Bobbin up (Hewett) 172

Bobbin up, by Dorothy Hewett, turned out to be a rather successful random ebay purchase. I often look through the ebay listings for Virago Modern Classics and pick titles that I haven't heard of if they don't cost too much money, and this was one of those. Apparently out of print for many years before Virago republished this, this is certainly an unknown book that deserves to be much better known.

Set in Sydney, in the 1950s, whilst the Russians are starting to fly Sputnik, this tale of working class lives and factory girls is very reminiscent of Nell Dunn's Poor Cow and Up the junction. Only its Sydney setting gives it a different edge of interest. The women in the story work at the Jumbuck Woollen Mills, with deplorable working conditions and incredibly frustrating existence. There's not so much story as description and character study but it puts together a fantastic portrait of a group of women desperate for a better existence.

Hewett became involved in the Communist Party in Sydney when she arrived in the city in 1949. She asked to be sent to a job in the worst type of factory possible and was sent to the Alexandria Spinning Wheels which provided the model for the Jumbuck Mill. The character of Nell in the story, an active communist, is heavily based on Hewett herself, and the other characters in the story are based on the people that she met there.

There is an interesting interview with Hewett here, which touches on Bobbin Up.

It's only been published once by Virago, with an early green cover.

Daughter of earth (Smedley)

This wonderful autobiographical novel, telling us about the experiences of Agnes Smedley through the character of Marie Rogers. The book is split into a number of distinct parts. At first, she lives on a farm with her family, until they up sticks and follow her father as he takes jobs on the railroads and as coal hauler. At one point her mother runs a boarding house, and from an early age Marie also goes out to work, although she has excellent educational abilities. marie then becomes a school teacher, but only for a while as her mother dies and she returns home to look after the rest of the family. She is keen to continue studying however, and leaves to try to make money to get an education by working as a salesperson. She marries Knut, another scholar, but after a traumatic abortion which she insists on in order to pursue her educaiton, they get divorced. WW2 arrives and Marie becomes involved in socialist circles, but finds it difficult to really become involved due to her status as a woman and she takes up the cause of the people working for Indian emancipation. As a result, she is unfairly imprisoned. After the war ends, she is released and works as a journalist and eventually remarries, but this marriage also fails to work out and the book ends with her leaving for Denmark to live with a friend there.

The poverty of Marie's childhood is absolutely heartbreaking; there is a scene where she attends the birthday party of a rich white girl from her school. Marie pleads with her mother to be allowed to take a couple of bananas as a birthday present; her mother reluctantly agrees to this extravagance. But when Marie arrives she finds the other children giving books, toys, silver - such things that she has never seen before. Marie enjoys the tea, but none of the children ask her to be their partner in the games and she is forced to leave early, pretending illness, as she is so embarassed.

An absolutely engrossing read, I found myself fascinated by Smedley. 4*

Published twice by Virago, although using the same picture, I have a copy of the earlier edition.