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| Stanley Spencer Southwold |
Just before seeing R.C. Sherriff's Journey's End I read his novel The Fortnight in September. These pictures capture life at the British seaside at the time the book was written (1931).
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| Walter Sickert The Bathers |
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| Family on holiday Bognor 1930s |
The Fortnight in September is not plot driven, and it has been often said in reviews that not much happens, but the chronicle of the Stevens family's two-week holiday is wonderfully wrought, with lots of poignancy.
It is a snapshot of a suburban London family barely into the realms of the "middle class". In addition to Mr. and Mrs. Stevens there is 20-year old Mary, 17-year old Dick and little Ernie. The family has been going on their holiday to the same (now rather tired) guesthouse in Bognor for 20 years and are first encountered as they prepare for their annual trip.
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| A contemporary postcard of the resort |
The obsessiveness of Mr. Stevens as he plans for his trip and the military precision with which the whole family undertake the "holiday" seems completely claustrophobic to our modern minds, and at times I was left wondering if any of the family apart from little Ernie got any actual enjoyment from it. Each seeming to wrestle with their own little demons at points in the story.
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| from The Bridgeman Art Library |
It is a fascinating slice of life, something that Sherriff obviously excels at. Read it, for no other reason than to appreciate a world and a set of values we have long left behind.
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| Stephen Bone The Holiday Hut 1930 |
Looking out of my own September window at the howling gales and grey, rain soaked sky I can only assume that Septembers in 1931 had better weather for holidaying than now.
P.S. The soundtrack of 1931 included: Goodnight Sweetheart, Dream a Little Dream of Me, Dancing in the Dark and Stardust, maybe The Stevens had a little turn around the dancefloor to one of these in their fortnight in September.