Poverty Castle

by Robin Jenkins

Donald Sempill has a beautiful wife who adores him, five perfect daughters and enough money that he doesn't have to work. In fact he can afford to buy a ruin in Argyllshire and restore it as a home for them all—Poverty Castle. The idyll can't last, though. Try as hard they might obsession and the outside world begin to creep into the Sempills' Eden and the stability and idealism they had worked so hard for is threatened. A subtly ironic tale from Scotland's master storyteller.

Genres: Scotland

Paperback

First published August 1, 2007

About the author

Author of a number of landmark novels including The Cone Gatherers, The Changeling, Happy for the Child, The Thistle and the Grail and Guests of War, Jenkins is recognised as one of Scotland's greatest writers. The themes of good and evil, of innocence lost, of fraudulence, cruelty and redemption shine through his work. His novels, shot through with ambiguity, are rarely about what they seem. He published his first book, So Gaily Sings the Lark, at the age of thirty-eight, and by the time of his death in 2005, over thirty of his novels were in print.

Reviews

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely book. I don't know why Jenkins isn't better known.

[Jack Deighton · Rating 4 out of 5]

In an interpolated framing device we have here the story of an author trying to write a piece of fiction celebrating goodness, where the characters are happy because they deserve to be, surrounding that same story which he is writing to find out what becomes of them. The author’s wife tells him his desire is impossible since he has always been severe on his characters and she thinks he cannot change. Still less does she believe he can set such a story in Scotland because he thinks the Scots have lost faith in themselves. The novel he is writing is that story; or an attempt at it.
That novel features the Sempill family, already relatively comfortably off - the father was an architect - but at its beginning lately come into a large inheritance. The Mama and Papa Sempill have five children, Diana, Jeanie, Effie, Rowena, Rebecca; all named after Walter Scott heroines. All but Diana are blonde, she is dark-haired and at their story’s beginning old enough to fancy herself guardian of them all, parents included. They are on holiday in Argyll when they come across an abandoned house whose proper name is Ardmore but is known to the locals as Poverty Castle. As a family they resolve to buy it and bring it back to its former glory. This involves irritating the Camptons, inhabitants of the “big” house, on an enclave of whose land Poverty Castle sits, but with access rights. An encounter with the children of the house exemplifies all that can be good or bad about aristocratic attitudes. Their sons Edwin and Nigel (Nigel; enough said) are opposites in their demeanours.
Mr Sempill is an easy-going soul, but his wife is racked by desire for a son though perhaps too old and lacking in vigour for the risk involved. The crisis of the tale is when she becomes pregnant again despite her husband’s stringent efforts to avoid that.
There are several time jumps in the narrative, Diana goes off to University, where she takes digs in a humble establishment, rooming with working class Peggy Gilchrist. Both the blurb and the Introduction describe Peggy as the Sempills’ nemesis but there is really nothing in the text which justifies that. What we do get is the middle- and upper-class perspective of Peggy being a member of “a class lacking culture, education, and money”. Her mother resents her not conforming to what she sees as her station in life (a job in a supermarket) but her father is keen for her to do as well as she can. Then again, as described, Peggy’s brain is her only asset.
The Sempills are, by and large, good, and happy enough, but, in novels as in life, there will always be something to disrupt contentment.

[Thekirkiepirate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another excellent novel from Robin Jenkins, who I feel has never received the recognition for the thoughtful and philosophical work he has produced.

Here, he returns to the theme of for how long an idyllic life can be maintained before things come to an end. The plot considers questions of inherited wealth and the orality of the lifestyle that can go with it, but at the same time, this material condition does not necessarily provide for the most basic of human drivers. I particularly liked the way in which, at time, we are taken away from the novel to consider the circumstances of an apparently fictitious writer, who may well have been a representation of Jenkins. It was also interesting in the ultimate parallels between this author and the plot of the novel.

I also enjoyed the geographical setting of the book in Cowal and Kintyre - areas that I know well and are beautifully described in the book.

[Margaret McDowall · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Robin Jenkins books for the insight they give to Scotland's past. This is no exception. Here he dealt with class differences in the 1950's.

[Sharron · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. Beautifully written with clever plot ideas. One or two of the characters are irritating, which creates realism. Will read more by the same author now.