The Woodcock

by Richard Smyth

It's 1920s England, and the coastal town of Gravely is finally enjoying a fragile peace after the Great War. John Lowell, a naturalist who writes articles on the flora and fauna of the shoreline, and his wife Harriet lead a simple life, basking in their love for each other and enjoying the company of John's visiting old school friend, David. But when an American whaler arrives in town with his beautiful red-haired daughters, boasting of his plans to build a pier and pleasure-grounds a mile out to sea, unexpected tensions and temptations arise. As secrets multiply, Harriet, John and David must each ask themselves, what price is to be paid for pleasure?

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical

336 pages, Hardcover

First published July 1, 2021

About the author

Richard Smyth is a writer, researcher and editor based in Bradford. He is a regular contributor to Bird Watching magazine, and reached the final of Mastermind with a specialist subject of British birds. He writes and reviews for The Times, Guardian, Times Literary Supplement, Literary Review, New Statesman, BBC Wildlife, New Humanist, Illustration and New Scientist. He also writes novels and short fiction, and has written several books on English history.

Reviews

[8stitches 9lives · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Woodcock is an evocative and richly atmospheric literary period drama set on the north-eastern coast of England. Set in 1920s England, the fictional small town of Gravely is enjoying peace and is still in recovery after the recent end of World War One. John Lowell and his wife, Harriet, lead a simple life and have a happy and content marriage. Jon is a marine biologist barely scraping by through writing pieces for various wildlife publications about the strange and exotic sea creatures he discovers and subsequently investigates when they wash up on the beach near his home. Harriet is an elegant and motherly homemaker who is deeply invested in the local religious scene and attends church regularly. The tranquil, innocent and clean-living life of the town is put in jeopardy, however, much to the inhabitants’ chagrin, when wealthy American adventurer and whaler Maurice Shakes and his two beautiful flame-haired daughters Cordelia and Eleanor come to town. The family grow in terms of their local influence and soon announce ambitious plans. Maurice plans to build an ambitious pier and pleasure grounds a mile out to sea. Numerous attractions to bring in the holidaymakers will be erected but not only will it attract tourists and make the little town more affluent, but in many eyes, it will create an eyesore, spoil the habitat and ruin the novelty of living in such a stunning part of the country, too.

Joining the Lowell’s is Jon’s friend David McAllister with whom he attended Bradford University. The interaction between the townsfolk becomes more and more fraught and riveting as time goes on and the drama at the centre of it all is invariably the same - Shakes’ plans. As the self-appointed groups both for and against the business move converse, the air prickles with electricity and there’s a feeling that something explosive and unexpected is about to occur. This is a compulsive, captivating and beautifully written tale sprinkled with richly evocative descriptions of nature, flora and fauna and pinpoint accuracy of time and place is delivered exquisitely. I was gripped by this stunning novel from the moment I picked it up. A naturalist himself, Richard Smythe paints the coastline into his drama so perfectly that it feels as if the kittiwakes and oyster-catchers, shore crabs and periwinkles become a third protagonist in this gripping drama about the price to be paid for the ambitions of men. Lyrically and intelligently written, this story is of a town and a people with a lot on the line and if they fail to ward off imposters looking to make a quick buck from the scenery and setting, it will destroy their hometown. The emotions and tensions of those involved rise exponentially throughout the course of the novel. A nostalgic, melancholic and sensitively portrayed piece of atmospheric historical fiction. Highly recommended.

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book immediately gave me vibes of Remarkable Creatures (Tracy Chevalier), with its fascination with the inhabitants of the British shoreline, tinged with the melancholia and confusion of On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan.

The Woodcock is set in the fictional coastal village of Gravely in northern England. The characters are well-drawn, with many little quirks giving you insight into who each person is. “Local limpet-botherer” Jon has to wait until his tea is just the right temperature before drinking it (ok, anyone that doesn’t is clearly a monster, I’m with Jon on this one). Wife Harriet goes through the motions of interwar housewifery while both Harriet and Jon, who thinks of them as “wife and husband”, know she can, in fact, do anything she sets her mind to. The dual narration demonstrates their insight into themselves and each other, although the story is heavily weighted in favour of Jon’s narrative – it’s definitely a masculine story rather than a feminine one.

The book is set after the Great War so everyone is slightly unsettled – everything has changed but they can’t quite work out yet how they should change, or could change, and how they all fit together after everything they’ve been through. Even Maurice Shakes, an American agent of change within the village, is himself feeling the effects of his new location on him, rather than the other way round.

The Woodcock simultaneously evokes the wide open spaces of the coast while telling an intensely personal story. It’s a thoughtful portrait of the place, the time, and the relationships, and if you love natural history this is a great read.

Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the ARC.

[Emma Townshend · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Woodcock is a really engaging charming novel that I got really involved in, and didn't want to stop, to the point where I read it all day one Saturday until I'd finished it. It's historical, set in a seaside town in the north-east of England during the 1920s, but it also plays with the conventions of historical novels: its central characters a married couple who are still very hot for each other and there is QUITE a lot of sex from the very start, so maybe DON'T buy it for your most uptight relatives without reading first yourself, lol.

I just loved the contrast between the naturalist hero, collecting rock pool creatures on the beach, and the American financier, planning to build a fancy exciting new pier, in town with his luscious and unmarried daughters. The book very much exists in the playful historical fiction zone, inhabited by French Lieutenants Woman and Essex Serpent for instance, challenging our assumptions about the past. But it was also very calming, took me completely away from all current life stresses, and really involved me in caring about the story. All the descriptions of nature were particularly nice. Didn't end up how I imagined at ALL, either. Made a really nice change from modern novels about young women being stressed out on the internet, MUCH AS I ENJOY THOSE!

[Steve Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is more of a character study than a story (which in itself is no bad thing, I like those very much). There is a plot of sorts carrying you along, but it's perhaps not as obvious or dynamic as it could be, and it weaves itself uneasily sometimes between multiple threads. The characters are a mixed bunch - I didn't really 'like' any of them except for the good friend of Jon (the male protagonist), David, but they each had their own unique personality. Indeed, the highlights of the book for me were the moments of repartee between Jon and David.

The bulk of the story, told from the point of view of Jon is incredibly beautifully written. Richard Smyth has command of language, and style of prose that really does capture the imagination. The description of scenes, even the mundane, help immensely to build the world around you. Unfortunately, I think his writing of Harriet (female protagonist) holds this novel back. They're written almost as diary entries. Quick, remembered words, which for me ultimately made Harriet sound a little removed from the rest of the world. It cheapened her role, made her appear needlessly hollow, and led to me willing her (usually mercifully short) sections to be over to move on to the next chapter.

Aside from some events which felt laboured and did little to contribute to the plot development, there were some interesting moral questions and talking points raised. Without spoiling it, you're left considering a key aspect of the story and which role - if any - fate/destiny/religion/none-of-the-above played in the outcome of that, whether intentional on the part of the author, or not.

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Woodcock was like a stroll down the rocky, salty, and silt ladened beaches of the English coast. I could smell the salty ocean and feel the sand beneath my feet with Richard Smyth's meandering prose and wonderful descriptions of nature, place and time.

In a small England coastal town following WWI, a naturalist, John Lowell and his wife, Harriett, live a quiet and contemplative life as he writes novels and the couple enjoys John's visiting friend, David.
But soon their peaceful, unassuming, life based in the daily routine of their seaside home is thrown into turmoil with the arrival of a whaler from America who shouts his boastful plans to build a pier with a park a mile out to sea. He and his beautiful red haired daughter soon disrupt the tranquility of John, Harriett, and David's lives and cast a spell of unrelenting anxiety and despair as they struggle with one man's idea of progress that could quickly destroy the beauty of nature all around them.

Thank you to Richard Smyth, the publisher, and Net Galley for sharing this book with mein exchange for an honest review. #WoodcockNovel #NetGalley

[Pgchuis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley.

I struggled with this one a bit. The writing could be opaque and required a bit of working out, and the setting seemed fairytale-like in places. At times it was dryly amusing, but it wasn't for me.

[David Wharton · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are echoes of DH Lawrence in this novel, most obviously in its overwhelming concern with sex, both repressed and expressed, but also in its attention to nature and its inter-war period setting. Smyth does a lovely job of evoking time and place. I believed entirely in Gravely, the northern coastal town where his principal narrator, a naturalist, quietly collects specimens from the beach, makes a living from books and articles, and enjoys an uxorious relationship with his beautiful wife. It’s a garden of Eden, complete with a judgmental preacher acting as the voice of God. Of course, it’s not long before Satan turns up, in the form of an American businessman with a madcap scheme to build a pier and turn the place into Britain's Coney Island. Dialling up the mythic tone even further, he is accompanied by his pair of passionate, red haired daughters.

The sense of symbolic structure and resonance is unmistakable. Names (such as that of the town and of its American disruptor, Shakes) often have double meanings. There is a central friendship between two young men called David and Jonathan. All of which gives the book a parabolic quality that is only enhanced by the vividness of its realism. Characters drift in and out of the story, sometimes contributing to the action, sometimes just being a bit strange. We know it’s all leading to disaster – the question is really what sort – and it’s an engaging journey. Along the way there are several excellent set-pieces: most notably a predictably gruesome boxing match and an unpredictably gruesome cricket game.

I was a little less taken by the inter-chapters from Harriet's point of view. She provides important narrative development and often shows us a corrective to her husband’s self-absorbed view of the world. However, her voice is italicized, present tense, and sometimes borders on stream-of-consciousness. Her sections are brief and intense, while Jon’s are lengthier and more discursive. Both characters demonstrate a tension between reason and emotion, but the way they express themselves feels a little too traditionally gendered. For me that’s a minor niggle in a thoughtful, sensitive novel that was a consistent pleasure, full of surprises and delightfully judged details.

[Tilly Fitzgerald · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this one, and still don’t know how I’d try to categorise it, but all I can say is that after an initial slow start I was hooked! A lovely surprise…

Jon and his wife Harriet live a content life on the coastal town of Gravely - he with his nature writing and watch over the local wildlife, she with her Church and bible study. But when Jon’s writer friend David comes to stay, and at the same time the Shakes family arrive from America with big plans for this little town, everything changes…

This is a tricky one to explain - there are elements of mystery, suspense and intrigue, there’s lust and betrayal, and there’s stunning nature writing and descriptions so vivid you can almost smell the sea and hear the birds. Whilst I’d probably call it a quiet novel without masses of fanfare, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a lot to say and some moments which will shock. It’s really one of those which you have to read for yourself and make your mind up about!

Having said that, I found it totally compelling - the characters were all very well written and I loved the extremes of their personalities and how different they all were. Tragedy felt almost inevitable. I’ll admit I sometimes found Harriet’s narratives a little confusing, but as these chapters were very short it didn’t impact my overall appreciation of the story.

The real beauty is the writing though - it’s so evocative of a particular place and time, but also at times surprisingly sexy for a novel which features a lot of birdwatching! It really asks a lot of questions about the lengths we are willing to go to for pleasure, and the risks that come with it. A really different and thought provoking read!

[Karen Mace · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 13 of my 20 books of summer 2024.

3.5 stars

This book is very difficult to review as it's more a study of humans and their interactions, with things often bubbling up underneath the surface!! It is beautifully written and the nature scenes make the life pop out of the pages, but at times the human goings on just fell a little flat for me.

it centres around a couple who live a quiet life in 1920's England, in a coastal town where the husband writes articles, and studies nature, while the wife has her life centred around the church. But this quiet town soon 'welcomes' a larger than life American family, who have big plans to change the area.

You really get that reserved British feeling towards the newcomers - too polite to actually ask outright what their plans are, but happy to gossip and speculate on their intentions. Told from different POV's, this really adds more depth as the husband and wife have very different outlooks and approaches to change in the community.

it captures the essence of life in Britain at that time really well, and there are a few shocks along the way to increase the drama and it did make for an intriguing read as it does the slow burn very well!!

[Peter Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quietly astonishing novel that looks (and has been marketed, obviously) like a cosyish costume drama but discloses itself as a beautifully patterned and morally serious inquiry into desire, modernity and catastrophe. Smyth is a frighteningly smart technician and understands exactly what novels can do that other things can't - he handles his twin narrators, an ineffectual naturalist and his smarter but no less helpless wife, with a cleverness that allows their perceptions, going back and forth, to create a rich and convincing inner and outer world, and shows them a generosity and warmth that doesn't preclude tragic irony. The amusement pier around whose construction the plot revolves becomes a kind of key to the anxious moral vision of the book, where human order and kindness are held up on shaky foundations above a yawning chaos: the power of this vision, and the relentlessness with which the plot moves towards its realisation, is more Conrad than James Herriot. There are also loads of birds and crabs and things, which is nice because birds and crabs and things are good.

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Woodcock” by Richard Smyth, Fairlight Books, 336 pages, Oct. 1, 2021.

It’s 1920s England, and the coastal town of Gravely is finally enjoying a fragile peace after World War I.

John Lowell, a naturalist who writes articles on the flora and fauna of the shoreline, and his wife Harriet, lead a simple life. John is very self-absorbed. Harriet is more grounded. John’s school-friend, David McAllister, visits. He is an author.

Maurice Shakes, an American whaler, and his daughters, Cordelia and Eleanor, arrive in town, boasting of his plans to build a pier and pleasure-grounds a mile out to sea. That will change the whole character of the town. There are groups both for and against the plan.

The nature exploration is good, but there is a lot of sex and violence. The characters are all one-note. The book is largely told from Jon’s point of view, with short passages of Harriet’s viewpoint.

In accordance with FTC guidelines, the advance reader's edition of this book was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for a review.

[Sheena · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt invested in this story and the characters within. Loved the writing style and descriptions of the wildlife and the seaside. It has an old world charm, perfect sense of time and place and a melancholy tone.The reader has a feeling something beautiful will be lost due to the brash newcomers and their plans and so it comes to pass. Felt desperately sorry for the poor woodcock.

[Tim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I enjoy historical fiction, however this author’s writing style is quintessential Brit, long winded and stodgy. DNF as this book did not engage me at all.

Smyth does not seem to understand women as evidenced in his female characters.

It’s a shame the writing is not better because the book concept seemed interesting.

[Jessica Baumgartner · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was lucky enough to be test reader for this magnificent story. Smyth never disappoints. The characters are highly flawed but in their own realistic ways. I have a great love for the whaler and this story.

[Mab · Rating 4 out of 5]

The construction of this book is really wonderful - clear and startling prose, neatly and constantly looping structure, a truly satisfying bit of craft. It's a very lovely book, full of depth and undertows, and I very much enjoyed it.

[Nicola]

I absolutely loved this book. The characters with all their flaws and charms, lift off the page, as you are transported to another place and time. Immersive and compelling, and beautifully written.

[Mary Smyth · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I found it to be original with an interesting and compelling storyline. Smyth's keen observations of wildlife are a joy to read. Highly recommended.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

See my review at Reading World

[Polly · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully written book - images and voices slide off the page. This would make a good film - but the film would never be as good as the book, as good as the images Smyth puts into your head.

[Philippa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this. Evocative of the coast hereabouts, and beautifully describes how confusing emotions can turn you upside down.