In the Time of Greenbloom

John Blaydon

by Gabriel Fielding

"In the Time of Greenbloom" is a psychological coming-of-age story set in rural England in the 1920s. John Blaydon, barely thirteen when the story opens, feels unlike his peers and disconnected from the rest of his generation. When his one dear childhood friend dies tragically, John creates his own emotional prison, and becomes suicidal. Horab Greenbloom, an immensely wealthy Oxford student forces John to face himself and come to terms with his past.

Genres: British Literature, Fiction

416 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Gabriel Fielding is the pseudonym of Alan Gabriel Barnsley, who was born in Hexham, Northumberland in 1916.The son of an Anglican Clergyman and descendent of Henry Fielding on his mother’s side. “I remember a terrible separation when I was sent away at the age of eight, to a snob, preparatory school in the south of England, where everything and everyone, from the masters to the hens, seemed hostile. I think this, in a sense, was the beginning of the pain, out of which I write”. Fielding studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin until 1939; failing to qualify there, he finished at St George’s Hospital London. After serving in the Royal Army Medical Corps during World War II he started a general medical practice and worked part time for Her Majesty’s Prison, Maidstone, Kent until 1966.”Medicine, to me, was the sentence I had to fulfill to be free to write”. He came to America in 1966 as author-in-residence at Washington State University. Fielding remained there as a Professor of English and Creative Writing until his retirement in 1981. His works include: The Frog Prince and Other Poems(1952), Brotherly Love (1954), Twenty –Eight Poems(1955), In the Time of Greenbloom (1956), Eight Days(1958), Through Streets Broad and Narrow (1961), The Birthday King ( 1963) Gentlemen in their Season(1966), New Queens for Old ( 1972), Pretty Doll Houses(1972) and The Women of Guinea Lane( 1986).

Awards include St Thomas More Gold Medal 1963, W.H. Smith Award in 1964, Honorary Doctorate of Literature, Gonzaga University 1966, Washington State Governor’s Writer Award 1973, and Distinguished Professor Washington State University, 1981.

"It is a matter for grave doubt that Mr. Fielding could write anything from a postcard to a lexicon without perception and grace and brilliance"-Dorothy Parker

Reviews

[Bethany Fairchild]

This is the finest example English literature in the post-war (WWII) era. Fielding's prose is not to be devored greedily, but each word savored as a rare delicacy. His writing is simply delicious. From ivocative imagery to episodic structure nothing formulaic nor trite. The most insightful interior monolgue ever written. A psychological coming of age story set in the 1920s & 30s in rural England. Tragic, romanic, & comic. The Bard himself would be envious.

[Kurishin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fielding's development of a feckless female adolescent extrovert is masterful, in my opinion. It saves the first two chapters from some turgidity that probably could have been better edited. Then the Greenbloom chapters are brilliant and those are followed by more turgidity until an interesting finish. Fielding chose interesting subject matter, I think it wasn't maximized. We're left with an uneven novel that contains brilliance but is not brilliant as a whole.