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Bolton Radical- Allen Clarke Find!
I've just finished reading an early 20th century novel by Allen Clarke called 'John o' Gods Sending', which is a set in Bolton during the Civil War. The story plays out around the ancient pub 'The Man and Scythe'; the overall message of the novel is thoroughly anti-war. Clarke plays with the idea of good and bad on both the Cavalier and Roundhead sides, blurring the distinctions between the two. Overall it was a very good read, evocative of the period with an interesting message as well as being a good page turner.
Clarke himself is an interesting, though largely forgotten writer. He wrote very popular dialect poetry under the name Teddy Ashton and (less popular!) philosophical works under another name, Ben Adhem. In his time Clarke was hugely popular writing under his many pseudonyms, Tolstoy was a particular fan of one of Clarke's essays on factory conditions and had it translated into Russian.
The Lancashire Reading Detective's team were lucky enough to have the author Paul Salveson (an expert on dialect poetry and Allen Clarke) come along to one of our meetings and he gave a brilliant account of Clarke the radical thinker and writer.
17 September 2009 from Stephen Miller
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Hello Stephen,
Glad you managed to contact Paul and enjoyed his talk. What an interesting speaker he is and what a fascinating life Allen Clarke led. Hope the Lancashire Detectives are enjoying the project as much as the Cumbrian ones are.
I am the grandaughter of Allen Clarke and am glad his books are being re-discovered. I have written his childhood stories(his own memoirs of living in Bolton and brief respites to Blackpool and Lytham) to be published by Carnegie of Lancaster. Shirley
Thanks for commenting, everyone's really enjoyed reading your grandfather's books, I especially liked 'John O God's Sending'.
When is your book to be published? I'd love to have a read.
I have read John O Gods Sending more than once and have toyed with the idea of turning it into a play. My aim is to possibly present it at Bolton Little theatre (because it is a Bolton story!) as a one off. My only problem concerns copyright. Are you able to comment please?
I read this book on loan from Bolton Library in the 1960's I always believed this was by 'Anon'
I am pleased that you have found the authur I enjoyed the book very much and it left an imprssion with me. Could you tell me if it is still in publication and where if possible I can get it from. Thank you
I really enjoyed it to and have found that the characters and story have stayed with me. Sadly it hasn't been in print for quite some time; you can occasionally pick it up in second hand book shops or online. If you just wanted to reread it I'm sure you could get a copy from your local library. Hope this helps.