Book description
"There is the everlasting possibility of disobedience, civil
disorder, destruction, yes, yes - but the mere whisper or cloud no
larger than a man's hand of revolution in this country is madness"
It is 6th May 1926, the third day of the General Strike.
This is the story of that harrowing week seen through the eyes of the
women and men of London as they move through that unreal city. We meet
those who gave their all for the strike - and a vision of a better
world. We meet, too, those who fought to break it with every weapon they
had: power, politics, money - or brute force. There are masters and
workmen, fascists and communists, politicians and trade unionists, wives
and mistresses, artists, writers and scientists, all caught up in the
web of each other's lives. But above all we follow the thread of Hervey
Russell's life as she is swept up by the political ferment around her,
by the difficulties of a new marriage, and by her hopes and fears for
the future... Storm Jameson (1891- 1986) born to a North Yorkshire
family of shipbuilders. Jameson s fiery mother, who bore three girls,
encouraged Storm (christened Margaret Storm) to pursue an academic
education. After being taught privately and at Scarborough municipal
school she won one of three county scholarships which enabled her to
read English Literature at Leeds University. She then went on to
complete an MA in European Drama at King s College London.
During her career Jameson wrote forty-five novels, numerous pamphlets,
essays, and reviews, in an effort to make money. Her personal life
suffered, and her first marriage to schoolmaster Charles Douglas Clarke
was an unhappy one. After they divorced in 1925, Jameson went on to
marry Guy Chapman, a fellow author, and remained with him despite her
apparent rejection of normal domestic life.
Storm Jameson was always politically active, helping to publish a
Marxist journal in the British section of the International Union of
Revolutionary Writers in 1934 and attending anti-fascist rallies.
