Reuben's corner

by Spike Mays

1969. First Edition. 223 pages. Pictorial dust jacket over brown cloth with gilt lettering. Book is in better condition than most examples of this age. Neat, clean, well bound pages with very minimal foxing, tanning and thumbing. Small inscriptions and neat labels may be present. Boards have mild shelf wear with light rubbing and corner bumping. Some light marking and sunning. Unclipped jacket has light edge-wear with minor tears and chipping. Mild rubbing and marking.

Genres: British Literature

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

Cedric "Spike" Mays was born in Suffolk in 1907 and brought u in Essex. He joined the Royal Dragons when he was 16 and later studied as a mature student at Edinburgh University.

Reviews

[Richard Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was originally published as Reuben's Corner which I read for the first time in 1969. It was a fascinating account of life in rural north Essex with neither false sentimentality nor nostalgia for grinding poverty and genuine hard times punctuated by the joys of living in a close knit community. It is as much social history as autobiography and, if you can penetrate the Essex dialect, it goes along nicely. I was born in rural Essex forty years after Spike Mays just before the county began the sad transition from rural farming life to commuter country and worse the patronising depiction of Essex people as vulgar and brash. I can therefore recognise much of what Spike Mays describes although it was passing away and did so where I stayed by the early 1960s. There were still living folk who had suffered hunger and poverty - women widowed by the First Word War who had to pick stones to help survive; children who were barely nourished; men whose livelihood and housing depended on keeping the right side of a farmer. I re-read the book when it was re-published recently and still found it both moving and a delight.

[Len · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author recalls his young days as a farmboy in early 20th-century Essex. General poverty alleviated for a while by father's regular pay in the army during the Great War. Service in the local country house where kind words and plain but nourishing food eased the toil of long hard days. Attending school and finding oneself in the awkward position of being worthy of a scholarship yet having parents who could not afford the uniform, clean shirts and well maintained boots required at the local Grammar School. Falling in love, only to realise later that the only escape from low wages and soul destroying drudgery was to join the army as a band boy in the Royal Dragoons, and leave the girl behind.

Parts of this book could be compared to Laurie Lee's Cider with Rosie, or Richard Jeffries' Bevis - with the sentimentality removed - there's a bit of reminiscence in the manner of Margaret Powell's Upstairs Downstairs, and Thomas Hardy is never far away. No matter, it's an original, truthful account of life as it was for so many in the British countryside as mechanisation was brought in and the old communal ways began disappearing.

To get a taste of the landscape, there is a review – well, not really a review but a collection of recent (2012) photographs of the area – on www.bystargooseandhanglands.blogspot.com. It's well worth a look.

[Bianca Manea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted for this book to captivate me, since it depicts the rural life of Essex and it partly did, but I must admit it lacked a story to keep me hooked. Maybe it’s just my reaction to memoirs in general, but I also read some which at least covered some personal experiences told as a narrative, whereas here I just got the isolated events (very rich and vivid described), but nothing to keep them together.
On the other hand, I really liked and appreciate the characters (which were real people) and how they kept their micro-universe working by caring for, nurturing the nature and its gifts, by their love towards their lands, by their active social life which happened mostly in the pubs, and by growing their families to a point where each member plays an important role in the economy of the household.

[David Hill · Rating 2 out of 5]

A little too rural for me lots of local colour. This book will appeal to many unfortunately not me.

[Alicia Pearson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting book, but also written in a dull way.