Book reviews
ALLEN CLARKE
(1863-1935)
THE MILLGATE MONTHLY
Daily Dispatch-“Allen Clarke- Teddy Ashton – is the inimitable writer of Lancashire stories.”
ManchesterGuardian- “No forcing of pathos, and the humour is capital.”
YorkshirePost- “Lines of prose that lilt with melody.”
Daily Mail- “A book that all England ought to read.”
T.P’S & Cassell’s Weekly- “Fascinating.”
The Times- “As an historical novel this book deserves to rank high.”
The Tatler (London)- “A most delightful volume.” “Fascinating.”
THE MILLGATE MONTHLY. (April, 1919),
In a biographical sketch by Harford Willson (under the title of, “Modern Influences.”) says:
Novelist ,poet, sociologist, dialect writer, Allen Clarke (Teddy Ashton,’ Ben Adhem,’’Speedwell,’ ‘Capanbells’) has touched life at diverse points. To some his work as a story writer-and he is Lancashire’s best known novelist- is his best claim to fame. Others believe that the Lancashire folk-speech owes as great a debt to him as it does to Waugh, Brierley, Laycock and Trafford Clegg, whilst to another set of readers his fine work on behalf of democratic causes will keep his name remembered when most of his contemporaries are forgotten. His fine descriptive powers, wonderful personality, rare imagination and abundant humour would have earned him a fortune had he cared to become a fashionable writer….Yet he is a popular author, and has a wide public. His paper, Teddy Ashton’s Weekly, which he started himself with no capital, attained a sale of 35,000 copies weekly (and he ran it for a dozen years till he was offered an important position on the Liverpool Weekly Post. His Lancashire Annual (running successfully since 1891) has a large, and as much as half-a-guinea has been given for number 1 (published at 2p) His Lancashire sketch, “Eaur Sarah’s Chap,” is in the opinion of many critics, the finest Lancashire dialect sketch ever written….
Probably the proudest moment of Allen Clarke’s life was one summer day when 10,000 readers of the Weekly, from all parts of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cheshire, and even places further a-field- one old man said he had come 100 miles to shake hands with Teddy Ashton- held a picnic at Barrow Bridge (the one time deserted village of a book of his, which revived the place and made it a picnic resort) ….But probably no other work of Allen Clarke’s is of such epoch-making character as his “Effects of The Factory System (Steam Engine Land) which caused considerable sensation and newspaper controversy, and questions in the British and Colonial Parliaments….All Allen Clarke’s work, whether humorous sketch, absorbing story, or arresting essay, is characterised by a strong sympathy with the downtrodden, a hatred of humbug, a love of fair play, and an unfailing faith in the ultimate triumph of the principles of world-wide fellowship.”
Shirley Matthews B.A. (Hons)
Allen Clarke’s Grandaughter
02 December 2007, shirley