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Milltown
Milltown is a small community just outside Glasgow where everything in 1914 is local: the pub, the preacher, the policeman, the teacher; the gossip, the poacher, the pariah, the bleacher. Quiet, that is, unless you consider three inconvenient distractions – a Rumour, a Psychopath and a First World War.
When Aggie McMillan’s unfailing intuition senses that the suicide of a young man in the village has more sinister overtones, she sets in motion a train of events which will have fateful consequences for her and for those around her. Meanwhile the foundations, fixtures and fittings of this close knit community are about to be torn asunder by the Great War as all but one of its young men join up together to fight together and to die together at the battle of the Somme, leaving ‘naebody left tae kiss the lassies’.
Away from the great Fall-In, other tensions are brewing: Red Clydeside Marxism, the Suffragettes, the Easter rising in Dublin, war profiteering all combine to add spice to the drama which engulfs and overwhelms the social fabric of this small West of Scotland town.
When Aggie McMillan’s unfailing intuition senses that the suicide of a young man in the village has more sinister overtones, she sets in motion a train of events which will have fateful consequences for her and for those around her. Meanwhile the foundations, fixtures and fittings of this close knit community are about to be torn asunder by the Great War as all but one of its young men join up together to fight together and to die together at the battle of the Somme, leaving ‘naebody left tae kiss the lassies’.
Away from the great Fall-In, other tensions are brewing: Red Clydeside Marxism, the Suffragettes, the Easter rising in Dublin, war profiteering all combine to add spice to the drama which engulfs and overwhelms the social fabric of this small West of Scotland town.
356 pages, Paperback
First published April 28, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 2, 2013
War through the eyes of a Scottish town
“Milltown” by Jimmy Higgins is a strong and captivating novel about WWI, showing both battle and life at home. After a short and powerful prologue set at the Somme in 2012, Higgins adds a terrific short chapter about the famous murder of Sarajevo, marking the irony of one meaningless death that led to many more meaningless ones to follow.
Only then we get to meet the large and varied cast of this novel, mainly of the younger and war prone generation. Milltown 1914, a fictitious small and cosy Scottish community is a microcosm: it has Communists, Feminists, Pacifists, Catholics, Protestants, some Irish descendants and a few foreigners. A class of students think about the future ahead while the diplomats set off a chain reaction of events leading to the Great War.
All over Europe politicians make their historic fatal moves which the local teacher explains to his students in another endearing scene. These earlier chapters have an idyllic feel full of hope and possibility. Life lies ahead of that generation with football, love, some lies and what seems harmless gossip. That sweet scenery however begins to fade in favour of a more dark portrayal of the harsh realities of war, both at home and in the battlefields.
Higgins does an excellent job at weaving the many personalities into a web of difficult and altering relations which drive along a well-structured and compelling plot. At the core of the book is the confession of Harry’s secret to his then girlfriend Jeanie, which slips out of her sworn secrecy and leads to his apparent suicide. All accept this for a fact apart from Aggie, who has a ‘sense of knowing’ that Harry was murdered and she begins to investigate her suspicions on her own. This plot line is the strongest in the book, another senseless death that could have been prevented and one that causes a chain reaction and affects many innocent people as a result. Along the way we hear the locals talk about: feminist issues, economics, psychology, Jack the Ripper, the Irish issue and the Empire.
The narrative moves between locations and focuses on different characters at times but does so in good measure and just enough for the reader to follow the trail of the events as they unfold and add some historic details and interesting aspects of the war years to the reading experience.
The main characters are well fleshed out but the supporting cast has also much to offer in terms of historical and societal details. Higgins has found a good balance as to which storylines to focus on and which ones to only shine a brief spotlight on; this results in a very authentic feel and a rich but not overloaded kaleidoscope of subjects and themes. The book goes easy on gore and violence - only enough to give us a glimpse of the horrors of war without taking us too far from Milltown.
The writing flows easy and is well paced and with the engaging characters, themes and plotlines Higgins has excelled at bringing the times alive. The mindlessness of the war and its murderous nature is mirrored throughout the novel in a multitude of well placed ‘civil’ murders and the mention of the false notion of a ‘war that will end all wars’.
Coming to full circle, the novel ends with a small chapter at the Somme in present day. What for? For nothing! Higgins has captured the lesson of WWI for us all and woven it into a great story.
“I reviewed this novel for the Historical Novel Society as a UK Indie Reviewer”
http://historicalnovelsociety.org/rev... "
“Milltown” by Jimmy Higgins is a strong and captivating novel about WWI, showing both battle and life at home. After a short and powerful prologue set at the Somme in 2012, Higgins adds a terrific short chapter about the famous murder of Sarajevo, marking the irony of one meaningless death that led to many more meaningless ones to follow.
Only then we get to meet the large and varied cast of this novel, mainly of the younger and war prone generation. Milltown 1914, a fictitious small and cosy Scottish community is a microcosm: it has Communists, Feminists, Pacifists, Catholics, Protestants, some Irish descendants and a few foreigners. A class of students think about the future ahead while the diplomats set off a chain reaction of events leading to the Great War.
All over Europe politicians make their historic fatal moves which the local teacher explains to his students in another endearing scene. These earlier chapters have an idyllic feel full of hope and possibility. Life lies ahead of that generation with football, love, some lies and what seems harmless gossip. That sweet scenery however begins to fade in favour of a more dark portrayal of the harsh realities of war, both at home and in the battlefields.
Higgins does an excellent job at weaving the many personalities into a web of difficult and altering relations which drive along a well-structured and compelling plot. At the core of the book is the confession of Harry’s secret to his then girlfriend Jeanie, which slips out of her sworn secrecy and leads to his apparent suicide. All accept this for a fact apart from Aggie, who has a ‘sense of knowing’ that Harry was murdered and she begins to investigate her suspicions on her own. This plot line is the strongest in the book, another senseless death that could have been prevented and one that causes a chain reaction and affects many innocent people as a result. Along the way we hear the locals talk about: feminist issues, economics, psychology, Jack the Ripper, the Irish issue and the Empire.
The narrative moves between locations and focuses on different characters at times but does so in good measure and just enough for the reader to follow the trail of the events as they unfold and add some historic details and interesting aspects of the war years to the reading experience.
The main characters are well fleshed out but the supporting cast has also much to offer in terms of historical and societal details. Higgins has found a good balance as to which storylines to focus on and which ones to only shine a brief spotlight on; this results in a very authentic feel and a rich but not overloaded kaleidoscope of subjects and themes. The book goes easy on gore and violence - only enough to give us a glimpse of the horrors of war without taking us too far from Milltown.
The writing flows easy and is well paced and with the engaging characters, themes and plotlines Higgins has excelled at bringing the times alive. The mindlessness of the war and its murderous nature is mirrored throughout the novel in a multitude of well placed ‘civil’ murders and the mention of the false notion of a ‘war that will end all wars’.
Coming to full circle, the novel ends with a small chapter at the Somme in present day. What for? For nothing! Higgins has captured the lesson of WWI for us all and woven it into a great story.
“I reviewed this novel for the Historical Novel Society as a UK Indie Reviewer”
http://historicalnovelsociety.org/rev... "
July 30, 2017
Jimmy Higgins’ Milltown is an incredible book (and I hope it gets published on this side of the Atlantic soon). Set between 1914 and 1919 in a small town north of Glasgow, Scotland, several stories weave in and out of each other. It’s almost cinematic (or mini-series-esque) the way the battles of Aggie McMillan and Archie Ferguson, the loves and trials of Jeanie Broon and Micky McGoldrick, and the horrors of World War I bring Milltown to life...
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley for review consideration.
January 21, 2016
This is an exceptional book. Found the dialect dialogue a little tricky at first (being English) but I soon got into the swing of it. I shall be recommending this to all my Scottish friends who live in and around the setting of this wonderful book.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews