered as well. Let me apologize in advance for that. I've read The Northern Clemency (picked up solely because it is so very extra chubby) by Philip Hensher and it is fantastic. You can stop reading my puny writing now and go get a copy of it if you want. I won't be insulted.

Clemency starts out in 1970's Sheffield and fol I have to warn you I'm going to need some extra adjectives here. I might be saying brilliant, wonderful, impressive and glorious so often that I have to resort to using multi-layered as well. Let me apologize in advance for that. I've read The Northern Clemency (picked up solely because it is so very extra chubby) by Philip Hensher and it is fantastic. You can stop reading my puny writing now and go get a copy of it if you want. I won't be insulted.

Clemency starts out in 1970's Sheffield and follows two families:the Glovers and the Sellers. Malcolm and Katherine Glover have three children and have been Sheffield staples forever. Bernie and Alice Sellers, parents of two, are recent arrivals having moved to Sheffield from London for Bernie's new job. The day the Sellers move in Malcolm accuses his wife of having an affair and disappears. The next twenty years bring other catastrophes and passing cruelties both personal and nation wide that have lasting effects on both families.

This a War and Peace type of novel only without all the war part. Clemency is not only concerned with the events of its characters lives but it also details the physical, social, economic and political world they inhabit. Nothing happens in a vacuum in The Northern Clemency. It's a big novel that charts the internal and external world of two generations in one community. A cross section. This is the book for someone who wants to be entertained and at the same time come away with a complete portrait of the times.

Hensher has a firm grip on this tremendous slice of life novel and yet he makes it all feel very organic and realistic. It's as if the neighborhood gossip were giving you the straight skinny over a drink while you perused the March 1973 edition of Ladies Home Journal (Speaking of which a little Can This Marriage Be Saved would not have gone amiss here.) rather than an extremely talented writing is behind it all plotting away, pulling strings and researching every visual element of 70's and 80's decor and food. Nothing occurs in The Northern Clemency that doesn't have repercussions. From the minutiae of day to day domestic life to the events of the time that were felt across the country everything is put into his microscope, inspected and then brought to our attention with magnificent writing.

I was totally impressed and after one quick phone call my local independent bookstore has ordered me an earlier novel written by Philip Hensher, The Mulberry Empire. Yippee!
...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 08, 2009 Julie rated it really liked it

I went into this book thinking that I might find it fabulous, given some of the reviews and the subject matter. That attitude usually seems to put a book——or a movie, or a person——at a disadvantage because so much is expected. Well, this is a long, winding narrative filled with characters who, at best, are mostly only semi-likeable. The writing is generally very good, although this was one of those books in which I not infrequently stopped and reread sentences, wondering exactly what the author ...more

flag 3 likes · Like · see review

Jan 24, 2014 Lobstergirl rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

On page 391 of this 597 page novel, a main character has "been reading The Far Pavilions for four weeks now, persevering with it; handling seemed to have increased its bulk by half as much again." I knew how she felt: The Northern Clemency also seemed to expand as I turned its pages, its plotlines and characters multiplying, new tendrils shooting off in two dozen directions, old stems thickening. Was Hensher mocking his own novel here? The book does end with a metafictional twist, as another cha
On page 391 of this 597 page novel, a main character has "been reading The Far Pavilions for four weeks now, persevering with it; handling seemed to have increased its bulk by half as much again." I knew how she felt: The Northern Clemency also seemed to expand as I turned its pages, its plotlines and characters multiplying, new tendrils shooting off in two dozen directions, old stems thickening. Was Hensher mocking his own novel here? The book does end with a metafictional twist, as another character picks up a new novel and reads the first few words, which are also the first words of The Northern Clemency.

I spent the first 95% of the novel wondering where it was headed, if anywhere. I wondered if a novel needs a trajectory. Essentially we follow a rather large cast of characters - two families, nine family members total, plus all their neighbors, friends, associates, lovers, employers, roommates - from 1974 to 1994, covering the prime ministerships of Harold Wilson to John Major. (The novel is set in Sheffield, England, and briefly London and Australia.) There are no deep or hideous mysteries to be solved. Each character has ups and downs, some more severe than others. No one turns out to be a serial killer. The most dramatic plot twist is perhaps a brain hemorrhage late in the book, then there's some unpleasantness in Australia (which was a bit too much of a sour note, I thought). This is the second of Hensher's novels I've read, and based on it, I think it's fair to call him the British Jonathan Franzen. There are also similarities to Alan Hollinghurst's last two novels, The Line of Beauty and The Stranger's Child. The length of this book is borderline inexcusable, but it's redeemed by having most of its characters turn out to be engaging and humane (the reader has doubts initially), people who end up doing the right thing.

Still, some moments might push you over the edge, like when Hensher introduces five new characters on page 459 (that's about 75% into the book) - characters who are office cleaners, a security guard, and a cleaning supervisor - and then drop them four pages later once the office has been cleaned, never to be heard from again. Does everything in a novel need to serve a purpose? There are other subplots that feel unsatisfyingly truncated and unexplored - a major character named Nick feels a burst of once-in-a-lifetime love for a minor character named Sonia, and that's the last we hear of it. Maybe the point is to capture the truth of real life, where everything is messy, people drop in and drop out with no warning. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 07, 2020 Andrew rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was just my cup of 'Yorkshire' tea as I was able to immerse myself in a drama played out over 20 years in the life of two Sheffield families, The Glovers and the Sellars.
And what years they were as the book opens in 1974 when coal strikes are causing havoc in communities with power cuts and Bernie Sellars relocates from London to the North due to his job in management with the Yorkshire Electricity Board. The family includes his wife Alice , teenage daughter Sandra and son Francis.
Across ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Dec 28, 2012 Mark Landmann rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, favourites

I kept on moving this book down on my queue just because of its length, but in the end I zipped through it. Despite its length there were hardly any sections where my mind drifted and I didn't ever want to miss a single word. I can really see why reviewers here are comparing the book to Franzen... I almost wish I hadn't read that before because I found myself comparing as I went through the book, and usually finding this book not quite measuring up, though I don't really feel like that anymore n ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jan 20, 2011 Glorialaihuang rated it liked it

Dear Lord, this book felt long. It also seems to progress in fits and starts - I found myself becoming engrossed in some parts, only to suddenly find myself sloshing through a randomly-placed description of the English moors. The story is nearly epic in scale - it follows the lives of several townspeople who live in an industrial village in Northern England during the 70s and the 80s. I will concede that the author effectively paints the Thatcherite/miner strike mood of the time. But I couldn't ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Jul 27, 2011 Larry H rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When I saw that Amazon had named this their best book of 2008, I absolutely had to read it. And I'm so glad I did. This is a BIG book--600 pages long--and it's a sweeping story that primarily centers around two generations of two families. But don't let that slight description steer you away from reading the book. This story is fascinating, compelling, funny, frustrating, a bit heartbreaking and life-affirming, all in one package. True, there is a lot to wade through. But it's well worth it. ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Aug 19, 2012 Dianne rated it it was amazing

A beautifully written book about several families whose lives intersect, between London and Sheffield, an industrial (coal) city. We move through early childhood to mature adulthood of several of the characters, and although it's a little tough sometimes to keep the names straight, it is possible with a little bit of extra attention. The writing is fantastic and sometimes so elegant you just want to read a sentence again because it is so well said. Lots of irony and sarcasm, my favorite kind of ...more

flag 2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2020 Nigel rated it really liked it

A compelling novel focussing on the trials and tribulations of two middle class families living in Sheffield from the seveties to the nineties. The period and place is nicely captured with big events such as the miners' strike rumbling on in the background but the emphasis is mainly on the domestic interactions and it is all the better for this. One gets wrapped up in the characters' everyday problems so that the 738 pages seem to fly by. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Mar 25, 2009 Veronica rated it liked it

Shelves: fiction

Somehow Philip Hensher has managed to pass me by up to now, but when I read a review of this novel and discovered it's set in Sheffield during the 1970s, I couldn't resist. It's billed as a state-of-the-nation saga on a Tolstoyan scale, following the fate of two families, the Sellers and the Glovers, from 1974 to 1994. It's certainly Tolstoyan in size, weighing in at a hefty 736 pages, but it lacked the historical sweep of Tolstoy. Tolstoy sets the minutiae of his characters' lives in the wider Somehow Philip Hensher has managed to pass me by up to now, but when I read a review of this novel and discovered it's set in Sheffield during the 1970s, I couldn't resist. It's billed as a state-of-the-nation saga on a Tolstoyan scale, following the fate of two families, the Sellers and the Glovers, from 1974 to 1994. It's certainly Tolstoyan in size, weighing in at a hefty 736 pages, but it lacked the historical sweep of Tolstoy. Tolstoy sets the minutiae of his characters' lives in the wider historical context with lots of references to major current events, and, in War and Peace, intersperses the action with long philosophical disquisitions. Hensher doesn't do any of that -- he focuses (very well) on the characters' daily lives, and the way they grow and change while remaining recognisably the same people.

All the same, I found it a bit baffling that they barely seem to notice the Falklands war, and apart from one character, a student radical, the miners' strike and collapse of Sheffield's industry brushes lightly by them. But at least Hensher manages to convey the atmosphere of an era without stuffing his narrative with brand names, the way David Mitchell did in Black Swan Green. He also very noticeably shuns the popular device of using music to situate the characters. In a rather supercilious and self-serving essay about state-of-the-nation novels published in Prospect, he says snottily: "I was a teenager when the Clash are reported by Coe as playing in Fulham. I wouldn't have cared. At the time, my records were mostly of Mahler, Schoenberg and Boulez." I'm rather glad I read this after I'd finished the novel, so I wasn't put off by his condescending tone when writing about authors like Jonathan Coe and Sebastian Faulks.

But he writes well, and he can convey emotion and character wonderfully; two scenes that stood out for me were the one where Katherine Glover returns home after being arrested by the police in connection with fraud by the owner of the Broomhill florist shop she works in, and a compellingly creepy scene where Sandra Sellers meets her secret admirer Tim Glover twenty years later. So I did enjoy it, and it's worth reading -- he just does himself a disservice by comparing his work to Tolstoy, because his strength is precisely in the mundane details of ordinary lives. Looking at his backlist, he appears to be startlingly versatile.

But the defining state-of-the-nation novel for me is still Jonathan Coe's What a Carve-Up And I even thought Tim Lott's Rumours of a Hurricane did a better job of summing up the change of mentalities during the 80s. Read this for the characters rather than the period atmosphere. And take his views of Jonathan Coe with a pinch of salt. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 18, 2009 jillian rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporaryfiction

This was a brilliant book. It's one of those wonderfully crafted books that goes so far into human nature, into the pieces of atypical, illogical behavior that, despite their strangeness, are still universally sympathetic. Set over two decades in Sheffield, UK, it follows two families through the events and non-events of their lives. It also gives a true insight into the lives of the coal miners and the social conditions that surrounded the decline of the mines, and the onset of the Thatcher era This was a brilliant book. It's one of those wonderfully crafted books that goes so far into human nature, into the pieces of atypical, illogical behavior that, despite their strangeness, are still universally sympathetic. Set over two decades in Sheffield, UK, it follows two families through the events and non-events of their lives. It also gives a true insight into the lives of the coal miners and the social conditions that surrounded the decline of the mines, and the onset of the Thatcher era. I found this book to be beautifully crafted, yet emotionally raw in places - especially in the themes related to sex, or to the petty cruelties children impose on each other. It is more character driven than plot driven, although as the plots do pick up, it does move faster and faster from the 1970s to the 1990s.

This is a universal book about the minute, everyday lives of people in northern England in the latter half of the 20th century, in a rapidly homogeonizing country, and a changing, globalizing world (which is contrasted, in places, against the unchanging nature of the moors). I also realized, after I finished it, that the characters of the older generation that are in their mid to late 30s at the book's opening would have been of the same generation as my father. And I thought, so that's what would have happened to Dad if he hadn't emigrated. He might have ended up living an everyday life in a suburb of Carlisle, much like the neighborhoods of Sheffield, where he would have been challenged to hang on to his livelihood as the region's industries were privatized and shut down. Also, his children wouldn't have had the opportunities and the drive that my sister and I, growing up on American capitalism, had. And maybe that's what I found slightly depressing about the book - the lack of vision in all the characters. What, after all, is there to be visionary about in the suburbs of Northern England in the Thatcher era? Hensher turns those visions inward, and focuses them on the everyday movements, and that's what made this book so fascinating. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 14, 2017 Stephanie rated it it was ok

2.5 stars. Disappointing.

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 27, 2011 Susan rated it really liked it

If you had asked me a week ago if I liked this book, I would have groaned and rolled my eyes. I completely stalled about 35% of the way into the book. I stalled there for about a month by reading other books and entire issues of the LA Times, unable to commit to finishing the Northern Clemency. Then with a quiet weekend of time, I picked it up again and within an hour or so, I was hooked into the rhythm of Hensher's story - a rhythm that totally eluded me earlier.

The story mainly follows the liv ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 10, 2010 Alice rated it it was amazing

One of my favorites of 2010 so far. I asked the clerk at my favorite bookstore if she could recommend something, and she walked out with The Little Stranger (read and loved), Let The Great World Spin (which I was reading, at least until my Kindle got stolen), and this book. I have to go back and thank her. Hensher has written a big, sprawling multi-family saga of 1970's middle-class England, accurate down to the smallest detail, and full of hilarious moments. I think one of the reasons I liked t ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Feb 06, 2009 Jennifer rated it liked it

Shelves: adult-fiction

The Northern Clemency tells the 25-year story of two families living in suburban Sheffield, England, from the day in 1974 when the Sellers move from London to the house across the street from the Glovers, who just happen to be in the middle of a domestic crisis. This book seems like an answer to those times when you're looking out the train window heading north from London and, by the time the post-war housing is passing by, you're wondering what their inhabitants' lives are like. (I still don't ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Apr 03, 2009 Amy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, read-in-2009, booker-prize-shortlist, 500-plus-pages

Didn't like this book as much as I thought I would. I initially picked it up because it was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and got some good critical reviews. It's a long novel about two neighboring families in suburban Sheffield, England and their interwining lives over several decades (1970's & 1980's mostly).

In some ways it drew me in (somewhat slowly) to the lives of the many different characters. The author is great at describing the everyday details of life in a family, whether boring or ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Jun 21, 2009 Kathleen rated it really liked it

Orginally set in the 1970's in Sheffield, England, this book chronicles the Sellers family and the Glovers as neighbors raising their children in changing economic times into the 1990's. Well-written with intricate details about every day life, my only criticism is that the book could have been a hundred pages shorter. Many intricate short stories are wrapped around the family members, and at times it was difficult to keep it all straight. I liked all the "Briticisms". Parts of it felt like peer ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Sep 21, 2009 Amy Chang marked it as time-s-summer-picks-2009

Lee Child picks The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

I'm going to read The Northern Clemency, a good old-fashioned 600-page novel about two families, set in England over a 20-year period spanning the 1970s to the '90s ... fun for me because it takes place during times — and upheavals — that I remember very well, in the city where I went to college. I'm told it's funny, moving, full of drama and detail and humanity, and I'm hoping it'll prove once again that to really understand recent history, ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

Nov 17, 2009 Hazel rated it it was amazing

I began this book with a little trepidation as it seemed that the psychological edginess might be going where I wasn't sure I wished to go. However, that was not the case and I thoroughly enjoyed finding out how the members of these two families grew and changed during the book's long time-frame. There was a great deal of humour and knowing about British politics and social issues makes the book much richer than if the reader is unfamiliar with same. ...more

flag 1 like · Like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
the haves and have nots	4	44	Dec 03, 2014 01:52PM

Readers also enjoyed

See similar books…

Genres

Fiction

114 users

European Literature > British Literature

16 users

Family

11 users

Historical > Historical Fiction

11 users

Literary Fiction

10 users

Contemporary

10 users

Novels

9 users

Literature

8 users

Adult Fiction

7 users

Unfinished

5 users

See top shelves…

About Philip Hensher

Philip Hensher

87 followers

Hensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School.[2] He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD for work on 18th century painting and satire. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the House of Commons, from which he was fired over th Hensher was born in South London, although he spent the majority of his childhood and adolescence in Sheffield, attending Tapton School.[2] He did his undergraduate degree at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford before attending Cambridge, where he was awarded a PhD for work on 18th century painting and satire. Early in his career he worked as a clerk in the House of Commons, from which he was fired over the content of an interview he gave to a gay magazine.[1] He has published a number of novels, is a regular contributor, columnist and book reviewer for newspapers and weeklies such as The Guardian, The Spectator , The Mail on Sunday and The Independent.
The Bedroom of the Mister’s Wife (1999) brings together 14 of his stories, including ‘Dead Languages’, which A. S. Byatt selected for her Oxford Book of English Short Stories (1998), making Hensher the youngest author included in the anthology.http://literature.britishcouncil.org/...
Since 2005 he has taught creative writing at the University of Exeter. He has edited new editions of numerous classic works of English Literature, such as those by Charles Dickens and Nancy Mitford, and Hensher served as a judge for the Booker Prize. From 2013 he will hold the post of Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.[3]
Since 2000, Philip Hensher has been listed as one of the 100 most influential LGBT people in Britain,[4] and in 2003 as one of Granta's twenty Best of Young British Novelists.[1]
In 2008, Hensher's semi-autobiographical novel The Northern Clemency was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. In 2012, Hensher won first prize -German Travel Writers Award, and is shortlisted for the Green Carnation Prize. He also won the Stonewall Prize for the Journalist of the Year in 2007 and The Somerset Maugham Award for his novel Kitchen Venom in 1996. He wrote the libretto for Thomas Adès' 1995 opera Powder Her Face. This has been his only musical collaboration to date.
His early writings have been characterized as having an "ironic, knowing distance from their characters" and "icily precise skewerings of pretension and hypocrisy"[1] His historical novel The Mulberry Empire "echos with the rhythm and language of folk tales" while "play[ing] games" with narrative forms.[1]
He is married to Zaved Mahmood, a human rights lawyer at the United Nations.

You can find out more about Philip on his author page at 4th Estate Books: http://www.4thestate.co.uk/author/phi... ...more

Books by Philip Hensher

The Missing Ink: The Lost Art of Handwriting

More…

'The Office of Historical Corrections' and the Power of the Short Story

Danielle Evans was just 26 when she released her short story collection Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self in 2010, a multi-award-winning...

Trivia About The Northern Clem...

26 trivia questions

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Northern Clem...

“If you don't say anything it can't become important, but if you say it everyone's ever after got to walk round it like a pile of rocks in the living room.” — 1 likes

More quotes…

See a Problem?

Preview — The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

The Northern Clemency

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Philip Hensher

Books by Philip Hensher

Related Articles

Trivia About The Northern Clem...

Quotes from The Northern Clem...

See a Problem?

Preview — The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher

The Northern Clemency

Get A Copy

Friend Reviews

Reader Q&A

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topicDiscuss This Book

Readers also enjoyed

Genres

About Philip Hensher

Books by Philip Hensher

Related Articles

Trivia About The Northern Clem...

Quotes from The Northern Clem...

new topic
Discuss This Book