Philip Hensher The Northern Clemency Unabridged - 22 CDs Audio Book
Reader: Carole Boyd
The Northern Clemency is an epic novel set in Sheffield in Yorkshire, a northern industrial English city. It spans twenty years of social change seen through the eyes of two families who live on a middle class Sheffield street. The novel begins in 1974 with a party hosted by the Glovers, although it’s only much later in the novel that we learn that the host had an ulterior motive for the party.
Although there are many characters in the book, the main focus is on two families. The Glovers are a “native” Yorkshire family, whilst the Sellers have recently moved to Sheffield from London. On the day of their arrival Malcolm Glover, has left home in the belief that Katherine Glover is having an affair with her boss. Events that take place on that day resonate through the novel, culminating in a tragic scene in Australia twenty years later.
In a sense the novel is an up-market soap opera. The familial and inter-familial relationships between the Sellers and the Glovers are what make the novel compelling. Unusually, the children are full characters and the dialogue between them is believable and at times very funny.
The novel charts a period of considerable social upheaval. Sheffield through the 70s and the 80s saw its traditional steel industry disappear. Additionally, Yorkshire was at the centre of the miners’ strike and the bitterness on both sides is powerfully displayed through Malcolm and Tim Glover’s rows.
Carole Boyd’s narration is a joy. She displays a range of accents and emotions that hold the listener from beginning to end. Her rendition of hormonal adolescent male is as convincing as her middle aged, middle class London female.
The book is lengthy at 22 disks, but the experience never feels padded. Although the themes of social change, families and aging are universal, I did wonder at times how well the novel would sit with an American audience, but to my ear it was an enjoyable experience that I missed when it was over.
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