Clydesiders at War

The Clydesiders #3

by Margaret Thomson Davis

In the summer of 1939, as the storm clouds of war gather over Glasgow, the Gourlays and the Cartwrights are preparing themselves for the challenges of an uncertain future. The two families - the hard working Gourlays in their modest tenement, and the prosperous Cartwrights in their luxurious West End home - are about to face the consequences of a shattering revelation. The secrets and lies that have dominated all their lives are about to be uncovered, and the mystery that has bound them together will finally be solved. At the same time the turmoll and tragedy of war is about to enter their lives once more. Like thousands of others, the Gourlays and the Cartwrights experienced the full horror of the First World War. Now they must face that horror again - Richard Cartwright as a fighter pilot in the Battle of Britain; the Gourlay twins' husbands, Joe and Pete, as ordinary soldiers in the war torn countryside of France; and Virginia Cartwright as a Red Cross Nurse on the Home Front in Glasgow. Clydesiders At War is the final part of the epic Clydesiders trilogy - a tale of two Glasgow families that began amid the dying embers of the Edwardian era and reaches it conclusion in the dark days of the Second World War.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

A prolific author, admired for her depiction of the Scottish working class communities.

Reviews

[Jack Deighton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the third in Thomson’s trilogy which I only picked up because the second of the series had scenes set at the Empire Exhibition held in Glasgow in 1938. This one carries on the interrelated stories of the Cartwright and Gourlay families into the Second World War.

The book starts with the reconciliation of Wincey, who had fled her upper middle class home after the demise of her abusive grandfather - a death for which she erroneously felt responsible – to find refuge with the resolutely working class Gourlays. Davis again contrasts the welcoming acceptance of the Gourlays with the sterility of the Cartwright family’s relationships. Mrs Cartwright, Wincey’s grandmother is a stand out in this regard but has fewer appearances in this third instalment.

Wincey begins to spend her weekends at her parents’ home but still stays with the Gourlays during the week. Her mother, Victoria, is always pained by the fact that she refers to the Gourlays’ house as home. The war, when it comes, impinges on everything. The Doctor who became Wincey’s man friend but whom she can’t quite commit to because of her childhood trauma joins the navy and dies at Dunkirk. Malcy, the widower of Charlotte Gourlay (who was killed in a car accident in book two,) receives disfiguring injuries in the evacuation. Two of the Gourlay sisters are killed in the Clydebank blitz. Wincey’s parents become estranged by their war work; she as a nurse, he in the Home Guard.

All this is told in a workmanlike prose that is always easy to read but somehow unsatisfying. The characters have little emotional depth and sometimes are mere mouthpieces for events in the wider world. The chronology of those events is also frequently out of skew. There is too much telling, not enough showing, and occasional unnecessary asides elaborating on things the reader knew, or can work out for, him- or herself.

Moreover, the central development in the book – the rapprochement between Wincey and Malcy - is psychologically unconvincing. It is almost as if Davis herself had forgotten how things stood between them in Book Two.

Her trilogy is an echo of a past age but not really a close examination of it.

[Patrick Barry · Rating 2 out of 5]

I just read it to complete the trilogy, but after the rubbish second one, I had very little interest in any of the characters, the grumpy granny just got tiresome and I was desperate for the cocky Richard and (I dare not say what I think of him) Malcy to be killed.