Beryl Bainbridge: Harriet Said...

[Mirabell]

?Harriet Said...?, was written in 1958, in fact it was the very first novel Beryl Bainbridge wrote but, as it happened, when a publisher in 1972 finally agreed to publish it, it was the third of hers that was published. Bainbridge has since gone on to become one of the most renowned British novelists of her generation, but these days, several of her novels are out of print, including ?Harriet Said...?, which is a big shame. This is an excellent novel, almost flawless; it is also a short novel that contains several other novels' worth in its pages. It's a sweet recollection about childhood, a complex evocation of interpersonal dynamics and a dark meditation on the emptiness in the souls of three families, that continues to build momentum until it ends in a climax that provides no resolution nor relief to the helpless reader.

Rationality: Beryl Bainbridge’s ?Harriet Said…? shigekuni.


Really excellent.

[Mirabell]

The plot is inspired by the famous Parker-Hulme murder (immortalized by Peter Jackson's wonderful "Heavenly Creatures"), but there are numerous differences.

[JPS]

I knew Beryl (now Dame Beryl) back in my London days, and interviewed her for the NYTimes Book Review, though it remains unpublished. I came to her work through Graham Greene's stellar recommendation of The Bottle Factory Outing, and have read all of her works since then (and those that came before).

She had a remarkable relationship with her first English publisher, Duckworth & Co., whose offices were in the Old Piano Factory just around the corner from her house in Camden Town. Back then she would write and publish a book a year, and she was proud of the fact that upon completing her manuscript the book would be in the shops only a few months later--completely contrary to how it was for everyone else (the typical lag-time of 12-18 months was as much in place then as it is now).

She also designed the book jackets for the Duckworth hardbacks, and the original Harriet Said shows a photo of two girls, one slightly older than the other, presumably meant to be the two girls in the book. She showed it to me and asked if I recognized anyone in it. Of course, she was one of the girls, and the other was her brother, his face and hair artfully retouched to make him look more feminine.

The original jacket for her wonderful Injury Time portrays what looks like a ruffian entering a house. The "ruffian" was her publisher, and the house is Beryl's.

The most interesting thing (of many interesting things) she said to me was that she invented nothing--that everything really came out of her life. She even introduced me to what she called her Sweet William baby, who makes an appearance in the last chapter of the novel of the same name. "You see?" she said. "It all happened to me."

This started to change when she wrote Young Adolf, and her subsequent historical novels, all of them excellent (especially her book on the Titanic, Every Man for Himself). Her next book, due out later this year, will focus on the Bobby Kennedy assassination, The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress.

[Mirabell]

I knew Beryl (now Dame Beryl) back in my London days, and interviewed her for the NYTimes Book Review, though it remains unpublished. I came to her work through Graham Greene's stellar recommendation of The Bottle Factory Outing, and have read all of her works since then (and those that came before).

She had a remarkable relationship with her first English publisher, Duckworth & Co., whose offices were in the Old Piano Factory just around the corner from her house in Camden Town. Back then she would write and publish a book a year, and she was proud of the fact that upon completing her manuscript the book would be in the shops only a few months later--completely contrary to how it was for everyone else (the typical lag-time of 12-18 months was as much in place then as it is now).

She also designed the book jackets for the Duckworth hardbacks, and the original Harriet Said shows a photo of two girls, one slightly older than the other, presumably meant to be the two girls in the book. She showed it to me and asked if I recognized anyone in it. Of course, she was one of the girls, and the other was her brother, his face and hair artfully retouched to make him look more feminine.

The original jacket for her wonderful Injury Time portrays what looks like a ruffian entering a house. The "ruffian" was her publisher, and the house is Beryl's.

The most interesting thing (of many interesting things) she said to me was that she invented nothing--that everything really came out of her life. She even introduced me to what she called her Sweet William baby, who makes an appearance in the last chapter of the novel of the same name. "You see?" she said. "It all happened to me."

This started to change when she wrote Young Adolf, and her subsequent historical novels, all of them excellent (especially her book on the Titanic, Every Man for Himself). Her next book, due out later this year, will focus on the Bobby Kennedy assassination, The Girl in the Polka Dot Dress.

She is a remarkable writer, judging from this book. I also bought An Awfully BIg Adventure and will get a few more in the coming weeks. THis book is really really good. Wish I knew her.

[JPS]

See if you can find the books that came after Harriet Said:

The Dressmaker (1973) - Shortlisted for Booker Prize
The Bottle Factory Outing (1974) - Shortlisted for Booker Prize
Sweet William (1975)
A Quiet Life (1976) [Admittedly highly autobiographical, and adapted as a remarkable TV film in the UK]
Injury Time (1977)
Young Adolf (1978) [Hitler in Liverpool--controversially fun]
Another Part of the Wood (revised edn) (1979) [Pre-Harriet Said]
Winter Garden (1980) [A kind of spy novel set in Russia.]
A Weekend with Claude (revised edn) (1981)[Pre-Harriet Said]
Watson's Apology (1984) [A Victorian murder tale based on fact.]
An Awfully Big Adventure (1989) - Shortlisted for Booker Prize [Also autobiographical, about BB's years as a rep actress.]
The Birthday Boys (1991) [Wonderful: about the Scott expedition.]
Every Man for Himself (1996) - Shortlisted for Booker Prize [The Titanic book.]
Master Georgie (1998) - Shortlisted for Booker Prize [I read this once, turned the book over and read it again--about a photographer during the Crimean War.]
According to Queeney (2001) [Her Samuel Johnson novel.]

[Irene Wilde]

Sorry, misread one of the earlier posts. Never mind.

[titania7]

M.,
A marvelous review--complex, comprehensive, and brilliant.

As always, a few remarks:

The type of tension you describe in this book sounds riveting indeed. The concept of evil as a force not within the character--but rather, in the communities and social structures--is explosive. It's very true-to-life that these two girls would be able conduct their cruel experiments without evoking any reaction from those around them. People can be completely oblivious to that which doesn't affect them directly.

Harriet's manipulation of the narrator sounds incredible. It's always fascinating to see a devious mind at work, and it sounds like the narrator proves to be a malleable vessel for Harriet's nefarious objectives.

I haven't read Lessing's The Fifth Child, but I do have an intuitive sense of the darkness you describe as existing in this book. I think the type of evil that is tangible, that surrounds us even though we may not notice it, can easily be the most pernicious of all.

This may well be your best review to date, by the way.

Beautiful, dear.

~T.

[Sybarite]

I thoroughly enjoyed According to Queeney when I read it a few years ago, but the next one that I tried, Every Man for Himself, I just couldn't get into.

[Colette Jones]

Thanks for this Mirabell. I've now read the book on your recommendation. I didn't picture Mr Biggs as being very old at all - maybe in his 30s? I thought the girls thought he was old (as he would appear to be to 13 year old), but that he wasn't really. I may have missed a reference to his age that actually placed him older, as you consider him to be.

I found it to be a somewhat difficult read, and my first Bainbridge. I agree that it is fairly perfectly formed, but I struggled with the young girls having no innocence left whatsoever. I have plenty more of her books on the shelf to pick up in the future, and I will do.

[Mirabell]

So you enjoyed it? If so, I'm happy as a clam. As with details, my strange head is horrible with details. You may well be right.

[JPS]

Here's a reminiscence of BB, and more on her work: The Fatal Instant | Red Room

[Colette Jones]

So you enjoyed it?

I thought it was very good and it will be memorable, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it. I am glad I read it, put it that way.

[Mirabell]

I thought it was very good and it will be memorable, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it. I am glad I read it, put it that way.

eh. good enough for me.

[JPS]

Harriet Said was only Beryl's first published novel, and for more representative work of hers I'd recommend the following titles:

The Bottle Factory Outing
The Dressmaker
Injury Time
The Birthday Boys
Every Man for Himself

Her "historical" novels have been very successful, and her forthcoming The Girl in the Polka-Dot Dress, about the Bobby Kennedy assassination, sounds very intriguing.

[Mirabell]

Harriet Said was only Beryl's first published novel

I'm pretty sure it's her first written but her third published novel. At least this is what I claim in my review.

[JPS]

Thank you for the correction. You are right. The first two titles were published, to no fanfare, by Hutchinson UK, and it was Harriet Said, published by her long-standing publisher Duckworth's, that was her breakout novel. The Hutchinson titles were out of print for several years, in fact.

The novelty was in the set-up of the story, coming off the Mary Bell case in Britain. But it's the later titles that really earned her serious recognition. Graham Greene chose The Bottle Factory Outing as his book of the year for the Observer, I believe, and that made a world of difference.

[Colette Jones]

So you enjoyed it? If so, I'm happy as a clam. As with details, my strange head is horrible with details. You may well be right.

I thought it was very good and it will be memorable, but I'm not sure I enjoyed it. I am glad I read it, put it that way.

eh. good enough for me.

I will try to explain further. It is unusual for the subject matter of a book to affect my reading of it. However, I struggled with these girls and their manipulation of middle-aged men (and women when we count their victim's wives, and we should!) Your review talks about middle-aged paedophiles, and in today's society, no one would disagree with that. However, the girls behaved abysmally and I'm not sure that in the era that it was written, anyone would blame the men for their actions. That dichotomy made me uncomfortable. I do not know if that was the intention of the author.

I am very glad for the recommendation and very glad I read it. Reading it was both a negative and positive experience.