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Saturday Night at the Greyhound
Saturday Night at the Greyhound (1931)
John Hampson
With a new introduction by Helen Southworth
Book Description
The sinister and scheming Mrs. Tapin has seen fourteen landlords come and go at the Greyhound, an old pub located in a Derbyshire mining village, and she has no doubt that the new owners, Ivy Flack, her gay brother Tom, and her drunken, philandering husband Fred, will soon be the next to fail. Pushed to the edge of ruin by Fred’s gambling, the free drinks he gives away to customers, and the money he lavishes on his mistress, Ivy and Tom know that Saturday, the busiest night of the week, is their last hope to earn enough money to keep the pub open. But as the Greyhound opens for business that fateful Saturday night, none of them are prepared for what will ensue, as events unfold in a crescendo of violence and tragedy that will lead to a climax both bizarre and inevitable.
Widely acclaimed on its initial publication and running into three printings in its first week, Saturday Night at the Greyhound (1931) was a smash success for John Hampson (1901-1955) and his publishers Leonard and Virginia Woolf, who had rejected Hampson’s earlier work for its undisguised homosexual content. Dedicated to Hampson’s friend and mentor Forrest Reid and long recognized as a classic, Saturday Night at the Greyhound returns to print for the first time in 25 years in this new edition, which features a reproduction of the original jacket art and a new introduction by Helen Southworth.
“A book I greatly admire.” – Graham Greene
“One of the most interesting first novels I have read for some time. Short and dramatic, and written with a fine simplicity. I could not put it down until I knew all that was to happen that Saturday night.” – Sunday Times
“A first novel of outstanding merit . . . In Mr. Hampson we have a new writer of strong and wholly original talent.” – Harold Nicolson, Daily Express
“A masterpiece of character drawing.” – Daily Sketch
John Hampson
With a new introduction by Helen Southworth
Book Description
The sinister and scheming Mrs. Tapin has seen fourteen landlords come and go at the Greyhound, an old pub located in a Derbyshire mining village, and she has no doubt that the new owners, Ivy Flack, her gay brother Tom, and her drunken, philandering husband Fred, will soon be the next to fail. Pushed to the edge of ruin by Fred’s gambling, the free drinks he gives away to customers, and the money he lavishes on his mistress, Ivy and Tom know that Saturday, the busiest night of the week, is their last hope to earn enough money to keep the pub open. But as the Greyhound opens for business that fateful Saturday night, none of them are prepared for what will ensue, as events unfold in a crescendo of violence and tragedy that will lead to a climax both bizarre and inevitable.
Widely acclaimed on its initial publication and running into three printings in its first week, Saturday Night at the Greyhound (1931) was a smash success for John Hampson (1901-1955) and his publishers Leonard and Virginia Woolf, who had rejected Hampson’s earlier work for its undisguised homosexual content. Dedicated to Hampson’s friend and mentor Forrest Reid and long recognized as a classic, Saturday Night at the Greyhound returns to print for the first time in 25 years in this new edition, which features a reproduction of the original jacket art and a new introduction by Helen Southworth.
“A book I greatly admire.” – Graham Greene
“One of the most interesting first novels I have read for some time. Short and dramatic, and written with a fine simplicity. I could not put it down until I knew all that was to happen that Saturday night.” – Sunday Times
“A first novel of outstanding merit . . . In Mr. Hampson we have a new writer of strong and wholly original talent.” – Harold Nicolson, Daily Express
“A masterpiece of character drawing.” – Daily Sketch
118 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1931
1 person is currently reading
111 people want to read
About the author
John Hampson
47 books1 followerJohn Hampson Simpson was born in Birmingham in 1901, the fifth of eight children. Hampson’s childhood was a difficult one: the collapse of his father’s business reduced the family to near poverty, and his own weak health prevented him from attending school and receiving a formal education. After the First World War, young Hampson worked at a variety of jobs, including as a waiter at a London hotel and assisting at his sister’s pub, both of which experiences he draws on in Saturday Night at the Greyhound.
In 1925, Hampson obtained a post as tutor to a mentally disabled boy, and the relative stability of the job allowed him to take up writing in his free time. Virginia Woolf believed Hampson’s first novel, Go Seek a Stranger, to be his best, but it was rejected for publication because of its frank homosexual content and remains unpublished. Instead, in February 1931, Woolf and her husband Leonard’s Hogarth Press issued Saturday Night at the Greyhound, which was a surprise hit, being declared a bestseller by The Observer two days after publication and running into three printings in eight days. It was quickly translated into French and in 1937 became one of the first successful Penguin paperbacks.
Hampson’s later novels, though respectfully reviewed, were less successful commercially. These included O Providence (1932), another Hogarth release, and a trio of novels published by Heinemann, of which Strip Jack Naked (1934) is perhaps the best known. In the 1930s, Hampson was a leading figure in the “Birmingham Group”, which also included Walter Allen and Leslie Halward, and he counted Forrest Reid, Graham Greene, and W. H. Auden among his literary friends. Hampson’s final novel A Bag of Stones (1952), a psychological study of how a boy’s horrific childhood leads to the murder of his father, was well reviewed and was championed by the influential publisher John Lehmann. Hampson died in 1955.
In 1925, Hampson obtained a post as tutor to a mentally disabled boy, and the relative stability of the job allowed him to take up writing in his free time. Virginia Woolf believed Hampson’s first novel, Go Seek a Stranger, to be his best, but it was rejected for publication because of its frank homosexual content and remains unpublished. Instead, in February 1931, Woolf and her husband Leonard’s Hogarth Press issued Saturday Night at the Greyhound, which was a surprise hit, being declared a bestseller by The Observer two days after publication and running into three printings in eight days. It was quickly translated into French and in 1937 became one of the first successful Penguin paperbacks.
Hampson’s later novels, though respectfully reviewed, were less successful commercially. These included O Providence (1932), another Hogarth release, and a trio of novels published by Heinemann, of which Strip Jack Naked (1934) is perhaps the best known. In the 1930s, Hampson was a leading figure in the “Birmingham Group”, which also included Walter Allen and Leslie Halward, and he counted Forrest Reid, Graham Greene, and W. H. Auden among his literary friends. Hampson’s final novel A Bag of Stones (1952), a psychological study of how a boy’s horrific childhood leads to the murder of his father, was well reviewed and was championed by the influential publisher John Lehmann. Hampson died in 1955.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 13, 2020
Wow: a British novel by a male writer that actually made me feel something. I should play the lottery.
While it's tit-packed with enough 'Old boy' 'pip' 'get tight' 'be a right sport' etc. etceteras to make me want to reignite the War of 1812, it is fucking great. The repression of homosexual desire is fucking tragic, more so when you know that Hampson had to re-write the fucking thing because his publisher, VIRGINIA WOOLF, took umbrage with its frankness. Well 'be a right sport' and go ______ yourself, M. Dalloway.
If you're coming for technical brilliance, you'll be disappointed. If playing voyeur to the tragic lives and execrable deeds of the inconsequential is your bag, double up.
(Old boy)
While it's tit-packed with enough 'Old boy' 'pip' 'get tight' 'be a right sport' etc. etceteras to make me want to reignite the War of 1812, it is fucking great. The repression of homosexual desire is fucking tragic, more so when you know that Hampson had to re-write the fucking thing because his publisher, VIRGINIA WOOLF, took umbrage with its frankness. Well 'be a right sport' and go ______ yourself, M. Dalloway.
If you're coming for technical brilliance, you'll be disappointed. If playing voyeur to the tragic lives and execrable deeds of the inconsequential is your bag, double up.
(Old boy)
October 21, 2022
It's a shame that Leonard and Virginia Woolf chose this book to publish instead of Hampson's explicitly gay novel (now lost), but the times were what they were.
I suppose I can see why the story was popular at the time, but to me it seemed grim and dated, full of nasty, unpleasant characters; the wife and her brother being exceptions. I wasn't fond of the trope of the local squire as bastard-source either, though it certainly happened often enough. The brother, I understand, was supposed to be inferred as a gay character, but I didn't really get that myself.
Recommended for those interested in inter-war period pieces primarily, as it's more a novella than a full novel.
I suppose I can see why the story was popular at the time, but to me it seemed grim and dated, full of nasty, unpleasant characters; the wife and her brother being exceptions. I wasn't fond of the trope of the local squire as bastard-source either, though it certainly happened often enough. The brother, I understand, was supposed to be inferred as a gay character, but I didn't really get that myself.
Recommended for those interested in inter-war period pieces primarily, as it's more a novella than a full novel.
June 16, 2017
“When summer came, God alone knew where they would be. It had been a mistake ever to come. A grave mistake.”
Saturday Night at the Greyhound is a Shakespearean tragedy...but on a small scale. Set in a village pub, It has a convincingly claustrophobic atmosphere, like an old-fashioned three-act play, as the landlord, his wife, and her brother - locked mercilessly together - seethe, grumble, and snap. The village regulars would make the Starkadders look urbane. Things are not going well at the Greyhound...
John Hampson writes in an oddly clipped style. Ten words is a long sentence for him. But here it works well and he puts his own experience running a pub with his sister to good use, so that the background detail is entirely convincing. A counter, in fact, to the theatrical feel of the novel. The arrival of a rich guest from London acting as an outside observer rather spoils the incestuous atmosphere and was not, perhaps, a good idea...but nonetheless Saturday Night at the Greyhound deserves its reputation as a minor classic. Shame that his first, unpublished novel – praised by Virginia Woolf – was lost. Shame too that none of his later books has ever been reprinted.
Saturday Night at the Greyhound is a Shakespearean tragedy...but on a small scale. Set in a village pub, It has a convincingly claustrophobic atmosphere, like an old-fashioned three-act play, as the landlord, his wife, and her brother - locked mercilessly together - seethe, grumble, and snap. The village regulars would make the Starkadders look urbane. Things are not going well at the Greyhound...
John Hampson writes in an oddly clipped style. Ten words is a long sentence for him. But here it works well and he puts his own experience running a pub with his sister to good use, so that the background detail is entirely convincing. A counter, in fact, to the theatrical feel of the novel. The arrival of a rich guest from London acting as an outside observer rather spoils the incestuous atmosphere and was not, perhaps, a good idea...but nonetheless Saturday Night at the Greyhound deserves its reputation as a minor classic. Shame that his first, unpublished novel – praised by Virginia Woolf – was lost. Shame too that none of his later books has ever been reprinted.
December 4, 2008
I'm assuming this is 'Saturday Night at the Greyhound'. If so it's good. The blurb on the back of my edition (hogarth Fiction) sums it up - a haunting classic of regional working class life (in 1930s Derbyshire) - if you like the sound of that you'll like this.
January 7, 2018
A fast-paced, compelling read. The plot spends itself over a single day. Valancourt books, which has re-issued this book, says Tom, one of the novel’s main characters, is obviously gay. His apparent lack of sexual interest in women could just as easily indicate asexuality, I think, though a couple of oblique references, by minor characters, to his ‘abnormality’ probably do imply homosexuality - for homosexuality was the abnormality par excellence, needing no further qualifiers. If so, however, Tom himself seems blissfully unaware of his homosexuality: we are let into his inner thoughts and acquainted with his surpassing (but non-physical) love for Ivy (his sister), but not once does Tom reflect about his attraction for men. The farthest he goes in that respect is when he briefly thinks of three villagers he admires: not only are they good people but ‘magnificent in body’ too - or something to that effect. In any case, even if same-sex desire plays no clear role in the book, Tom is so likable that I’ll happily claim him as one of ours - after all it’s not every day that you get treated to a wholly positive portrayal of homosexual men in a 1930s book.
September 26, 2021
I can't say I really enjoyed it. The matter of fact style of giving the characters' back stories went on far too long. Some of the shifting of who was telling the story seemed unnecessary (actually some whole characters seemed unnecessary, like Ruth and the Squire). Above all nothing really happened. This might be a short book but the whole story could have been about ten pages long.
It was kind of interesting as it captured an older time and a pub culture that no longer exists, beyond that I don't see anything much in this book.
It was kind of interesting as it captured an older time and a pub culture that no longer exists, beyond that I don't see anything much in this book.
March 5, 2021
My interest was grabbed by this story of pub life in a small village in the east Midlands in the 1930s, before I realised that it was not going to end well, that was a bonus..
The Greyhound has new owners, and it doesn't seem it was any easier to make a pub profitable in those days than it is now. It is landlady Ivy Flack who finds it a struggle, along with her gay brother Tom, and not helped by her drunken husband, who manages to turn any money made into a loss by drinking it himself, giving or gambling it away.
Watching them is the sinister and conniving cleaner woman, Mrs Tapin, who has seen 14 landlords come and go.
Tension is building, and everything comes to a head on the fateful Saturday night of the title.
There's huge appeal in the depiction of pub life, and though the plot seems contrived, there's s fun in the bizarre and tragic final act.
The Greyhound has new owners, and it doesn't seem it was any easier to make a pub profitable in those days than it is now. It is landlady Ivy Flack who finds it a struggle, along with her gay brother Tom, and not helped by her drunken husband, who manages to turn any money made into a loss by drinking it himself, giving or gambling it away.
Watching them is the sinister and conniving cleaner woman, Mrs Tapin, who has seen 14 landlords come and go.
Tension is building, and everything comes to a head on the fateful Saturday night of the title.
There's huge appeal in the depiction of pub life, and though the plot seems contrived, there's s fun in the bizarre and tragic final act.
January 16, 2019
The Greyhound is a struggling pub in a small English town, with a ne’er-do-well owner whose wife and brother-in-law maintain hopes that he will change his ways and they will be able to put their own experience and business acumen into making a go of it. A fateful Saturday night unfolds slowly and inexorably as a cast of memorable characters come together. The author was a protége´of Virginia Woolf and her husband, and he drew on his own experiences in writing this book, which was published in 1931 by Hogarth Press and was an instant best seller. I can see why.
November 12, 2020
An interesting character study. Hampton develops a whole cast of characters, each with their own unique perspective and attitude, and easily switches between their viewpoints throughout the story. It was very interesting to see the events of the story through the eyes of each character and see their very different interpretations based on their own limited knowledge. The Greyhound feels like a tinder box, waiting to explode.
October 5, 2018
Taut. Almost all the characters are unlikable, many self-centered, most damaged; but hey, what else is new? Hampson inhabits each of their minds in turn, showing how their interpretations of the world are never quite in sync, how their views of others never match others' views of themselves, and vice versa. Each with foibles and self delusions, which they project onto others, often to protect their self images. Or something.
August 15, 2014
Recently re-issued, this dark, claustrophobic tale is well worth reading. It's a slim volume - just over a hundred pages - but I was transported to the enclosed world of The Greyhound. A Bloomsbury group best seller in the 30s it definitely deserves a second chance.
September 24, 2013
A good look at English pub life.
June 24, 2015
A fantastic brooding novel with characters that are either hopeless and useless or spitefully vengeful depicted within a theatrical structure that makes it very original.
February 24, 2019
No story. Repeated descriptions over and over. A struggle to finish, despite it being short.
April 26, 2017
Mad as a bag full of ferrets.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews