The Survival of the Fittest

by Pamela Hansford Johnson

A group of friends struggle to cope with the social changes in England during the period of World War II

Genres: Fiction

468 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1968

About the author

Pamela Hansford Johnson was born in 1912 and gained recognition with her first novel, This Bed Thy Centre, published in 1935. She wrote 27 novels. Her themes centred on the moral responsibility of the individual in their personal and social relations. The fictional genres she used ranged from romantic comedy (Night and Silence, Who Is Here?) and high comedy (The Unspeakable Skipton) to tragedy (The Holiday Friend) and the psychological study of cruelty (An Error of Judgement). Her last novel, A Bonfire, was published in the year of her death, 1981.

She was a critic as well as a novelist and wrote books on Thomas Wolfe and Ivy Compton-Burnett; Six Proust Reconstructions (1958) confirmed her reputation as a leading Proustian scholar. She also wrote a play, Corinth House (1954), a work of social criticism arising out of the Moors Trial, On Iniquity (1967), and a book of essays, Important to Me (1974). She received honorary degrees from six universities and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. She was awarded the C.B.E. in 1975.

Pamela Hansford Johnson, who had two children by her first marriage with journalist Gordon Neil Stewart, later married C. P. Snow. Their son Philip was born in 1952.

Reviews

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pamela Hansford Johnson is a name I was familiar with, but seeing as she had been out of print for a long time, until this year, I guess I must have noticed her mostly in secondhand bookshops (which is where I picked up this book). I didn't really know what to expect and was pleasantly surprised.

The basic story is about two friends, Kit and Jo, both aspiring writers in 1930's London, and the group of bohemian friends they hang around with. Kit is the more carefree and outgoing of the two, Jo more reserved and responsible (he lives at home for the entire novel with his invalid mother Bessie who also has, for the most part, his sister Mildred to look after her). As Kit begins a relationship with the newly published Alison we begin to see cracks in the youthful closeness of the two young men, but they re-establish their friendship with new boundaries for the rest of the novel. They are involved in left wing political groups, and Kit later becomes a frequent visitor to post-Stalinist USSR, where two of his books are seen as great and respected works of literature. Kit's successes are contrasted with Jo's struggles, both in his writing and in his relationships.

There is a satisfying cast of supporting characters, a few dubious references to queer acquaintances, a couple of whom are shown as quite heroic, but the majority are derided, which probably reflects the attitudes of the majority at the time in which it is set rather than published (1968), maybe showing that they were not quite as bohemian as they thought. Indeed as the novel progresses, the vast majority of the characters settle down in established social patterns, the times of their youth becoming fond and often half-believed memories.

One aspect of the book I really enjoyed was the portrayal of all the writers (there are many others as well as Jo and Kit). I did not need examples of any of their 'work' to believe in them (which doesn't always work anyway), and was amused by one of the novels leading the writer's family to try to identify themselves in the pages. I wonder if Pamela Hansford Johnson had added that because writer friends were wondering which characters she had based on them?

Anyway, it was stylishly written, and I may well look out for others with strange early 70s jackets to add to my bookshelves.

[Sheila Lee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I‘ve read a lot of Pamela Hansford Johnson’s books and this is my favourite so far. I’ve only just finished it but know it will be one I re-read, probably many times.

[Fran Baxter-Guigli · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my senior year of high school English, we had to read CP Snow's "The Affair," which sounds a lot more exciting than it was. More than 50 years later, I learned of Pamela Hansford Johnson (wife of CP) and this novel, and have to agree with the critic in the Wikipedia article on her that she was a better writer than her baron husband. It took a while to get into the rhythm of the novel and become invested in the characters, but once I was reeled in, I looked forward to being able to pick up the book and keep reading. I would agree with the comparison of her to George Eliot in her ability to create flawed characters that you are rooting for, but this novel also reminded me of Anthony Powell's "A Dance to the Music of Time" both in the cast of characters and its sweep in time from prewar London to post-Stalinist Russia. It may have more appeal for Anglophile novel readers.