Sundry Creditors

by Nigel Balchin

After the works party of Midlands engineering firm Lang’s, the Chairman, Gustavus Lang, collapses and dies. His power-crazed half-brother Walter attempts to seize control of the company by purchasing Gustavus’s shares but is swiftly rebuffed. Jack Partridge, a lathe operator, begins a romance with Rosamund, Walter’s nubile young daughter, after dancing with her at the works party. Walter agrees to a collaboration with another company, only to realize that the rival concern intends to swallow up Lang’s. Thwarted and outmanoeuvred, Walter is then told that Rosamund has gone on holiday with Jack and sets off to confront them…

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Trained originally as an industrial psychologist, in which capacity he helped Rowntree’s to successfully launch Black Magic chocolates in 1933, Nigel Balchin first received critical acclaim as a novelist during the Second World War when he wrote Darkness Falls From the Air. It was the first of three evocative novels (including the smash-hit The Small Back Room) that made good use of his wartime employment experiences at the Ministry of Food and later in the army. This trio was followed by a stream of other fine novels, such as A Sort of Traitors, Sundry Creditors and The Fall of the Sparrow. Balchin diversified into film scriptwriting after the war, winning a BAFTA for his work on The Man Who Never Was and penning what he whimsically described as “the first folio edition of Cleopatra”, being his original (unused) script for the Richard Burton/Elizabeth Taylor epic. When Balchin died in 1970, at the age of 61, the Guardian anointed him “the novelist of men at work”, a fitting epithet for one of the best fiction writers of the twentieth century.

Reviews

[Chris Cantor · Rating 3 out of 5]

A saga set in a factory with a vast array of diverse characters. The reality was appealing but the plot wanders without clear protagonists and the end could have involved several others in the final chapters.

[LizTrue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the story of Walter Lang, a director of a production company founded by his father. Lang is passionately devoted to his job and believes he is best equipped to be in charge of the organisation. Unfortunately he has serious flaws in his personality which cause him to make enemies and misunderstand the motives and needs of those around him. His obsessions cause him to pursue risky strategies. The novel is well named. By the end, Lang loses control, both in the business and in his private life as he forfeits the loyalty and respect of those around him.

The novel is set in the mid 1950s and there is plenty of nepotism, class distinction and sexism within the community. However there are also glimpses of the future - the manual workers are no longer uniformly admiring of their employers and the concept of the 'family firm' is being questioned. Change is afoot.

Despite the dated feel of the story, Balchin's characters are realistic and largely sympathetic and act in a way that would be believeable today. This is a novel which is worth reading at least twice and perhaps more in order to observe some of the deft touches that Balchin employs. An enjoyable and satisfying read.

[Dark-Draco · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh dear, I hate to give up on a book, but I just couldn't get into this one. I kept getting muddled between the characters, and who was related to who, and in what way. The story didn't really grab me either.