Foreigners

by Leo Walmsley

Foreigners

Paperback

First published January 1, 1935

About the author

Leo Walmsley was an English writer. He was born in Shipley in West Yorkshire in 1892, and two years later his family moved to Robin Hood's Bay on the coast of present-day North Yorkshire, where he was schooled at the old Wesleyan chapel & the Scarborough Municipal School. He was the son of the painter Ulric Walmsley. In 1912 the young Leo secured the post of curator-caretaker of the Robin Hood's Bay Marine Laboratory at five shillings a week.

During World War I he served as an observer with the Royal Flying Corps in East Africa, was mentioned in dispatches four times and was awarded the Military Cross. After a plane crash he was sent home, and eventually pursued a literary career. He settled at Pont Pill near Polruan in Cornwall, where he became friendly with the writer Daphne du Maurier.

Many of his books are mainly autobiographical, the best known being his Bramblewick series set in Robin Hood's Bay – Foreigners, Three Fevers, Phantom Lobster and Sally Lunn, the second of which was filmed as Turn of the Tide (1935).

Reviews

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a small Yorkshire fishing village in the early 20th Century. A lower middle-class boy, whose family are from outside the town ("foreigners"), tells us about his life "scratting" on the beach for treasure, preparing for Guy Fawkes' Night, swearing, smoking and fighting.

"Foreigners" is a study of a boy, Sonny, and his relationship with his parents. His mother is a puritan and a snob. She dislikes Sonny spending time with the vulgar village boys and she enjoys being a "foreigner". Sonny's father is an artist, but for money he has to take photographs of weddings and make plates for coffins. He considers this work to be beneath him, and spends most of his time painting a fisherman. He hopes to send the picture to the Royal Academy's Summer Exhibition.

Sonny loves his parents, but doesn't understand them at all. He is living on the beach and the cliffs and in the fields. Or at school. He isn't popular at his nightmare school because he's a foreigner. Also, his Mother makes the timeless mistake of sending him to school in the “wrong” clothes. The other boys laugh at him. Sonny is in fights with the local bully and doesn't have any friends, just a loose collection of other outsiders. When they drift away, all Sonny has is Chicken; a weedy younger boy who has an alcoholic father and never enough to eat. The relationship between Sonny and Chicken was one of the best things about "Foreigners" and made me want to cry at least twice.

Walmsley writes well about being young, unpopular and confused about what it is parents want from you.

[Grace Harwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still researching Whitby's literary heritage and this one was brought to my attention by the good people in the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society library again. Walmsley is a local author who grew up in Robin Hood's Bay and the Bramblewick of this novel is that place. It encapsulated the place wonderfully, particularly the insular, parochial way villagers often have of being about them (I can imagine this is particularly the case in such a place as Robin Hood's Bay, where, as the main character observes: "You might have your father and your grandfather born in the place and yet you’d still be a foreigner, unless you did everything exactly the same way they did it." (Loc 2185) To be honest the place where I live is a little bit the same. I liked the characters - the naughty children and the drunken fishermen (I imagine I would have to be very, very drunk to live the life they led during the thirties in this village, just to survive). The character of "Boozer" was brilliant - a bit like Captain Dan in Forrest Gump - challenging God to do his worst in his bitterness. This is a wonderful characterisation of a place and the only way you'll ever be able to get inside it, if, like me, you're a foreigner.

[Mico · Rating 5 out of 5]

The 3rd of Walmsleys books set in Bramblewick. This one from the pov of a boy classed by the locals as a 'foreigner'. Wonderful characterization of locals and the area. Variety of episodes and situations the boy gets himself into with the constant overhanging threat of being bullied or ridiculed by the locals. Always enjoy Walmsleys writing style, easy to read, page turning stories of local life in a coastal village.