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Jean in the Morning
Jean in the Morning
- GenresFiction
246 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1969
2 people are currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Janet Sandison
5 books6 followerspseudonym of Jane Duncan, which is a pseudonym of Elizabeth Jane Cameron. "Sandison" is the principal character in Duncan's "My Friends" series of books, who then "writes" four books.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
November 25, 2013
Jean in the Morning is one of those novels that drive librarians to drink. It's a first-person narrative telling the story of Jean Robertson. The title page says the book's author is Janet Sandison who is a character in a series of books by Jane Duncan. The library has Jean in the Morning cataloged under Jane Duncan although that name does not appear on the title page. So it appears Sandison was a pseudonym used by Duncan, which is fine except that Jane Duncan is a pseudonym used by Elizabeth Cameron (1910-1976.) This is the sort of thing that has to be cross-referenced to death.
But any amount of cross-referencing is worth it because this book is a treasure that needs to be found by more readers. It begins in 1911 when little Jean, age 6, begins school in her industrial town of Lochfoot, near Glasgow. An older neighbor helps her enroll and then she is on her own. Jean becomes a leader of sorts among her school's working class students, becoming particularly adept at the sport of ringing door bells and running away while laughing and shouting non-flattering names at the householder.
Jean also becomes a particularly good liar, acknowledged to be the best in the school. This is a useful skill in a bleak world where
"Our only form of communication with the rest of the world and largely, also between ourselves was what was known as 'giving cheek.' We gave cheek to our parents, our teachers and to authority in all its forms.
"Long before I went to school I knew . . . the position of the child vis-a vis the rest of the world. The world held you down in an iron and concrete grip of railings, walled yards and stern discipline . . . the whole world was a battleground where the weak went to the wall, a battleground where the giving of cheek was a puny weapon that made little impression but one went on wielding it because it was the only weapon one had."
School is difficult for Jean but her home life is bleaker. Her mother is a miser to put Silas Marner to shame. "Vulgar was one of my mother's favorite words . . . it means to spend money on anything." Mrs Robertson considers her child "an expense and a nuisance," . . . she is often too busy to even speak to the little girl. Jean is almost always cold and hungry and smiles and kisses are unknown. Love itself is unknown in her house. Jean's father has been worn down by life with his steel-hard wife and is now a silent shadow by the fire who gets drunk every Saturday night. One of the saddest things in Jean's description of her early life is her mother's attitude toward books and education, particularly sad to me because my own mother held very similar views:
"School, which my granny said would stand me in good stead all my life and which my mother said was a waste of time . . . led me into a new sin. . . . Reading was a sin different from all the other sins to which my mother and my teacher said I was so prone, because it was so secret . . . My mother did not approve of people who 'sat about book-reading' . . . I did no reading in the house. I did my reading in the water closet."
Jean is not defeated. She visits her grandmother occasionally, and there she finds peace and warmth and granny, although undemonstrative, clearly loves the child and this helps Jean as she grows and learns until she comes to understand her mother if not to forgive her.
This is the first of four books collectively called An Apology for the Life of Jean Robertson. In future volumes we learn more about Jean's mother and we follow Jean as she grows and leaves home and makes her way in the world.
Duncan's books are discussed in an excellent article about Cameron in The Scotsman on Sunday. These Jean Robertson books are considered weak in comparison to Duncan's "My Friends" series. All of the books are difficult to find in the US although as the article indicates, some volumes are being reprinted in England.
But any amount of cross-referencing is worth it because this book is a treasure that needs to be found by more readers. It begins in 1911 when little Jean, age 6, begins school in her industrial town of Lochfoot, near Glasgow. An older neighbor helps her enroll and then she is on her own. Jean becomes a leader of sorts among her school's working class students, becoming particularly adept at the sport of ringing door bells and running away while laughing and shouting non-flattering names at the householder.
Jean also becomes a particularly good liar, acknowledged to be the best in the school. This is a useful skill in a bleak world where
"Our only form of communication with the rest of the world and largely, also between ourselves was what was known as 'giving cheek.' We gave cheek to our parents, our teachers and to authority in all its forms.
"Long before I went to school I knew . . . the position of the child vis-a vis the rest of the world. The world held you down in an iron and concrete grip of railings, walled yards and stern discipline . . . the whole world was a battleground where the weak went to the wall, a battleground where the giving of cheek was a puny weapon that made little impression but one went on wielding it because it was the only weapon one had."
School is difficult for Jean but her home life is bleaker. Her mother is a miser to put Silas Marner to shame. "Vulgar was one of my mother's favorite words . . . it means to spend money on anything." Mrs Robertson considers her child "an expense and a nuisance," . . . she is often too busy to even speak to the little girl. Jean is almost always cold and hungry and smiles and kisses are unknown. Love itself is unknown in her house. Jean's father has been worn down by life with his steel-hard wife and is now a silent shadow by the fire who gets drunk every Saturday night. One of the saddest things in Jean's description of her early life is her mother's attitude toward books and education, particularly sad to me because my own mother held very similar views:
"School, which my granny said would stand me in good stead all my life and which my mother said was a waste of time . . . led me into a new sin. . . . Reading was a sin different from all the other sins to which my mother and my teacher said I was so prone, because it was so secret . . . My mother did not approve of people who 'sat about book-reading' . . . I did no reading in the house. I did my reading in the water closet."
Jean is not defeated. She visits her grandmother occasionally, and there she finds peace and warmth and granny, although undemonstrative, clearly loves the child and this helps Jean as she grows and learns until she comes to understand her mother if not to forgive her.
This is the first of four books collectively called An Apology for the Life of Jean Robertson. In future volumes we learn more about Jean's mother and we follow Jean as she grows and leaves home and makes her way in the world.
Duncan's books are discussed in an excellent article about Cameron in The Scotsman on Sunday. These Jean Robertson books are considered weak in comparison to Duncan's "My Friends" series. All of the books are difficult to find in the US although as the article indicates, some volumes are being reprinted in England.
August 4, 2012
I love these books although they were written a long time ago! Jane Duncan a Scot, who lived in the Caribbean,for many years, wrote her books in the linen cupboard because her husband didn't approve. These are funny gentle books that lift your spirit. Sandison also writes as Jane Duncan.
September 25, 2016
I first read this book when I was about 10, and have read it many times over the decade.
The auther captures her surroundings, and the poverty so well, and yes, the descriptions are spot on. Life then was not twee, and idilic, you just have to google some photos of that time period to see that.
I've always remembered the scene of her father coming back on leave, much to the annoyance of his wife. The cry from her mother as she walks past her father of "You're alive!". Nothing to do with his personal well-being, but the fact that he was infested with lice.
A book which which gives a view of childhood, and society in a long gone age.
The auther captures her surroundings, and the poverty so well, and yes, the descriptions are spot on. Life then was not twee, and idilic, you just have to google some photos of that time period to see that.
I've always remembered the scene of her father coming back on leave, much to the annoyance of his wife. The cry from her mother as she walks past her father of "You're alive!". Nothing to do with his personal well-being, but the fact that he was infested with lice.
A book which which gives a view of childhood, and society in a long gone age.
October 15, 2014
I wanted to like this more than I did, because I do love Jane Duncan's novels, but this is not some of her stronger work. I do not really trust her picture of working class life in a small Scottish town before & during World War I, and I certainly cannot trust Jean's voice, which is too much like Janet's voice in the other books. Also, the plot was -- overdetermined, in that way of the poorly done middlebrow. Still, I liked to think as I read it of Janet at Paradise, writing this book while Twice slept.
April 20, 2020
This first volume of the author's AN APOLOGY FOR THE LIFE OF JEAN ROBERTSON tells of a small girl in a small Scottish village outside Glasgow. Her father is away in the trenches of the first world war, her houseproud mother neglects her, and she stimulates her imagination by watching the people around her.
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July 12, 2013Did not finish the book! To much going on.
February 25, 2014
I'm sure I read this series back when I was in my everything Scottish phase and we have the 4 vols. at work so I am going to re-read them. A little more depressing than I remembered...
August 30, 2015
A child in working-class Scotland during World War I struggles to deal with her family, poverty and a changing world. First book in a series.
March 27, 2021
I remember reading this as a teenager and enjoying it. Great companion piece to Shuggie Bain.
October 1, 2024
Been wanting to read this book for ages. No really I read the My Friends books in the late seventies but couldn’t access these books until now! Thank you internet. Set in the years before and during WW1 it is the story of a young girl growing up in the slums of a town in Scotland. Very realistic and fascinating with its stories of running the streets with a mob of children and the class system in place at the time.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews