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Young Jethro
Hardcover
First published January 1, 1982
About the author
Roy Clews
7 books5 followersRoyal Marines Commando, Spanish Foreign Legionnaire, Paratrooper, Merchant Seaman, Actor, Stuntman, Kibbutznik, International Tramp and Down and Out... he has been all these things and more in a roving life as colourful as any of the characters he creates for his highly successful historical novels, published in England and America. He lives in Tregaron, Wales.
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July 30, 2026
SPOILER WARNING
Young Jethro can be read as a coming-of-age novel about a teenager, Jethro, struggling to find his place in early nineteenth-century Britain, primarily in the Worcestershire town of Redditch. The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, the Peninsular War, and the Second Anglo-Maratha War, with these historical events serving less as the central plot than as forces shaping the lives of the characters. Jethro's mother and sisters die violently while he is still a boy, leaving him to be raised by his father, an upright, educated Luddite sympathizer. Living among the working poor, his father travels the countryside in search of employment while speaking out against the harsh conditions endured by fellow laborers.
Class consciousness permeates the novel. This is most evident in Jethro's brief and ultimately doomed romance with Anne Bartleet, the youngest daughter of Charles Bartleet, the local landed gentry and owner of the needle mill where Jethro works. Charles is portrayed as an affectionate but somewhat naïve father—indulgent toward his motherless daughters and sympathetic to the plight of the town's poor, despite profiting from the very system that exploits them. Anne, meanwhile, is restless and impulsive, engaging in a series of romantic affairs while waiting for her fiancé to return from fighting in Spain. Her relationship with Jethro is less an act of love than an escape from boredom, underscoring the social gulf that ultimately separates them.
The novel is decidedly character-driven, with only a loosely connected plot. Much of the narrative consists of encounters with a wide cast of characters, many of whom do not converge until the closing chapters. The pacing is unusual, as the principal conflict and its resolution are postponed until the final pages.
The climax begins when Jethro's father and the family friend Batten—a renowned bare-knuckle prizefighter—are ambushed and murdered while walking along a country road. The attack appears to be an act of revenge by a group of brothers whose father Batten had brutally defeated in an earlier prizefight. Complicating matters, there is an outstanding government bounty on the two men for the earlier murder of the wife of a senior needle mill worker, a crime they did not commit (side note: this senior guy is an inventor and embodies the optimistic version of the Industrial Revolution). The killers, employed by the wicked Jacob Stone on behalf of Captain John Mence, who has been tasked with suppressing the Luddite movement, discover the mutilated bodies and falsely claim responsibility in order to collect the reward.
Captain Mence is portrayed as both politically ruthless and personally repellent. His unwanted advances toward Anne are repeatedly rejected. Jethro eventually uncovers the truth: Stone framed Batten and his father for the murder, having committed the crime himself. Gravely wounded during the ensuing events, Jethro vows to kill Stone once he has recovered. Curiously, however, his desire for vengeance focuses almost entirely on Stone, while the men who actually murdered his father receive comparatively little attention.
The novel concludes at a bull-baiting ring, where Jethro finally catches up with Stone. As Jethro prepares to stab him from behind, fate intervenes. Stone loses his wager when his dog is gored by the bull. Enraged, he storms into the ring wielding Captain Mence's saber in an attempt to kill the animal himself, only to be immediately gored and trampled to death. Stone's self-destruction spares Jethro from committing murder. The ending suggests that Jethro retains some measure of his moral innocence by being denied the opportunity to exact personal revenge.
Young Jethro can be read as a coming-of-age novel about a teenager, Jethro, struggling to find his place in early nineteenth-century Britain, primarily in the Worcestershire town of Redditch. The story unfolds against the backdrop of the Industrial Revolution, the Peninsular War, and the Second Anglo-Maratha War, with these historical events serving less as the central plot than as forces shaping the lives of the characters. Jethro's mother and sisters die violently while he is still a boy, leaving him to be raised by his father, an upright, educated Luddite sympathizer. Living among the working poor, his father travels the countryside in search of employment while speaking out against the harsh conditions endured by fellow laborers.
Class consciousness permeates the novel. This is most evident in Jethro's brief and ultimately doomed romance with Anne Bartleet, the youngest daughter of Charles Bartleet, the local landed gentry and owner of the needle mill where Jethro works. Charles is portrayed as an affectionate but somewhat naïve father—indulgent toward his motherless daughters and sympathetic to the plight of the town's poor, despite profiting from the very system that exploits them. Anne, meanwhile, is restless and impulsive, engaging in a series of romantic affairs while waiting for her fiancé to return from fighting in Spain. Her relationship with Jethro is less an act of love than an escape from boredom, underscoring the social gulf that ultimately separates them.
The novel is decidedly character-driven, with only a loosely connected plot. Much of the narrative consists of encounters with a wide cast of characters, many of whom do not converge until the closing chapters. The pacing is unusual, as the principal conflict and its resolution are postponed until the final pages.
The climax begins when Jethro's father and the family friend Batten—a renowned bare-knuckle prizefighter—are ambushed and murdered while walking along a country road. The attack appears to be an act of revenge by a group of brothers whose father Batten had brutally defeated in an earlier prizefight. Complicating matters, there is an outstanding government bounty on the two men for the earlier murder of the wife of a senior needle mill worker, a crime they did not commit (side note: this senior guy is an inventor and embodies the optimistic version of the Industrial Revolution). The killers, employed by the wicked Jacob Stone on behalf of Captain John Mence, who has been tasked with suppressing the Luddite movement, discover the mutilated bodies and falsely claim responsibility in order to collect the reward.
Captain Mence is portrayed as both politically ruthless and personally repellent. His unwanted advances toward Anne are repeatedly rejected. Jethro eventually uncovers the truth: Stone framed Batten and his father for the murder, having committed the crime himself. Gravely wounded during the ensuing events, Jethro vows to kill Stone once he has recovered. Curiously, however, his desire for vengeance focuses almost entirely on Stone, while the men who actually murdered his father receive comparatively little attention.
The novel concludes at a bull-baiting ring, where Jethro finally catches up with Stone. As Jethro prepares to stab him from behind, fate intervenes. Stone loses his wager when his dog is gored by the bull. Enraged, he storms into the ring wielding Captain Mence's saber in an attempt to kill the animal himself, only to be immediately gored and trampled to death. Stone's self-destruction spares Jethro from committing murder. The ending suggests that Jethro retains some measure of his moral innocence by being denied the opportunity to exact personal revenge.
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