Divided Loyalties by Dennis Hamley

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

It was only after I’d read several chapters of Divided Loyalties that I realised it was a continuation of Ellen’s People which I recently reviewed for Eclectic Electric.

Ellen’s People: Without Warning, was a book set during the First World War, and it told Ellen’s story from her point of view. This second book, which I understand is part of a trilogy, is set prior to, and during the Second World War. So, a lot of time has passed since the end of the first book.

Divided Loyalties differs in style from Ellen’s People because it is a multi-viewpoint novel. Instead of being Ellen’s story, it is the story of Ellen’s family, and it begins with chapters featuring Ellen’s sons, which was why I hadn’t made the connection with Ellen’s People at an earlier stage.

At the beginning of the story Ellen has been married to her German husband, Matthias Vogler, for nineteen years, and they have three of a family, Walter who is sixteen at the start of the book, Paul who is eleven, and Anna who is eight.

Walter, the elder son, is not a likeable character and he is deeply resentful of his germanic roots which makes him hate his father. Nevertheless, of the three children he is by far the strongest character and I was drawn into his story and became deeply interested in what happened to him. Paul and Anna were more likeable, and their characters were less conflicting, therefore less addictive for the reader. Ellen, was once again, finely drawn, and her problems and emotions are shared with the reader.

There were many divided loyalties in this story. Walter’s hatred of his family and his germanic origins. Ellen who is split between the two of them. Matthias, whose German relatives embrace the Nazi cause, and the emotional conflict this causes within him, because on the one hand he loves his German family, but on the other, he hates Nazism and everything it stands for, and is fiercely loyal to his adopted country. His loyalty, however, does not prevent his arrest as an enemy alien, and his internment, first in the Isle of Man and later in Canada.

As well as the emotional impact of the story, as the story progresses the reader is also taken onto the battlefields to follow Walter’s story as a rear gunner in the RAF, and the story of Helmut, his German cousin, first as a member of the Hitler Youth, then as a tank commander on the Eastern and Western Fronts. There is a sense of fear and disorganization, but also one of disillusionment in these sections.

This was a well written and absorbing novel with characters who became real people with the ability to strike up an emotional relationship with the reader. If this is the second book of a trilogy, I can’t wait to read the third.

Chris Longmuir

You can buy the ebook here

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

http://www.chrislongmuir.co.uk/

Divided Loyalties by Dennis Hamley ... reviewed by Julia Jones

Dennis Hamley has set himself a challenging task -- republishing the first two volumes of his 'Ellen' Trilogy within a month of each other while still at work on the final part -- Unfinished Business.  Ellen's People came out in August and has been reviewed both here and on the ABBA site: Divided Loyalties appeared on schedule earlier this month (September).
   It's possibly not quite as ambitious a programme as Author's Electric Nick Green who bought out all three volumes of the Firebird Trilogy on a single day  but I would guess it still means that Dennis will have been foregoing some of the gentler pleasures of retirement. Will he be yearning for the uber-professionalism of Walker Books, the original publishers of Divided Loyalties?  Possibly, when engaged in fruitless negotiation about cover designs and managing all the nitty-gritty jobs that seem almost as demanding as writing. Certainly not when they then pulled out of publishing the concluding volume. I believe Nick Green suffered a similar let down in the final stages of a previous series.
   So here we have two authors, free to make their own choices about timing the release of their work. Neither chooses the book-a-year model of corporate publishing: one goes for broke on a single day, the other is publishing in monthly parts, making the readers wait but not asking them to wait too long. I used a six-month time scale for my 'Strong Winds' trilogy, though that was as much to suit my own circumstances as to attract / retain an audience. And still, three years on, the first volume outsells the other two by a margin that seems to replicate the worst features of primogeniture. Will Nick and Dennis find the same or will their alternative timetables even things up?
   It seemed to me that the second volume was the hardest to write -- how quickly could I move on, how much sign-posting and reiteration would be necessary? How to conclude without actually completing? I was correspondingly fascinated to see how Dennis Hamley could ensure that Divided Loyalties was not eclipsed by its successful older sister? By writing a completely different book -- both structurally and thematically. Divided Loyalties is independent from chapter one.
   When I reviewed Ellen's People  I mentioned that I was looking forward to following Ellen in her post-war future as she and her German husband, Matthias, attempted to settle back into their possibly depressed 1920s village. I think I'd expected some sort of fictional Akenfield. Not a bit of it! Hamley leaps the reader forward more than a decade and Divided Loyalties opens in 1935 with Ellen and Matthias's stroppy oldest son, Walter, blasting away at clay pigeon targets and wishing they were his equable, understanding father.
   Ellen's primary role in this novel is as the loved and loving mother: most of the fictional interest lies with the next generation. Walter is troubled, angry, confused and it's a strength of Hamley's characterization that he doesn't offer the easy reconciliation that this reader, at least, was longing for. There is also Helmut, the Nazi cousin, Paul and Anna the younger and more conventionally talented children. They've had an easier upbringing as Matthias and Ellen have prospered -- though Matthias will discover that even twenty years' blameless residence may not be enough to spare him when England and Germany go to war again.
   In my review of Ellen's People I  mentioned that it didn't tell me anything much about WW1 that I didn't already know (I hope I made it clear that this was an observation not a criticism -- and might, anyway, only be personal). Divided Loyalties, the WW2 novel, has taken me onto less familiar ground -- such as the forced evacuation of internees to Canada. I enjoyed being RAF ground crew, then a rear-gunner with Walter and a tank commander in the Russian campaign with Helmut. This is a novel with strong male characters and Hamley portrays their lives on active service with authority.
   Plot-wise it's a pleasure to have known Ellen in her younger days and there are some back references to Ellen's People but it's certainly not essential.  In fact I can imagine young male readers going straight for Divided Loyalties with never a glance behind them. I wonder what the third volume will hold -- I'm certainly not going to attempt any predictions!

Divided Loyalties by Dennis Hamley was first published by Walkter Books in 2008 and has now been reissued by the Blank Page Press

Ellen's People by Dennis Hamley

“It’s dark now. The church clock has long struck midnight. Betty and Madge, twins and my younger sisters, went to sleep the moment I blew their candle out, but I can’t sleep and I’m wondering if I ever will again.”

Thus begins Ellen’s People, the first novel in Dennis Hamley’s Ellen Trilogy. Ellen Wilkins, a young woman living in rural England on the eve of World War I, has just witnessed a recruitment drive in her village. She has also witnessed some of the less attractive behaviour associated with such campaigns: jingoism, hatred of “the Hun”, and fury against those who openly prefer peace to war. To Ellen, this is more than a purely abstract concern: her beloved brother Jack has enlisted, and she worries about what might happen to him. “I don’t know much about wars,” Ellen admits, “except soldiers and sailors get killed and Jack might get killed with them.”

Ellen’s first-person, frequently present tense narration is deceptively simple. Hamley achieves a beautiful balancing act here: Ellen is highly intelligent and insightful, and yet her tone fits that of a country girl from a simple background who has received rather a basic education. Like many girls of her class and time, any form of Further or Higher Education is out of the question for Ellen: simple economic necessity means that she must, at a young age, go out to work as a maid for a wealthy family. The appalling drudgery of such work is not glossed over; Ellen and her fellow maids work long, gruelling hours for little pay and even less gratitude. When they act together to win a small but significant victory over their employers, we’re absolutely behind them. This small act of rebellion – which is really little more than a simple demand for respect – is also an indication that the determined, courageous Ellen will not remain a housemaid for long.

In the meantime Jack returns from the trenches – alive, but missing a leg, and carrying a world of rage and distress within. As Ellen struggles to nurse him and hold her family together, she develops a strong empathy for the injured and sick, and an interest in nursing as a profession. Eventually, she goes to London to train as a nurse, and from there to join the nursing corps on the Continent. From this point on, the war – which occasionally seemed rather distant in Britain – becomes shockingly real and immediate. There are hellish depictions of the bloody reality of trench warfare. Soldiers are brought into the hospital with destroyed limbs, burns, gaping wounds in their stomachs; many die in agony in front of Ellen’s eyes. There are times when she wonders if she can carry on. She does anyway, constantly growing in empathy and insight. In the end, Ellen transcends her own limitations, the expectations imposed by her sex and class, and becomes a truly rounded, sympathetic, experienced woman.

Ellen’s People is not only about war, but about the prejudice, tribalism, and blind patriotism that give rise to warmongering. It is about much else besides: a class and social structure that was slowly being eroded, family and social relationships, and the increasing shift of power to women as they not only entered the workplace but began to take on ever more responsibility. This is, in short, a world that is becoming more recognisably like our own. 1914 and the outbreak of World War I are, obviously, a full century in the past now, but their repercussions are still being played out today. If anyone thinks that this period of history has lost its immediacy and power to shock, try reading Ellen’s People. Ellen’s urgent, insistent voice speaks directly to us, and her experiences become our experiences too.

Ellen’s People is published by the Blank Page Press. It can be purchased from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk.

Ellen’s People by Dennis Hamley

Reviewed by Chris Longmuir

Ellen’s People is a book with hidden depths. On the surface it is a simple story of one girl’s perception of the life of her family in wartime Britain.

It starts with a recruitment drive for young men to join the army in the early days of the First World War, when Ellen’s brother Jack joins the army. Through Ellen’s eyes we follow the jingoistic speeches which whip up enthusiasm for the war, and her fears for her brother. There is a sense of patriotism, a call to the colours, and war fever. But this leads to mob violence reflecting hatred for ‘The Hun’ with sympathisers being given short shrift. This sets off a series of events which become quite nasty.

However, things settle down and life goes on as normal with the impression of the war being far away. Ellen’s life follows it’s usual pattern which is the norm for women at the time. She lives at home and engages in domestic duties, although there are hints that changes are afoot for women.

Ellen goes into service against the wishes of her parents and gradually starts to become more independent. It is a gradual process although, through the passage of time, she trains to be a nurse and eventually goes to Abbeville to nurse soldiers.

The effect of the war on the villagers seems negligible at first, and there is a normality to the lives of the family. It is as if the war is a far distant thing that does not impact on them, until Jack comes home with only one leg after an amputation. But, even then, the full horrors are not apparent, and this reflects the propaganda stance the government took on the Home Front, where the realities of the conflict were not shared with the populace.

Slowly the realistion of what the war is all about dawns on Ellen, although it does not really prepare her for the full horrors she will experience when she goes to Abbeville in Belgium to nurse dying and wounded servicemen.

Ellen is an engaging character with the ability to draw the reader right into her life. The normality of that life in the beginning, and the blinkered view people had to the war, contrasts with the reality of the war’s impact. The class system at the time and the powerlessness of servants is obvious, as is the gradual shift of power to women who want to work. There are many threads to this story, but none more so than Ellen’s gradual awakening to the full horrors of what war entails.

This is a book well worth reading, and one which will draw the reader in with a firm grip, and not let go until the final paragraph.

Chris Longmuir

You can buy the book here:

Amazon.co.uk

Amazon.com

Ellen's People by Dennis Hamley reviewed by Julia Jones

Ellen's People is the story of a young girl and her family struggling to survive the First World War. In August 1914 Ellen is just 16 and is living in the Sussex countryside with her parents, her older brother and two younger sisters. Her father is a signalman and has some strong 'anti-toff' views. Class suspicions, village tensions and family relationships make for an unexpected flare-up of local conflict when the recruiting officer arrives and Ellen's brother volunteers. There is, as any reader will guess, considerably worse to come.

Ellen's People is suitable for older children as well as adults. The horror and the strain of war is fully acknowledged but it is mediated through the central character, who is a loving and grieving sister rather than a combatant. There is a simplicity in the writing which is attractive and accessible and reflects Ellen's youthful personality. From a relatively sheltered position in the middle of her family she is forced out into the world and has to make her own accommodations with the mix of snobbery and kindliness that she encounters from her employers and others. Dennis Hamley is adept at conveying the social attitudes of a century ago while avoiding stereotypes. One of the pleasures of Ellen's People is the variousness of the characters, whatever their class. Their reactions are determined by their personal and moral qualities as much as by the conventions of their social position – though these are never underestimated.

I found Ellen's People a pacy, engrossing and convincing read -- though as an adult with a strong interest in history it didn't tell me anything about World War 1 that I didn't already know. But that wasn't why I was reading it.  Dennis Hamley is such an accomplished writer and develops Ellen as an engaging and honest observer as well as a quietly determined participant. I'll be glad to follow her in her postwar future though I don't suppose that her life is going to be easy as she attempts to settle back into the village. In these four traumatic years Ellen has learned too much about humanity to be comfortable with narrow class-based or nationalistic assumptions -- rather as the gallant Boer War veteran of the opening chapters had found himself dangerously out of sync with his neighbours back in the sunny days of August 1914.

Ellen's People is published as an ebook on August 4th 2014 and will soon be the first production from the newly founded Blank Page Press.
In the USA Ellen's People was published as Without Warning.