Viva Lewes Issue #144 September 2018

BITS AND BOOKS
LOCAL LITERATURE
Nevertheless She Persisted is the fourth novel by
Lewes writer Jon Walter, and his first foray into
adult fiction. It’s set in 1913, and follows two sisters
– Clara, more conformist than Nancy – who work
in Holloway prison, where a number of suffragettes
are inmates.
The title is cheekily taken from contemporary
feminist history; the book is presumably timed
to coincide with the 100th anniversary year of
the Representation of the People Act, which gave
(some) women the vote. Its painstaking attention to
historical detail parachutes you right into the heart
of the suffragette struggle, and Walter’s strong characterisation
makes you care about the protagonists,
two very different personalities. We get to know –
through the eyes of the sisters – how difficult prison
life is… and that’s just for the wardens.
Another book with a familiar title is Don’t Stop
Thinking about Tomorrow, a novel for ‘young adults’
by Siobhan Curham. The line, of course, is from
Don’t Stop by Fleetwood Mac; one of the book’s two
narrators is a 14-year-old girl called Stevie, a music
obsessive finding it hard to make friends at school
(in Lewes) due to problems at home. In short, her
mother is depressed and her benefits have been cut
off. Life is tough, and Stevie has no friends.
Then into the classroom walks narrator number
two, Haziz, a slightly-too-handsome boy, of the
same age, from Syria, whose parents have spent
their life savings getting him to Europe. His obsession
is football, but he hasn’t played since he left
home. Of course, after some initial difficulties, the
two hit it off, and learn some valuable life lessons
from one another.
Liminal is a debut novel by Bee Lewis, a Liverpudlian
who lives, it says in her blurb, ‘between
Brighton and Eastbourne’. She promises in her author
profile that her next novel will be set in Sussex;
this one takes place in the Scottish Highlands and,
at least via the narrator’s memory, in Bristol.
Esther is a pregnant woman with a prosthetic leg,
who we meet in a car being driven by her husband,
from the latter, to the former. They have bought a
derelict railway station, which once served a remote
village, long ago abandoned, and flooded under a
reservoir. They mean to turn the building into a
home, and a writers’ retreat.
Things start going amiss: first in her imagination;
then in her dreams; then in real life, as her relationship
with her husband unravels, and we learn about
past matters that have destabilised her equilibrium.
No spoilers here: it’s enough to say that Lewis is
adept at showing not telling, and sewing items of
unfinished business into the fabric of the narrative,
which pique the reader’s desire to read on. It’s a
dark thriller, which unfolds within the timeframe of
a single week. Fay Weldon meets Stephen King? It
would make a good film. Alex Leith
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