Alan Sillitoe’s biography

Alan Sillitoe (4 March 1928 – 25 April 2010) was a British novelist, children's book writer, playwright, poet and social critic, compared to D. H. Lawrence, who also came from Nottingham. Alan Sillitoe was one of the "Angry Young Men" of the 1950s who introduced in the post-World War II British fiction realistically portrayed working-class heroes. He disliked the label, like most of the other writers to whom it was applied.

Sillitoe was born in Nottingham, to working class parents. Like Arthur Seaton, the anti-hero of his first novel Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, his father worked at the Raleigh factory. "We lived in a room on Talbot Street whose four walls smelled of leaking gas, stale fat, and layers of mouldering wall-paper," Sillitoe once recalled.

He left school at the age of 14 and worked at the Raleigh factory for the next four years, spending his free time reading. He then joined the Royal Air Force, serving as a wireless operator in Malaya. After returning to England, he was discovered to have tuberculosis and spent 16 months in an RAF (Royal Air Force) hospital.

Pensioned off at 21 on 45 shillings a week, he lived in France and Spain for seven years in an attempt to recover. In 1955, while living in Mallorca with his partner, American poet Rut Fainlight, and in contact with the poet Robert Graves, Sillitoe started work on Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, which was published in 1958. Influenced in part by the stripped-down prose of Hemingway, the book conveys the attitudes and situation of a young factory worker faced with the inevitable end of his youthful philandering. As with John Osborne's Look Back in Anger and John Braine's Room at the Top, the novel's real subject was the disillusionment of postwar Britain, and the lack of opportunities for the working class. It was adapted as a film by Karel Reisz in 1960, with Albert Finney as Arthur Seaton.

Sillitoe's story The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, which concerns the rebellion of a borstal boy with a talent for running, won the Hawthornden Prize in 1959. It was also adapted to film, in 1962, this time directed by Tony Richardson and starring Tom Courtenay.

He later married Fainlight, with whom he had two children, David and Susan. He lived in London.

In 1990, Sillitoe was awarded an honorary degree from Nottingham Trent University. The city's older Russell Group university the University of Nottingham also awarded him an honorary DLitt (Doctor of Letters) in 1994; in 2006, his best-known play was staged at the university's Lakeside Arts theatre in an in-house production.

Sillitoe wrote many novels, and several volumes of poetry. His 1995 autobiography, Life Without Armour was critically acclaimed on publication, and offers a view into his squalid childhood.

In 2007 Gadfly in Russia, an account of his travels in Russia spanning 40 years, was published. In 2008 London Books republished A Start in Life as part of its London Classics series and to mark the author's 80th birthday. Sillitoe appeared on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs on 25 January 2009.

His long held desire for Saturday Night Sunday Morning to be remade for a contemporary audience was never achieved despite strong efforts. The film was blocked by the late Natasha Richardson, who owned the rights to the book from when her father adapted it in the 1960s. Danny Brocklehurst was set to adapt the book and Sillitoe gave his blessing to the project. The Richardson estate and Woodfall films refused this request.

He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.

On 25 April 2010 Sillitoe died at Charing Cross Hospital in London after a long battle with cancer.

Step 2

1. Read Chapter 2 (pp.31-44).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and outline the situations where each word or word combination was used.

· To be broken into docility by one’s strong will – p.32

· To ruminate on – p.34

· To pay for one’s board – p.34

· To defy smb. by force – p.35

· To tame – pp.36, 40

· To fix smb. into a stony paralysis – p.39

· To intimidate smb. to a halt – p.39

· To let smb. down – p.43

3. Give a summary of the events in Ch. 2.

4. Agree with or challenge the following statements. Prove your viewpoint.

· Vera’s father was a soft-hearted person. He never punished his children.

· Harold did not like cruelty to animals.

· Merton took a fancy to Seaton at first sight.

· Vera did not love Harold at all.

· Ada was Vera’s younger sister.

5. Answer the questions.

· What was Merton? Was he good at his job?

· Why was Vera terrified on her way home? Where had she been?

· What made Vera return home after her runnings-away?

· How old was Vera when she first met Seaton?

· Was Harold quick to propose to Vera?

· Miss Merton was eager to marry Harold Seaton, was she not?

· Would you marry a person if you didn’t love him or knew very little of him?

6. Describe the following.

· Harold and Vera’s first meeting

· Harold’s looks, behaviour, job, etc.

· Ada’s theory of getting married

7. Read & translate: p.35 from “From experience…” up to “…sense to think so.”

8. Paraphrase the underlined words.

· I’ve stood on the canal bank before, trying to chuck myself in the deep locks…. (p.36)

· Don’t be daft. (p.40)

· He’d been barmy enough to ask her to marry him at the end of their second meeting…. (p.42)

9. Pick out sentences in the Oblique Moods and comment on them.

10. Prepare to have a written test on the Master Vocabulary in Step 1.

Step 3

1. Read Chapter 3 (pp.44-63).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and outline the situations where each word or word combination was used.

· Colliery – p.44

· Numskull – pp.45, 50, 60

· To booze, boozer – p.46

· To reconcile smb. to smth. – p.49

· To relent – p.49

· To owe smth. to smb. – p.50

· To pay smb. out – p.58

· To be gratified – p.60

· To make up for the quarrel – p.63

3. Fill in with “Vera” or “Harold”.

· … sacrilege overwhelmed ….

· … was a real Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.

· … was fearful of moving, hating to change the routine and walls that were familiar and therefore comfortable.

· … was always using filthy talk.

· … was not much of a scholar.

4. Answer the questions.

· Why did Vera consider Seaton a numbskull? Was he worse than any of her family? Why did she suspect that the bad end of a bargain had come to her (p.60)?

· Did Vera ever regret that she had married Harold Seaton? Did she love him?

· What made the Seatons flit? Were they happy at that event?

· Did Harold treat his wife better after Brian was born?

· Why did Vera call on Ernest Seaton one day? Was he eager to help Vera? Would you be anxious to support your sister(brother)-in-law against your own sister or brother?

5. Agree with or challenge the following statements.

· Vera would never have got married, at least not so soon, if her parents had treated her with more sense, kindness and deference before her marriage?

· Harold was fond of Vera’s parents, often referring to them as “that nice lot”.

· Vera never thought of packing her few things and going back to her mother’s at the beginning of her married life.

· Harold was never nervous while Vera was in labour. He was relaxing in the pub then.

· Things are never bad as they seem.

· You can say things to a reasonable man that he’d take notice of, but you can’t tell a madman not to be mad any more.

· Vera returned to her mother’s after Harold had caused a violent scene and hit her for no reason.

6. Give a summary of the events in Ch. 3.

7. Read & translate: p.55 from “Eleven struck …” up to “…his made-up work.”

8. Comment on the following.

a) What stratumof words do the following words in the text belong to: neutral, literary (bookish) or colloquial? Give their neutral equivalents. What effect is achieved by the author?

numskull; fags; quid; bob; sod; cadge.

b) he don’t wait (p.45); nowt (p.46); I’ve already towd you (p.47); feyther (p.52); gel (p.56).

Step 4

1. Read Chapter 4 (pp.64-78).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and outline the situations where each word or word combination was used.

· To be (go) on an errand to – p.64

· To do a bunk (sl.) – p.64

· To be afloat – p.66

· To stand on tiptoe to reach smth. – p.67

· To be contemptuous of smth. – p.69

· To discourage smb. from doing smth. – p.69

· To take smth. for granted – p.70

· (to sit) at ease – p.72

· To get on one’s nerves – p.73

· To run over smth. / smb. – p.78

3. Agree with or challenge the following statements.

· Bert Doddoe was Brian’s uncle.

· The whole family of Ada’s descended on the Seatons’ house during one bitter snowy winter because Ada had missed her sister.

· Grandma Merton was a very superstitious woman and all her superstitions were so strongly instilled into her eight children that they were also to live by them.

· Brian was not at all frightened by his Granddad’s bravery during the thunderstorm.

· Alma was old Merton’s dog that Brian always played with on his visits to the Nook.

4. Answer the questions.

· What caused Doddoe’s losing his job?

· Why did Brian quicken his pace when walking to his grandparents?

· What was wrong with Brian’s sister Margaret?

· What nickname did old Merton call his grandson Brian?

· What was the origin of lightning and thunder according to old Merton? What’s it according to you?

· Little Brian didn’t feel at ease at the Mertons’, did he? What were his favourite occupations there? Were you delighted to go on visits to your grandparents when you were younger?

· Who was Gyp? What happened to the creature? How did everybody take it?

5. Give a summary of the events in Ch. 4.

6. Read & translate: p.66 from “The fields were divided …” up to p.67 “…can kill you, he thought.”

7. Comment on the following.

a) p.66 … who had lived next door – otherwise they’d have walked.

p.67 … as if it could be used as a weapon to wheel and fight the storm should it catch him up.

b) p. 66 You want a candle to rub on it and mek it proper slippy.

p.68 What’s up wi’ ‘er this time?

p.75 I like pointry.

8. Pick out sentences in the Oblique Moods and comment on them.

Step 5

1. Read Chapter 5 (pp.78-93).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and outline the situations where each word or word combination was used.

· To tip / on (at) the tips / tippings / a (fresh) tip – pp.78 - …

· To dump (the loads) – p.78

· To scrape / scraper – pp.78 - …

· (dustbin) rubbish – pp.82, 89

· To crush one’s faith in smth. – pp.81

· To pinch smth. – p.85

· To steady oneself – p.88

· To be outraged at the cheek of smth. – p.89

· To trespass – p.89

· Morose – p.93

3. Pick out from the text synonyms of the following words:

Rubbish (3); to pinch (3); morose (2)

4. Replace the underlined words by the synonyms:

a) I chucked all my equipment in the water on my way back. – p.82

b) He swivelled his head to view the building at the opposite far end of the tip. – p.83

c) We’ll scoff it up and see’f we can find owt on the tips. – p.86

d) – How much do you want for that lot? – A tanner. – p.82

5. Paraphrase the following sentences:

a) Use your loaf. – p.90

b) You could roast ‘em over fires or fry ‘em in pans and fill (stuff) your guts for a year…. – p.90

6. How can you explain an abundance of colloquialisms, faulty grammar cases, slang words and combinations, derogatory words in the novel? Is there any purpose in it?

7. Agree with or challenge the following statements.

· Brian and others scraped in the heaps of swarf, scrap steel and dustbin rubbish on account of archeological reasons. They were looking for ancient civilizations.

· Agger was a scornful driver, never talking to the scrapers, who drove junk to the tips.

· Bert treated his cousin to a bar of chocolate which he had bought in the shop.

· Brian never begged in the streets because it was beyond his dignity.

· Brian valued Bert for his talent of pinching things.

· An elaborate snap was awaiting each of the boys at home in the evening.

8. Read & translate: p.81 from “Agger worked nearby …” up to “…a certain power over them.”

9. Answer the questions.

· Why did Brian and others regularly come to the tips? What sort of people were the scrapers?

· Did Brian scrape very little mostly standing and warming himself by the fire, and talking?

· What were Agger’s most valued possessions? Did he ever lend them to other scrapers?

· What high-flown name did he use referring to the tips?

· It wasn’t dangerous to scrape at the rammel, was it?

· What was Brian’s and Bert’s loot on the tip that day?

· What was Sann-eye and why was Bert determined to go there?

· Who else was trespassing in the Sann-eye besides the boys? Why?

· What happened to Bert’s rake in the end? Was Brian sorry for his cousin?

· Which of the boys do you sympathise with and why? Would you let your children mix up with such lads?

10. Give a synopsis of the events in Ch. 5.

Step 6

1. Read Chapter 6 (pp.93-106).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and outline the situations where each word or word combination was used.

· To capture smb./smth. – p.94

· To be fobbed off with smth. – p.94

· To maraud (for smth.) – p.95

· Cheeky – p.97

· To taunt smb. for / with smth. – p.97

· To be baffled – p.98

· To torment smb. – p.99

· A marvel – p.102

· To wait in a queue for smth. – p.104

· To court smb. – p.102

3. Paraphrase the underlined parts of the following sentences:

a) Doddoe’s offspringwent on forays into someone’s gardens (p.95).

b) Brian was mesmerised by the long dark strip of forest crossing his horizon (p.96).

c) Miss Barber always gives us the strap (p.97).

d) You tell big fibs (p.97).

e) The Union made sure he had the wherewithal to maintain himself (p.103).

4. Answer the questions.

· Brian was always interested in his grown-ups’ talks, wasn’t he? Was he just ill-bred or was he a Nimrod hunting for everything new, absorbing all the information, every bit of the world he dealt with? Why was the boy puzzled when the grown-ups were talking about war? What did his grandmother imply by saying that there were no winners in the war? Don’t you think that Brian was a susceptible, impressionable boy? Give proof if you think so.

· What stylistic device is employed by the author: p.95 For how could nobody win a war? Nobody. Nobody wasn’t a word, it was a trick.

· What spirit of Doddoe’s passed to his children? Do you despise them? Would you let your children mix up with such kids?

· What was love for Brian? Was he confused by Brenda’s revelations? What’s it for you? Do you remember the time when you began learning what love was?

· Did the Empire come up to Brian’s expectations? What was it like?

5. Agree with or challenge the following statements.

· Brian’s uncle Oliver had been killed in World War II.

· Vera’s children were discouraged from the Nook, Ada’s offspring were welcomed.

· Brian’s friends were very fond of their school teacher because she always treated them to sweets and cakes.

· Brian couldn’t bear Brenda for she was a cheeky girl and always chelped him off.

· Brenda taunted Brian because she couldn’t stand him and he got on her nerves.

· Lydia was Vera’s sister, still unmarried, who was making sure of a good time before settling down.

· Paul Robeson was Lydia’s Abyssinian suitor, delicate and never saying boo to a goose, whom Merton found easy to tolerate and even had a certain respect for his gentleness.

6. Read & translate: p.99 from “He crept under a fallen tree …” up to “… a drier colour.”

7. Give a synopsis of the events in Ch. 6.

Step 7

1. Read Chapter 7 (pp.106-117).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and outline the situations where each word or word combination was used.

· To outlaw smb. from – p.106

· To put out / to be put out by smth. – p.106

· In retaliation – p.106

· To poach (animals) / poacher – p.109

· To be stuck in – p.110

· To wrap smth. around one’s arms and shoulders – p.111

· To be put on probation – p.113

· Waifs and tramps – p.113

· To clear the table – p.113

· Insouciance – p.114

· Fastidious – p.114

· To have a row with – p.114

· To cope with – p.115

· To smash smth. – p.116

3. Paraphrase the underlined parts of the following sentences:

1) I’m going to grow all my own grub in a garden (p.109). 2) Blokes as work with spades aren’t on dole (p.110). 3) People often drop dough when they are drunk (p.114). – What stratumof words do the following words belong to: neutral, literary (bookish) or colloquial?

4. Agree with or challenge the following statements.

· Doddoe had an inside demon that pulled the strings of his recklessness in the most haphazard see-saw fashion.

· Ada sent Bert and Brian with a parcel of Doddoe’s shirt, suit and bowler hat to pawn them because she had no food to put on the table.

· Bert was going to work on the farm when he grew up because he was fond of gardening.

· Lots of Bert’s pals were on probation for nicking things.

· Bert and Brian went on a visit to the chip-and-fish café for Bert had reserved a table for two.

· Brian had never played locust to a café’s cast-off food before, therefore he was terribly embarrassed.

· Brian said to himself that he would never waste his dough on booze when he grew up.

· Bert took all the wages that the boys had earned in the pub helping the waiters with glasses for himself.

5. Answer the questions.

· What were the minor and major tribulations of Ada’s misery? Could she be happy with Doddoe? Would you have been in her place?

· Why didn’t Seaton like Doddoe?

· What were Brian’s and Bert’s plans for the future? Why didn’t they want to work at a factory? What did you dream about in your childhood?

· Why did Doddoe promise to make Bert a jockey?

· What did the boys do in the lorry loaded with bottles?

· What was the last place where Brian and Bert went to hunt for money? What came out of their adventure? What was Brian afraid of?

6. Read & translate: p.106 from “Few people were fond…” up to p.107 “…of what he had earned.”

7. Give a synopsis of the events in Ch.7.

Step 8

1. Read Chapter 8 (pp.117-129).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and outline the situations where each word or word combination was used.

· To bash smb. / smth. – p.118

· Disparate (qualities) – p.120

· In impeccable writing – p.120

· To scoff (at) – p.120

· Culprit – p.124

· With avidity – p.124

· To bully smb. – p.125

· Adversary – p.125

· To hold back – p.126

· To be engrossed in (doing) smth. – p.128

· To make a blunder – p.129

3. Paraphrase the underlined parts of the following sentences:

1) Everybody hoped he would kick the bucket in some horrible way (p.118). 2) Somebody’s dad’ll come up and knock him for six (p.124).

4. Pick out from the text as many synonyms of the word “to bash” as possible.

5. Agree with or challenge the following statements.

· Mr. Jones was a clever and brave old merchant who was holding the world’s scorn from him, standing with his knife and scales, and who was always on Brian’s side.

· Signs of slack discipline would bring Brian bursting in, his arms flying at unlucky heads as he marched between rows of desks.

· All the teachers were fond of Mr. Jones and immediately relinquished all power over the class and handed it to him when he appeared, hoping that he would bring all the young culprits in order.

· There were lots of books at Brian’s home because his father spent all his wages on books.

· Geography was Brian’s favourite subject and he enjoyed scouring the food cupboard for labels from foreign places and sticking them on the blank pages in his geography notebook.

· There were other children besides Brian and Margaret in the family by that time and Brian often played shepherd to them as he was the eldest among them.

6. Answer the questions.

· What was Mr. Jones and how did he knock sense into Brian and others?

· Why didn’t books and Mr. Jones go together in Brian’s opinion?

· Brian hated reading and always tore books to pieces, didn’t he?

· How was Brian getting on with his studies? What subjects was he learning? Wasn’t he a numskull?

· What was Brian’s daily routine when he was to lead his brothers and sister to the dinner-center?

· What blunder did Brian make at Mr. Jones’ lesson deserving a hit?

· Was Brian always weeping, being cracked by the headmaster?

· Why didn’t the parents come and crush Mr. Jones for bullying their children?

7. Read & translate: p.119 from “Mr. Jones mouth turned down…” up to “…hand on your backbone.”

8. Give a synopsis of the events in Ch.8.

9. Comment on the grammar:

1) I wish old Jones would die though…. (p.129)

2) Woe betide anyone…. (p.125)

3) He couldn’t have been a very pretty baby…. (p.119).

Step 9

1. Read Chapter 9-10 (pp.129-148).

2. Study the Master Vocabulary and sketch the episodes where each word or word combination is used.

· To call in at – p.130

· To be shot of smb. / smth. – p.130

· A means-test man – p.130

· To be adept at doing smth. – p.130

· To give warning – p.130

· Meagre (pension) – p.131

· To settle the deposit – p.132

· Ingenuity – p.132

· Imminent – p.134

· To dread smb. / smth. – p.136

· To worship (God) – p.142

3. Paraphrase the underlined parts of the following sentences:

1. But when the hands were happy and one side of the heart at ease, the other was wary and sly, adept at evading that ubiquitous bogey of the means-test man who docked your dole and sent you on “relief” if caught doing work not registered for (p.130).

2. Then she went with Brian up Hyson Green, to cheap shops where she could stock up on tins of milk and packets of margarine, sugar and tea and bread, vegetables and sixpennyworth of meat for a stew that night (p.131).

3. Time and again Vera told herself that she shouldn’t be riled by Seaton’s moods of animal temper, for it only made things twice as bad (p.132).

4. Having said it, he was afraid, but a knot of stubbornness riveted him, and he was determined not to shift (p.135).

5. He dreaded the good hiding he knew he’d get if he didn’t move that second (p.136).

4. Pick out from Chapter 10 as many words or word combinations that have to do with men’s toil as possible. Continue the list: to mow the field, to cut the corn …

5. Agree with or challenge the following statements.

· It was Harold Seaton’s fault that he was out of work at thirty-five.

· Windfalls of work fell frequently in Harold Seaton’s way.

· A fifth child was about to join the Seatons.

· Brian’s parents enjoyed classical music.

· Harold and Vera were constantly rowing because Harold didn’t love his wife.

· Vera often saw in her children similar rages and moods that she detested in Seaton.

· Brian was adept at telling stories, that’s why his brothers and sister always begged him to tell them one before sleep and even Arthur’s feet-stabbing subsided.

· In his nightmare Brian was afraid that the Devil would wrap his chains around him and take him away for good, and he’d never see anybody, not even his granddad Merton.

6. Answer the questions.

· What did Harold Seaton occupy himself with from dole day to dole day?

· What let Vera and Ada spread the tables of their households with a good meal one night?

· Why did Vera use to smile and leave off taunting Harold’s extravagance when he brought another wireless set into the house?

· What qualities of Brian’s character made an amusing combination for old Merton? What did the latter really appreciate in his daughter’s lad?

· What thing concerning the Arlingtons’ and Lakers’ children was beyond Brian’s comprehension?

· What happened during the work going on in the field that made little Brenda lament?

7. Read & translate: p.130 from “Seaton enjoyed his two-mile walk…” up to p.131 “…against a wall.”

8. Give a synopsis of the events in Ch.9-10.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-20