Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve

by Dannie Abse

Very good hard cover, with unclipped dust jacket. Shelf and handling wear to DJ; wear and discolouration to front, rear and folds, creasing to edges and corners. Minor blemishes to page block. Boards very clean, pages tightly bound, content unmarked. CN

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, World War II, War

167 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1954

About the author

Daniel Abse CBE FRSL (1923–2014) was a Welsh poet, author, doctor and playwright. He wrote and edited more than sixteen books of poetry, as well as fiction and a range of other publications. His poetry won him many awards. As a medic, he worked in a chest clinic for over 30 years.

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dannie_...

Reviews

[Bettie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abse by Dan Llewelyn Hall

Welsh poet and author Dannie Abse, who "was once hailed as being 'at the top of the Welsh tree' by the country's literary body and named a CBE for his talents in the 2012 New Year honors," died September 28 2014, the Guardian reported. His books include poetry collections Selected Poems, White Coat, Purple Coat: Collected Poems 1948-1988 and Be Seated, Thou: Poems 1989-1998; the novel Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve and memoir Goodbye Twentieth Century.



Description: Widely acclaimed for its warm humor, lyricism, and honesty, this accurate evocation of the 1930s has become a classic. In this delightful autobiographical novel, Dannie Abse skilfully interweaves public and private themes, setting the fortunes of a Jewish family in Wales against the troubled backdrop of the times: unemployment, the rise of Hitler and Mussolini, and the Spanish Civil War.

Dedication: To Joan



Opening quote is from T S Eliot's ''Little Gidding':


Ash on an old man's sleeve
Is all the ash burnt roses leave.
Dust in the air suspended
Marks the place where a story ended
Dust inbreathed was a house



Opening: June the first was our agreement, our day of peace. It came in that year with all sunshine and the windows open and the neighbours' radio. It was tennis-players and the yellow seasick trams grinding down Cathedral Road. It was the end of a school day where we left our carved initials, hurt and momentous, in the wooden desk, and schoolteacher (old Knobble-knees) rubbing off chalk from the blackboard like a nasty day from the calendar.

Q: I wonder why this has been marked as 'non-fiction' by two readers

A: It is hard to spot, at times, that this is a fictionalised memoir as it is full of stunning poetic licence. I cannot stress how lyrically entrancing this is.

Dylan Thomas 1914-1953
Dannie Abse 1923-2014

The cover shows a detail of 'I Think I'll be a Sailor' by W Langley, in the collection of Mrs Beaumont Varcoe.

Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (28 March 1921 — last known to be alive 1943-1944, declared dead 1960) was a Polish-Jewish refugee, born in Germany. His assassination of the Nazi[1] German diplomat Ernst vom Rath on 7 November 1938 in Paris provided the Nazis with the pretext for the Kristallnacht, the antisemitic pogrom of 9–10 November 1938. Grynszpan was seized by the Gestapo after the German invasion of France and brought to Germany. wiki sourced

[Nicky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve is an autobiographical account of growing up Welsh and Jewish, in the period leading up to and during the Second World War. Throughout the text there's the rumblings of war, references to Hitler, and references to events that seem so much more important in the Welsh literature of that period than the English writing of the period -- namely, the conflict in Spain.

The narration is compelling -- like the memory, it skips around in time, makes references to things that happened before and after, picks up on a detail and runs with what comes up... It felt like listening to someone who needed to tell a story and take their time to get there, especially once you read the last few pages.

Parts of the narration are beautiful, too. You can tell Dannie Abse is a poet. "Cariad, clean heart, listen to me, this is my beginning..."

[Jane Stanley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant, a poetic and moving autobiographical novel based on the writer's 1930s childhood and teenage years. It ends with him turning 18, which coincides with the start of the Second World War.
Abse captures brilliantly, many little details and observations about his family, friends, the local Jewish community and the small world he inhabits in and around Cardiff. However, in some very powerful and poignant sections, he widens the scope of his narrative to connect the comparatively humdrum world of his childhood experience to the terrifying developments in Spain, Germany and Eastern Europe which are occurring at the same time.
Memorable and faultlessly written.

[Lily]

Read this over a long period of time but really enjoyed dipping in and out of Abse’s poetic accounts of Cardiff in the 30s.

Left me keen to read some of his poetry.

[Douglas · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is Dannie Abse's autobiographical account of growing up in Cardiff during the 1930s. it starts with him being aged 10 and finishes in late teens. the writing is amazingly poetic and full of innocent childhood descriptions. set against the backdrop of the start of the second world war, stories of friendship, holidays, adolescence, falling after girls, family and community casually meander into one another. it is a bonus if, like me, you live in Cardiff, as you will recognise places such as Waterloo Gardens and Roath Park and will able to visualise the scenes from Abse's descriptions and you own experiences. a simple autobiography that's easy to read and doesn't try to tell the reader how wonderful they are.

[Jenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've had this book sitting on my shelf for a few years and can't imagine now why I didn't read it sooner. Dannie Abse is a poet and a doctor, and his two older brothers Wilfred and Leo were respectively a psychiatrist and a politician, but here we see them all as boys and teenagers. The prose is luminous, and the memoir sharp and totally evocative of both the period (1930s) and setting (Jewish family in Cardiff). I was blown away by the quality of the writing in this book. Highly recommended.

[Ryan Heeger · Rating 4 out of 5]

I probably would have given this three stars if I wasn't from Cardiff and didn't love local history so much. I enjoyed Abse's poetic musings on long gone transport and places around Penylan Hill which were once fields. His lads' camping holiday to Ogmore is also a highlight, while the ever-present menace of WWII approaching is distant yet vivid.

[Chris Westlake · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one from childhood that I've just revisited twenty years latter! Semi-autobiographical, the reader joins Danny growing up in Cardiff. Some fantastic insights into welsh life before and after the war. As a budding writer his style is a real inspiration. The characters, such as the bruiser Uncle Bertie to the layabout dreamer Uncle Isodore, are ones that we all relate to. A charming read

[Lucas Podesta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastically written with some stunning chapters and a really interesting way of looking at Wales in the 1930s.

However, I found Abse's weird hand-brake turn perspective and character switching to be a little confusing without adding anything to the book.

[Sarah Davies · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this book for English class so it's not like it was a personal choice. Even so, I really enjoyed it. Abse's writing is profound and beautifully detailed and he captures the narrator's mind perfectly at every stage of his life. It's a fantastic read and I'd definitely recommend it.

[Katherine · Rating 5 out of 5]

At times feels like reading a war poet, then Laurie Lee, then Hemmingway. But Abse's account of growing up Welsh and Jewish in the time of Hitler's ascendancy is idiosyncratic, warm and funny.

[Sum Doood · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read it over two evenings and enjoyed it immensely.

[Prue · Rating 4 out of 5]

What really sold this book for me was the great characters. Everyone seemed to have so much personality, even those who only appeared for small snippets during the book. I liked how the story was told as cut-scenes of the main character's life, as he grows up from a 10-year-old boy to a young man. The people he meets on the way felt raw and real, and Abse did a wonderful job of setting the scene as a very realistic 1930s Wales.

There wasn't a very clear, defining plot, but more a singular experience of a boy growing up and the slow encroachment of World War II - normally a lack of direction can make a book dull, but not with 'Ash on a Young Man's Sleeve'. There was a wonderful blend of childlike idyllic paradise that would then be contrasted right next to gritty adulthood, which I think make the book compelling to read. There were times when jumps in time were a little confusing, with Abse sometimes dipping into a far future when the main character is in his late 20s, but other than that, it was a good book and I really enjoyed it!

[Graham Davies · Rating 5 out of 5]

An excellent book - I may be biased being a resident of Cardiff. This book took me to various parts of the city long before many of the houses were built and gave a view of the world long before the expansion of UK plc. I first read this book when in my early teens and was amazed that someone from our city could write so brilliantly about it - I still think the same. Isn’t it about time that Danny’s beloved football team came of age, as he did in this book..... come on City....kick on.

[Liz Owen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book about his experience of growing up in Cardiff before the war.
Dannie Abse could certainly tell a tale. He would have been slightly younger than my late parents, then living in a Valley town, and many of his reminiscences and stories chimed with theirs. I lived in Cardiff for a few years, and the whole atmosphere felt wonderfully familiar.

[Elspeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A well remembered memoir of growing up in South Wales mid-20th Century. Particularly enjoyed the Vale of Glamorgan references & life through young boy's eyes. Looking forward to getting back to Ogmore-By-Sea soon.

[Holly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Abse was a poet and this feels like a mix between poetry, autobiography and fiction. There isn't really a plot but the connected episodes from his childhood are written beautifully. I really enjoyed this.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coming of age story about a young Jewish boy living in Wales during the 1930’s.
Based on the author’s life.

[Mared Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5*

What I liked most about this novel was, without a doubt, Dannie Abse's beautiful writing. This is a book that I would never typically pick up, and so how it was written was unlike anything I've ever read. Admittedly, it was strange at first, but it was poetic without being completely obscure. The content itself was actually quite hilarious, which I wasn't really expecting, as well as moving. Being told mostly from the perspective of a child, I found the subtle mentions of the events/movements that took place during the 1930s and how they affected and influenced his daily life fascintaing. I'm definitely glad that this is one of the books that I'm studying for my GCSE English Literature course, as I would never have picked this book up otherwise!

[Ray Noyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just superb!

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Might have ended up a wonderful masterpiece, but I have rarely cared so little so quickly.