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What Hetty Did: Life and Letters
A spirited sixth-former with an unlikely penchant for Keats and Browning, struggles against a brutish home life in the Fens, with a bullying father, down-trodden mother, and nasty little brother. Discovering she was in fact adopted, Hetty gratefully runs away in search of her real parents. She finds shelter in a Birmingham boarding house, where the land-lady, eccentric lodges, race riots and urban living expand her horizons.
- GenresFiction
183 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 1988
3 people are currently reading
118 people want to read
About the author
J.L. Carr
73 books176 followersCarr was born in Thirsk Junction, Carlton Miniott, Yorkshire, into a Wesleyan Methodist family. His father Joseph, the eleventh son of a farmer, went to work for the railways, eventually becoming a station master for the North Eastern Railway. Carr was given the same Christian name as his father and the middle name Lloyd, after David Lloyd George, the Liberal Chancellor of the Exchequer. He adopted the names Jim and James in adulthood. His brother Raymond, who was also a station master, called him Lloyd.
Carr's early life was shaped by failure. He attended the village school at Carlton Miniott. He failed the scholarship exam, which denied him a grammar school education, and on finishing his school career he also failed to gain admission to teacher training college. Interviewed at Goldsmiths' College, London, he was asked why he wanted to be a teacher. Carr answered: "Because it leaves so much time for other pursuits." He was not accepted. Over forty years later, after his novel The Harpole Report was a critical and popular success, he was invited to give a talk at Goldsmiths'. He replied that the college once had its chance of being addressed by him.
He worked for a year as an unqualified teacher — one of the lowest of the low in English education — at South Milford Primary School, where he became involved in a local amateur football team which was startlingly successful that year. This experience he developed into the novel How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup. He then successfully applied to a teacher training college in Dudley. In 1938 he took a year out from his teaching career to work as an exchange teacher in Huron, South Dakota in the Great Plains. Much of the year was a struggle to survive in what was a strangely different culture to him; his British salary converted into dollars was pitifully inadequate to meet American costs of living. This experience gave rise to his novel The Battle of Pollocks Crossing.
At the end of his year in the USA Carr continued his journey westward and found himself travelling through the Middle East and the Mediterranean as the Second World War loomed. He arrived in France in September 1939 and reached England, where he volunteered for service in the Royal Air Force. He was trained as an RAF photographer and stationed in West Africa, later serving in Britain as an intelligence officer, an experience he translated into fiction with A Season in Sinji.
At the end of the War he married Sally (Hilda Gladys Sexton) and returned to teaching. He was appointed headmaster of Highfields Primary School in Kettering, Northamptonshire, a post he filled from 1952 to 1967 in a typically idiosyncratic way which earned the devotion of staff and pupils alike. He returned to Huron, South Dakota, in 1957 to teach again on an exchange visit, when he wrote and published himself a social history of The Old Timers of Beadle County.
In 1967, having written two novels, he retired from teaching to devote himself to writing. He produced and published from his own Quince Tree Press a series of 'small books' designed to fit into a pocket: some of them selections from English poets, others brief monographs about historical events, or works of reference. In order to encourage children to read, each of the "small books" was given two prices, the lower of which applied only to children. As a result, Carr received several letters from adults in deliberately childish writing in an attempt to secure the discount.
He also carried on a single-handed campaign to preserve and restore the parish church of Saint Faith at Newton in the Willows, which had been vandalised and was threatened with redundancy. Carr, who appointed himself its guardian, came into conflict with the vicar of the benefice, and higher church authorities, in his attempts to save the church. The building was saved, but his crusade was also a failure in that redundancy was not averted and the building is now a scientific study centre.
Carr's early life was shaped by failure. He attended the village school at Carlton Miniott. He failed the scholarship exam, which denied him a grammar school education, and on finishing his school career he also failed to gain admission to teacher training college. Interviewed at Goldsmiths' College, London, he was asked why he wanted to be a teacher. Carr answered: "Because it leaves so much time for other pursuits." He was not accepted. Over forty years later, after his novel The Harpole Report was a critical and popular success, he was invited to give a talk at Goldsmiths'. He replied that the college once had its chance of being addressed by him.
He worked for a year as an unqualified teacher — one of the lowest of the low in English education — at South Milford Primary School, where he became involved in a local amateur football team which was startlingly successful that year. This experience he developed into the novel How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup. He then successfully applied to a teacher training college in Dudley. In 1938 he took a year out from his teaching career to work as an exchange teacher in Huron, South Dakota in the Great Plains. Much of the year was a struggle to survive in what was a strangely different culture to him; his British salary converted into dollars was pitifully inadequate to meet American costs of living. This experience gave rise to his novel The Battle of Pollocks Crossing.
At the end of his year in the USA Carr continued his journey westward and found himself travelling through the Middle East and the Mediterranean as the Second World War loomed. He arrived in France in September 1939 and reached England, where he volunteered for service in the Royal Air Force. He was trained as an RAF photographer and stationed in West Africa, later serving in Britain as an intelligence officer, an experience he translated into fiction with A Season in Sinji.
At the end of the War he married Sally (Hilda Gladys Sexton) and returned to teaching. He was appointed headmaster of Highfields Primary School in Kettering, Northamptonshire, a post he filled from 1952 to 1967 in a typically idiosyncratic way which earned the devotion of staff and pupils alike. He returned to Huron, South Dakota, in 1957 to teach again on an exchange visit, when he wrote and published himself a social history of The Old Timers of Beadle County.
In 1967, having written two novels, he retired from teaching to devote himself to writing. He produced and published from his own Quince Tree Press a series of 'small books' designed to fit into a pocket: some of them selections from English poets, others brief monographs about historical events, or works of reference. In order to encourage children to read, each of the "small books" was given two prices, the lower of which applied only to children. As a result, Carr received several letters from adults in deliberately childish writing in an attempt to secure the discount.
He also carried on a single-handed campaign to preserve and restore the parish church of Saint Faith at Newton in the Willows, which had been vandalised and was threatened with redundancy. Carr, who appointed himself its guardian, came into conflict with the vicar of the benefice, and higher church authorities, in his attempts to save the church. The building was saved, but his crusade was also a failure in that redundancy was not averted and the building is now a scientific study centre.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 18, 2021
Didn't care for Carr's The Harpole Report, but decided to give him another try here.
Hetty is quite quirky (huge plus for me), though not exactly likeable... more interesting, I'd say. Slow start with her living at home, but once she leaves for London things pick up where I enjoyed the antics of the boarding house, with its Sybil Fawlty-esque owner, as well as Hetty's outside life. Though set c. 1980, it had an earlier feel to me of post-war, pre-internet in general (not many references ground it to a specific era).
Would recommend the story for other pro-quirky readers, but could understand if others found it too "silly". Will try Carr's A Month in the Country at some point.
Hetty is quite quirky (huge plus for me), though not exactly likeable... more interesting, I'd say. Slow start with her living at home, but once she leaves for London things pick up where I enjoyed the antics of the boarding house, with its Sybil Fawlty-esque owner, as well as Hetty's outside life. Though set c. 1980, it had an earlier feel to me of post-war, pre-internet in general (not many references ground it to a specific era).
Would recommend the story for other pro-quirky readers, but could understand if others found it too "silly". Will try Carr's A Month in the Country at some point.
February 23, 2011
Just delightful. I particularly enjoyed all the quirks of style, punctuation, and form of this book - not for nothing is J.L. Carr listed as an "eccentric" on his Wikipedia page. When I say quirks of form, I mostly mean the line drawings of horse carts, birds, and foliage that adorn the text, cribbed from who knows what obscure texts (the attribution is comically spotty), and the full two pages of epigraphs and dedications that front this jaunty bildungsroman. (I really think Carr's writing has infected me.) This book reminded me of Roald Dahl, Joan Aiken, Charles Dickens, and Wes Anderson, without ever being particularly similar to any of those guys (and gal), except in its effusively creative drive, its cast of charming weirdos, and its gentle see-sawing between comedy and pathos. I'm going to give this book what is maybe the highest compliment I can give a book and say that it's as good as any great children's book. Or maybe, reading it gave me the same exhilarating and comforting sense of discovery as the books that thrilled me as a child.
August 28, 2022
Ein langweiliges, dröges, hölzern verfasstes buch, dessen protagonistin zu keinem zeitpunkt ein affizierender oder auch nur einheitlicher charakter wird, das mit thatcherrhetorik aufwartet und dessen etwa 250 seiten sich endlos anfühlen. nach zwei guten werken dieses autors ("wie die steeple sinderby wanderers den pokal holten" und "ein monat auf dem land") eine herbe enttäuschung
May 8, 2020
Read the 7 other novels, end
———->here<————
(Rinse. Repeat as necessary)
———->here<————
(Rinse. Repeat as necessary)
May 18, 2022
Kurz vor dem Abitur muss sich die 18-jährige „Hetty“ auf dem Weg zu ihrer Freundin durch eine Anti-Atomkraft-Demonstration quetschen, die gerade ihren Heimatort durchquert. J.L. Carrs 1988 im Original erschienener Entwicklungsroman spielt zurzeit der Thatcher-Ära Ende der 80er Jahre im Fenland nördlich von Cambridge. Ethel Birtwisle, die sich Hetty nannte, erinnert sich heute als Erwachsene an ihre Lehrerin Miss Braceburn, die ihre literaturbegeisterte Schülerin unbedingt fördern und zum Studium ermuntern wollte. Als es mit ihrem Vater zu einem Konflikt um Hettys seiner Ansicht nach unpassende Lektüre kommt, wird sie davon überrumpelt, dass der „Hauptdarsteller“, wie sie ihren Vater zynisch nennt, nicht ihr leiblicher Vater ist. Sie wurde als Baby direkt aus einer Klinik in Birmingham adoptiert; ihr adoptierter jüngerer Halbbruder war ein Findelkind. Hettys Adoptivmutter wirft mit kryptischen Andeutungen die aufmüpfige Tochter aus dem Haus, angeblich, um sie vor dem cholerischen Vater zu schützen.
Noch ehe sie ihre Abiturnoten erhalten hat, bricht Hetty entschlossen nach Birmingham auf, um ihre leibliche Mutter zu suchen. Fortan nennt sie sich Hetty Beauchamp. Schon auf der Bahnfahrt trifft sie einen altertümlich charmanten Passagier, der ihr Arbeit und Unterkunft in der Pension von Rose Gilpin-Jones vermittelt. Roses Pension hat exzentrische Gäste zu bieten und wird zu Hettys Refugium. Zugleich wird an dieser Stelle deutlich, dass J.L. Carr seine Provinz-Romane in einem eigenen Universum angesiedelt hat; wir treffen u. a. auf den betagten Kriegsveteranen Mr. Peplow und auf Mrs. Foxberrow aus „Die Lehren des Schuldirektors George Harpole“. Durch ihre Arbeit bei Rose reift Hetty und erfährt von Schicksalen, auf die die Schule sie nicht vorbereiten konnte. Auf ihrem Weg stets gestützt von erwachsenen MentorInnen muss Hetty sich jedoch mit ihrer leiblichen Mutter auseinandersetzen, bevor sie ins Studentenleben aufbrechen kann.
Als Insider des britischen Bildungssystems ist von J.L. Carr ein hochironischer Umgang mit dem Thema Bildung zu erwarten. Seine jungen Lehrerfiguren und älteren Kriegsveteranen konnten mich in seinen vorhergehenden Romanen eher überzeugen als seine 18-jährige Hetty. Ethel/Hetty habe ich als altersloses Wesen erlebt. Die Konfrontation mit ihrer Adoption verarbeitete sie in einer Art, die m. A. dem Umgang mit sozialer Elternschaft in den 80ern weit hinterherhinkte. Streckenweise habe ich daran gezweifelt, dass die Ereignisse wirklich in der Thatcher-Ära spielen und nicht Jahrzehnte früher. Meine Einschätzung der Provinz-Romane Carrs hat sich jedoch entscheidend geändert durch die Entdeckung, dass sein literarisches Fenland ein ganzes Universum bilden wird, wenn erst alle Romane übersetzt sind.
Noch ehe sie ihre Abiturnoten erhalten hat, bricht Hetty entschlossen nach Birmingham auf, um ihre leibliche Mutter zu suchen. Fortan nennt sie sich Hetty Beauchamp. Schon auf der Bahnfahrt trifft sie einen altertümlich charmanten Passagier, der ihr Arbeit und Unterkunft in der Pension von Rose Gilpin-Jones vermittelt. Roses Pension hat exzentrische Gäste zu bieten und wird zu Hettys Refugium. Zugleich wird an dieser Stelle deutlich, dass J.L. Carr seine Provinz-Romane in einem eigenen Universum angesiedelt hat; wir treffen u. a. auf den betagten Kriegsveteranen Mr. Peplow und auf Mrs. Foxberrow aus „Die Lehren des Schuldirektors George Harpole“. Durch ihre Arbeit bei Rose reift Hetty und erfährt von Schicksalen, auf die die Schule sie nicht vorbereiten konnte. Auf ihrem Weg stets gestützt von erwachsenen MentorInnen muss Hetty sich jedoch mit ihrer leiblichen Mutter auseinandersetzen, bevor sie ins Studentenleben aufbrechen kann.
Als Insider des britischen Bildungssystems ist von J.L. Carr ein hochironischer Umgang mit dem Thema Bildung zu erwarten. Seine jungen Lehrerfiguren und älteren Kriegsveteranen konnten mich in seinen vorhergehenden Romanen eher überzeugen als seine 18-jährige Hetty. Ethel/Hetty habe ich als altersloses Wesen erlebt. Die Konfrontation mit ihrer Adoption verarbeitete sie in einer Art, die m. A. dem Umgang mit sozialer Elternschaft in den 80ern weit hinterherhinkte. Streckenweise habe ich daran gezweifelt, dass die Ereignisse wirklich in der Thatcher-Ära spielen und nicht Jahrzehnte früher. Meine Einschätzung der Provinz-Romane Carrs hat sich jedoch entscheidend geändert durch die Entdeckung, dass sein literarisches Fenland ein ganzes Universum bilden wird, wenn erst alle Romane übersetzt sind.
March 19, 2019
Loved this novel - found it unique in a couple of ways: important and refreshing to find a younger heroine who rose above or despite her circumstances in such an articulate way - the author did not allow her to be the stereotyped victim. I found the conversational exchanges quite unique in places - the repartee hangs in the air with such clarity and intelligent insight-fullness it causes you to pause and admire. As were some of the very clever humorous passages, refreshing and unexpected that draw you into the moment making you wish you had such a friend. I'm not sure what young age the story is meant for and although clearly signposted by the neat happy endings of central characters and serendipitous occurrence it is undoubtedly a highly enjoyable adult read.
February 3, 2024
J. L. Carr was not playing by the rules in 1988. Successively shortlisted among the top 6-7 books of the year by Booker judges (1980 had an extra book), many authors would have seen their third in lights in a Waterstones shop display. Not Carr, who in 'What Hetty Did' lampoons Waterstones and extols the independent bookseller (the fictive Williams of Birmingham). More to the point, he eschewed big-name publishers to print this follow-up at his tiny cottage industry 'Quince Tree Press'. His final book (1992- now reading) is set in a publishing house and was restricted to a run of 4,000.
The book itself is the usual mix of overdrawn characters, occasional offputting blasts of Thatcherite nativism, and surprisingly successful jokes, which work I think because Carr is so unvarnished.
Nothing that Carr wrote came close to 'A Month in the Country', which feels in context like a fluke work of genius. 'Hetty' links characters, incidents and places from across Carr's works, so it weaves a fabric of family around what are otherwise an eclectic mix of English pastoral, boys fantasy sport victories, and 'making a go of it' books about work (whether the army, teaching or publishing).
The book itself is the usual mix of overdrawn characters, occasional offputting blasts of Thatcherite nativism, and surprisingly successful jokes, which work I think because Carr is so unvarnished.
Nothing that Carr wrote came close to 'A Month in the Country', which feels in context like a fluke work of genius. 'Hetty' links characters, incidents and places from across Carr's works, so it weaves a fabric of family around what are otherwise an eclectic mix of English pastoral, boys fantasy sport victories, and 'making a go of it' books about work (whether the army, teaching or publishing).
August 27, 2020
I really enjoy this author's work. Entertaining story, wonderful characters. Recommended. Easily read.
March 6, 2016
Reading a novel by J. L. Carr is always an interesting experience, especially if it is one published by his own Quince Tree Press, where quirky typography and design match the originality and eccentric nature of the story.
What Hetty Did is the story of a highly articulate and literate fenland sixth former who runs away from her brutish stepfamily and ends up in a bizarre lodging house in Birmingham. There, among other adventures along the way, she tracks down her birth mother and blithely blackmails her. Hetty is a wonderful creation: sparky, witty and determined, but the host of minor characters in the book are just as well-drawn; many of them (as is often the way with Carr) are familiar from other of his novels. The book has a wonderful, witty and very satisfying ending too.
What Hetty Did is the story of a highly articulate and literate fenland sixth former who runs away from her brutish stepfamily and ends up in a bizarre lodging house in Birmingham. There, among other adventures along the way, she tracks down her birth mother and blithely blackmails her. Hetty is a wonderful creation: sparky, witty and determined, but the host of minor characters in the book are just as well-drawn; many of them (as is often the way with Carr) are familiar from other of his novels. The book has a wonderful, witty and very satisfying ending too.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews