When Blackbirds Sing: Text Classics

Langton Quartet #4

by Martin Boyd, Chris Wallace-Crabbe (Introduction)

The last novel in Martin Boyd's celebrated Langton Quartet, which includes The Cardboard Crown, A Difficult Young Man and Outbreak of Love.

At the outbreak of World War I, Dominic Langton leaves his wife on a remote sheep farm in New South Wales to enlist in the British Army. What he experiences in the trenches changes him forever; his return home sees him cast off his past and find his own integrity. He has seen the true nature of war - the senseless waste of life, the millions of young men condemned to pointless slaughter - and has emerged a wiser, but troubled, man.

When Blackbirds Sing is a masterful recreation of the vanished world of 1914, and a moving and powerful testament to the devastation of war. In this final instalment of Martin Boyd's celebrated Langton Quartet, Boyd confirms his reputation as one of the most outstanding novelists Australia has ever produced.

Martin a' Beckett Boyd was born in Switzerland in 1893. After leaving school, he enrolled in a seminary, but he abandoned this vocation and began to train as an architect. He served in the Royal East Kent Regiment and the Royal Flying Corps during World War I and settled in England after the war. His first novel, Love Gods, was published in 1925. Three years later The Montforts appeared, then Lucinda Brayford in 1946. In the coming decade he was to write the Langton Quartet: The Cardboard Crown, A Difficult Young Man, Outbreak of Love, When Blackbirds Sing. In 1957 he went to Rome, where he lived and continued to write until his death in 1972.

Genres: Australia, World War I, Historical Fiction, Fiction

1 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Martin à Beckett Boyd (10 June 1893 - 3 June 1972) was an Australian writer born Lucerne, Switzerland, into the à Beckett-Boyd family—a family synonymous with the establishment, the judiciary, publishing and literature, and the visual arts since the early 19th century in Australia.
Boyd was an expatriate novelist, memoirist, and poet who spent most of his life after World War One in Europe, primarily Britain. His work drew heavily on his own life and family, with his novels frequently exploring the experiences of the Anglo-Australian upper and middle classes. His writing was also deeply influenced by his experience of serving in World War One.
His siblings included the potter William Merric Boyd (1888–1959), painters Theodore Penleigh Boyd (1890–1923) and Helen à Beckett Read, née Boyd (1903–1999). He was intensely involved in family life and took a keen interest in the development of his nephews and nieces, and their families, including potter Lucy Beck (b. 1916), painter Arthur Boyd (1920 - 1999), sculptor Guy Boyd (1923 - 1988), painter David Boyd (1924 - 2011), painter Mary Nolan (b.1926) - who was married to painters John Perceval and Sidney Nolan, and architect Robin Boyd (1919 - 1971). His nephew Guy Boyd was his literary executor.

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Martin Boyd is one of my all-time favourite writers: an Anglo-Australian born in Switzerland, he is one of only a few writers to capture the ambivalence of belonging in neither homeland yet intensely fond of both. His novels all feature the upper-class world of British privilege and its Australian offshoots, yet Boyd has a strong empathy for those of a different class. And in this novel When Blackbirds Sing there is yet another contradiction: he is anti-war yet not a pacifist.

When Blackbirds Sing (1962) is the fourth in The Langton Quartet, preceded by The Cardboard Crown (1952); A Difficult Young Man (1955); and Outbreak of Love (1957). The novels, which can be read independently of each other, explore the lives of the Langton family, loosely based on Boyd’s own remarkable family, described as a cultural dynasty in the Text Classics introduction by Chris Wallace-Crabbe. (See Brenda Niall’s splendid biography, The Boyds: A Family Biography). The dynasty included the great painter Arthur Boyd (1920-1999), and the influential architect Robin Boyd (1919-1971), as well as other noted painters, potters, and architects. But it was Martin Boyd who was the writer.

The title When Blackbirds Sing derives from these lines by Julian Grenfell, one of many WW1 war poets who linked youth and imminent death

The blackbird sings to him, Sing, brother, sing,
If this shall be the last song you sing…
Who doth fighting hath increase

Dominic Langton enlists in the belief that it is necessary to protect his wife and son on their farm in Australia, and to prevent Australia from becoming a German colony. It is a matter of honour:

He had very simple ideas of honour, as had Helena. If he had not gone to the war, they might not have continued to be happy, knowing that their honour stood rooted in their dishonour. Also Dominic had been intended for the army, but he had failed in his examinations, and he thought that now he had the opportunity to remedy this disgrace, which had overwhelmed him at the time. (p. 6)

But rather than join the Light Horse as so many Australians enthusiastically did, he sails to England to enlist where he has family connections: his father had advised him to apply to the colonel of grandfather Byngham’s regiment, so that he would not be quite unknown. But in the event, Dominic’s application is so diffident and self-effacing that the colonel doesn’t recognise the family name and barely acknowledges the letter. Dominic ends up settling for the Territorials, a volunteer force lacking the regimental traditions and cachet of the British army altogether and administered by the County Lord Lieutenant who is not even a soldier. In this case the Lord Lieutenant is Lord Dilton, near neighbour to the Langton ancestral home, and the father of a girl that Dominic had provoked into breaking their engagement…

To read the rest of my review please visit http://anzlitlovers.com/2016/02/11/wh...

[Marie Belcredi · Rating 3 out of 5]

He had thought that he was fighting to save Waterpark and his farm in Australia from being seized by the Kaiser

Really? Were Autralians really that stupid? Did none of them have a map to see that this was impossible?
So a very naive boy left Australia in 1914 and a more mature but very troubled one returned a few years later. What happened in between was not as bad for Dominic as for some Australian soldiers. Dominic belonged to the aristocracy and spent a lot of time on leave and in hospital. While on leave he was invited to stay with the Diltons and fed on the best food and taken care by Lady Dilton. He also found time to have an affair with Sylvia, the Dilton's daughter, while still writing to his wife who was looking after the farm and their infant son.
The fascinating and grotesque character of Marcus who is obsessed with the fighting and cheers the war on from the side-lines punctuates the novel. This provides an example of the sort of people who get a kick from killing and call war "glorious" .
Lady Dilton does her bit for the war effort by writing letters. She has also now taken over the task of plumping the pillows and tossing the ash from the ash trays into the fire. This used to be done by servants before the war.

Marcus is mad

observes Lord Dilton who is a kindly person and pulls many strings for him, firstly to get his into his territorial battalion and then to get him into a good hospital.
At the hospital Dominic finds Hollis, the young soldier who Dominic fought with in the trenches. Hollis gets shot in the face and later in hospital, when Dominic meets him again, Hollis has half his face mutilated and disfigured. Hollis fears his life is over and will never find love or have a normal life. He hides his bad side and when they go out for walks it has to be after sunset so no one can see his face.
The turning point in the book comes when Dominic comes eye to eye with a young German and shoots him. That moment returns back to him and causes his brain to "jam". He decides he will no longer take part in any more killing and give no more pep talks to his subordinates to re-energise their apetite to kill as he was required to do.
I found the book easy to read but Dominic was a frustrating character to follow. The writing too, seemed a bit flat at times. That won't stop me from reading the other books in the Langton Quartet.

[Calzean · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have not read any of the other books in the Langton series but it did not seem to matter. Dominic goes to England enlists and goes off the fight in WWI. He has left his wife and child back in Australia. When he arrives in England he is captivated by what life might have been - living in the family estate, robbing shoulders with the nobility. But his experiences in the war change all that.
Initially I thought Dominic was not overly bright but he seemed to be smarter than most and saw the war for what it was - a shameful waste of lives being fought for the honour of politicians and generals.

[Justin Evans · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you're looking for a Great War novel, this one might tickle your fancy, but it's a bit of an anti-climax to a quartet of novels that are, in other places, charming, witty, smart, and interesting. This, by contrast, is a fairly standard, livened up only by Dominic's odd position as an Australian serving for the British. Australia famously became a nation at Gallipoli, and this novel is a bit of a symbolic version of that nationification. But it lacks the romance of earlier books (sex, yes; romance, less so), and the cleverness (the narrator is entirely effaced here), and the wit.

[Ivan Monckton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best depiction of the stupidity and futility of the First World War I have come across. All the more powerful considering its’author was a conservative and upholder of the establishment. I am so glad I started reading this great author, whose books are on every family members’ shelves unread....

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great to go back to reread this classic Australian novel. Such good writing, getting into the head of the main character Dominic and giving voice to his deeply thought out anti war sentiments. I'm going back to reread the previous 3 books on this series.

[Text Publishing · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘The sophistication of this novel meshes so perfectly with the heartfelt story that it tells. When Blackbirds Sing well deserves its place on my shelves.’
ANZ LitLovers