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William Posters #3
The Flame Of Life
A portrait of individual and communal struggles to maintain authenticity and revolutionary fervor in 1960s England from award-winning, bestselling author Alan Sillitoe
The final installment of the William Posters Trilogy revolves around the plights and foibles of the Handley family commune, which set up camp at the home of the wealthy Myra Bassingfield. There, painter Albert Handley is pursuing a whirlwind existence of art, sex, and chaotic domestic life. Of his seven children, four are giving him particular grief. His eldest son, Cuthbert, has been kicked out of theological college; his eldest daughter, Mandy, is pregnant by her unstable husband; and two of his younger sons, Richard and Adam, are pillaging army manuals for subversive and revolutionary ends. To top it all off, Myra’s lover, Frank Dawley, has returned from gunrunning in Algeria—and brought along his wife and two kids from Nottingham to live in the Buckinghamshire kibbutz.
Collective cohabitation soon reveals its downfalls. And when a young Spanish anarchist arrives with assassination on her mind, her trunk full of notebooks may condemn Frank for a sin committed in the African desert. As the community hangs by a thread, the very notion of revolution comes under scrutiny, begging the question: Can the fire of life burn, even when its flame is no longer in sight?
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author’s estate.
The final installment of the William Posters Trilogy revolves around the plights and foibles of the Handley family commune, which set up camp at the home of the wealthy Myra Bassingfield. There, painter Albert Handley is pursuing a whirlwind existence of art, sex, and chaotic domestic life. Of his seven children, four are giving him particular grief. His eldest son, Cuthbert, has been kicked out of theological college; his eldest daughter, Mandy, is pregnant by her unstable husband; and two of his younger sons, Richard and Adam, are pillaging army manuals for subversive and revolutionary ends. To top it all off, Myra’s lover, Frank Dawley, has returned from gunrunning in Algeria—and brought along his wife and two kids from Nottingham to live in the Buckinghamshire kibbutz.
Collective cohabitation soon reveals its downfalls. And when a young Spanish anarchist arrives with assassination on her mind, her trunk full of notebooks may condemn Frank for a sin committed in the African desert. As the community hangs by a thread, the very notion of revolution comes under scrutiny, begging the question: Can the fire of life burn, even when its flame is no longer in sight?
This ebook features an illustrated biography of Alan Sillitoe including rare images from the author’s estate.
318 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1974
About the author
Alan Sillitoe
156 books148 followersAlan Sillitoe was an English writer, one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s (although he, in common with most of the other writers to whom the label was applied, had never welcomed it).
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sil...
For more see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Sil...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
August 24, 2018
The Flame of Life by Alan Sillitoe
First page blurb
'The Flame of Life brings the cycle of novels - which started with The Death of William Posters and continued with The Tree of Fire - to an end by explaining the progress, and otherwise, of life in the Handley community.
A score of intimately connected yet outlandish people gather together, some by their own inadequacies, others by a genuine wish to make the community a success. But the people are too diverse, too ordinary, too unruly to be moulded in any satisfactory direction by their self-imposed experiment.
Between the pressures of these extremes the experiment falls apart. Yet it also succeeds in a more human manner, because chaos brings change in all of them. As Dawley observes, the Revolution came home to roost in more ways than one.'
AUTHOR'S NOTE
The present novel was begun in August 1967, and finished in January 1974. This is a long time for one book, though during that period other items were written that were more urgently pressing. They elbowed the present work aside, which may have been compliant in this because the plot and form of the book weren't so absolutely clear in my mind as they subsequently became over the years.
During its progress three other novels were written, as well as two books of short stories, two filmscripts, and a volume of poems.
Earlier versions of chapters three and four were printed as part of a novel in progress entitled CUTHBERT in The Southern Review ( Louisiana State University) in the summer of 1969.
Back cover synopsis
THE FLAME OF LIFE
Orphans of the Promised Land
'A provoking, deep-searching study of contemporary attitudes, of the dilemma confronting idealists in a corrupt society. Men and women who, having challenged and overthrown the barriers of evil, find themselves tumbling helpessly into a vaccuum.'
First page blurb
'The Flame of Life brings the cycle of novels - which started with The Death of William Posters and continued with The Tree of Fire - to an end by explaining the progress, and otherwise, of life in the Handley community.
A score of intimately connected yet outlandish people gather together, some by their own inadequacies, others by a genuine wish to make the community a success. But the people are too diverse, too ordinary, too unruly to be moulded in any satisfactory direction by their self-imposed experiment.
Between the pressures of these extremes the experiment falls apart. Yet it also succeeds in a more human manner, because chaos brings change in all of them. As Dawley observes, the Revolution came home to roost in more ways than one.'
AUTHOR'S NOTE
The present novel was begun in August 1967, and finished in January 1974. This is a long time for one book, though during that period other items were written that were more urgently pressing. They elbowed the present work aside, which may have been compliant in this because the plot and form of the book weren't so absolutely clear in my mind as they subsequently became over the years.
During its progress three other novels were written, as well as two books of short stories, two filmscripts, and a volume of poems.
Earlier versions of chapters three and four were printed as part of a novel in progress entitled CUTHBERT in The Southern Review ( Louisiana State University) in the summer of 1969.
Back cover synopsis
THE FLAME OF LIFE
Orphans of the Promised Land
'A provoking, deep-searching study of contemporary attitudes, of the dilemma confronting idealists in a corrupt society. Men and women who, having challenged and overthrown the barriers of evil, find themselves tumbling helpessly into a vaccuum.'
Displaying 1 of 1 review