Three Fevers

by Leo Walmsley

Three Fevers

Genres: Fiction

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1932

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

[Leila · Rating 5 out of 5]

I originally found this book in a second hand bookshop in Whitby. It prompted me to buy it and since then I have collected every one written by this author. His books are set in a seaside bay a few miles away from my own home on the North East Coast of England. They are about fishermen and their lives connected with the sea.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's three years ago now that I picked up Love in the Sun in the library. I didn't know who Leo Walmsley was then; I looked at the book because it was on the Cornish shelf, because my mother used to have friends called Walmsley, and I wondered if there was a connection. There wasn't but I thought the cover was lovely and when I looked inside I found the warmest introduction written by Daphne Du Maurier, a sometime friend and neighbour of the author. When I started reading I was smitten too.

I went on to read the book that had been sitting next to 'Love in the Sun' - Paradise Creek was a companion piece, also set in Cornwall, written some years later. And then I read the two books that filled in the story that came between those two books: The Golden Waterwheel and The Happy Ending.

What I should explain is that these books are fiction, but they are very close to the facts of the authors life. That they are all now in print, courtesty of the Walmsley Society. And that I continues to be smitten.

I wasn't sure where to go after that lovely quartet of novels. I had an earlier volume of short stories. I had a later novel. But when I learned that the third of an earlier trilogy, was soon to be reissued I had my answer.

I ordered 'Three Fevers' - the first book of the Bramblewick trilogy - from the library.

There's a quote on the back of the book that says exactly what needs to be said:

"In opening Mr Walmsley's book, readers have fallen into the hands of a perfect yarn-spinner. They are in the position of the wedding guests and the Ancient Mariner; so long as he goes on they have to listen."

(Rebecca West)

But I will elaborate just a little.

This is another story drawn from life, drawn from memories of the 1920s, when he worked with one of the two families fishing from a village in the north of England that he calls Bramblewick. The real village was Robin Hood's Bay, and there are just enough details to bring it to life.

The two fishing families are the Fosdycks, whose roots are in the area and the Lunns who are relative newcomers.

There are dramatic events - shooting lobster pots in a wild sea, rescuing a collier in danger of hitting the rocks - but this is a book that captures fishermen's lives as they were lived, at home and at sea.

I never doubted that the author was there, but he stayed in the shadows. His later books were his own story; this book places others at the centre of the story.

I learned recently that Leo Walmsley's father, Ulric, studied art in Newlyn under Stanhope Forbes, and that pointed me to the best way that I could explain why this book is so readable: Leo Walmsley captured his fishing community in words every bit as well and Stanhope Forbes and his contemporaries captured the fishing community in Newlyn.

Next comes 'Phantom Lobster' ....

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Set in a lightly fictionalised version of the North Yorkshire fishing village of Robin Hood's Bay in the inter-year wars, Three Fevers is the story of the fishing community who scrape a living from the sea in whatever way they can. Focusing on two families, the Fosdycks (long-established in the village) and the more recently arrived Lunns, the novel excels in recreating real working life as it was lived; in fact, much of it reads more like high quality reportage than fiction. Leo Walmsley certainly knew his stuff - he grew up in Robin Hood's Bay and then returned to live there later in life, and his descriptions of the sea, the fishermen's skill in reading natural signs, and especially, the weather in all its guises makes for fascinating and often thrilling reading. I would have liked more on the wider community, especially the women, but perhaps that will come with the other two volumes in the trilogy.
Robin Hood's Bay and the coastline around it have long been one of my favourite parts of the great county I'm fortunate to live in, and it was a real pleasure to read a novel that brings its history to such vivid life.

[Jackie Watson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three Fevers by Leo Walmsley follows the trials and tribulations of the Yorkshire Lunn fishing family as they face the eternal struggle with the sea and the Fosdycks.
Although this is very much a novel, the 1920s story is based on true events. Written in the 1930s, it’s set in the fictitious storm-ravaged Bramblewick. However, those familiar with the North Yorkshire coastline will quickly realise the village is in fact Robin Hood’s Bay.

Three Fevers centres on two families – the progressive Lunns and the traditional Fosdycks. Both have fished off Bramblewick for generations. But as the Fosdycks have been there longer, they have seniority. This causes ongoing rumblings and a need for the Lunns to prove themselves. But in such a close-knit community both families must pull together to launch and bring the boats back safely.

Our narrator is with the Lunn family throughout their ordeals and triumphs. He brings us into their world with rich descriptions. And there's warmth, intimacy and humour in the everyday dynamics between the father and his two sons.

What are the Three Fevers?
The ‘Three Fevers’ refer to the various obsessions the Lunns embark on to bring home enough money to survive, turn a profit and attempt to get one up on the Fosdycks. Obsessions that will lead them into the path of a horrific storm.

Would I recommend Three Fevers by Leo Walmsley?
Walmsley cleverly blends the cosy family life with its humorous incidences while capturing the hardships facing those who strive to make a living from the sea. Three Fevers by Leo Walmsley is certainly worthy of your attention so it's a thumbs up from me.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little novel about a Yorkshire fishing village and its inhabitants. I can't say it had me on the edge of my seat but I certainly got caught up in the atmosphere of the story. It was helpful that I've visited the setting upon which the book was based so made imaging it easy. I even had to look up a few of the nautical/equipment terms so the author wrote from experience!

[Kerry Hullett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book while staying close to Robin‘s Bay the fishing Bay where the book was apparently set although renamed. I initially thought it wasn’t going to have stain power as it’s basically just about one fishing boat and three family members but I found myself getting quite absorbed. It’s written from the point of a narrator of whom we know absolutely nothing which is quite interesting.

[Colin Pountney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was handed this book to read in an English lesson about 60 years ago. It has always stuck in my memory although I cannot say I enjoyed it that much when I read it. Strangely I thought it was set in Cornwall. Today I heard a news item about fishing in Cornwall that prompted me to look it up here, to see who wrote it. A book that made an impression lasting a lifetime has to be recommended.

[Mico · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another really enjoyable Walmsley book. Something very pure and simple about his writing and characters which draws me in.