- Paperback: 640 pages
- Publisher: Fontana, London; Reprint edition (1953)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0006165826
- ISBN-13: 978-0006165828
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 67,350 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Book Description
This is the story of Hamer Shawcross, and of his rise from boyhood poverty in Manchester to become a Cabinet Minister. Shawcross is arrogant, irresistible, raffish and ambitious. He may not be likeable, but he is real. It is also the story of Ann, his wife. She is beautiful with an unbreakable spirit that carries her through her own political battles as an avid supporter of the suffragette movement. The story charts not only the lives of Hamer and Ann, but the vast social and political changes of Britain and the rest of Europe, from the latter years of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the Second World War.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
About the Author
Howard Spring was born in Cardiff in 1889 into a large family. He left school at 12 after his father's death and continued his education at evening classes. At thirteen he got a job as a messenger on the Cardiff newspaper, The South Wales News, and became a reporter. At twenty-two, Spring went to the Yorkshire Observer in Bradford and later he joined the Manchester Guardian where he returned after the war. He came to love the city and many of his novels are set there. In 1931 Spring took the job of literary critic on the Evening Standard where he introduced the Standard's Book of the Month. He started writing his own novels in 1934. At the start of World War II he and his family moved to Cornwall, whereupon he became literary critic of Country Life. He continued to write after the war and died in 1965.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I picked up this book because I had heard it was based on the life of Ramsay Mcdonald and having a great interest in 19th century politics I was keen to expand my knowledge of early 20th centur politics too. Fame is the spur kept me reading right to the end but one of the most fascinating aspects to Springs endearing neo victorian prose was his contrast between the real lives of the poor and that of Hamer's (the main character)political rhetoric. Howard Spring paints a picture of grinding poverty in the slums of Manchester but infuses in his characters a sense of joy and hope centred around the institution of the family. Hamer's political speeches on the other hand show the deadening black and white nature of electioneering as his oratorical portraits of his eraly years leave out this sense of hope.
All in all a fascinating book for the politically minded and those who like a good human drama alike.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What a great writer Howard Spring was. Fame is the Spur was published in 1940 and was a big book. The rather ancient paperback I have bought runs to 640 pages, closely typed. An absolute blockbuster. An important book I think. The lives of three young boys born and raised in poverty in the Ancoats area of Manchester: their lives take us from there to Yorkshire, London and the Rhondda Valley. They go their seperate ways, and meet up from time to time. The book is gently written, the author's love of books and learning from them runs through the story as we follow Hamer Shawcross from the slums to his life as an M.P. friend of Ramsey MacDonald, minister and Privy Councillor, while Arnold Ryerson goes to the Rhondda and becomes a Union representative and Tom Hannaway goes into commerce. Vast areas of life and attitudes towards it are described. And alongside the pomp and ceremony of the London political scene at the end of the book is the quiet contentment of the workers in Manchester. Birley Artingstall, an artisan who works in leather lives in rooms above his shop to which he retreats satisfied after a days work well done and says to Hamer 'Well just imagine this room on a winters night, my boy, with that dull-looking grate full of a cheerful fire, and the curtains drawn, and me in that chair with that lamp on a table at my elbow.' Lovely stuff, and so easy to buy with Amazon's large offering of second hand books, no longer avaible new.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
1 review
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating and broad sweeping historic fiction
17 Aug 2004
Format:Paperback
This book caught my attention quickly, rewarding me with richly drawn characters, insights into British politics, and fascinating historic detail. Starting with the Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, Lancashire in the early 1830s, the book provides a vivid account of 19th century working class life, the rise of the Labour movement, the suffragette movement, mining disasters and strikes, Bolshevism, and events up through the beginning of World War II. Ambitious and proud Labour leader Hamer Shawcross is a truly compelling character some describe as arrogant. I found him to be more complex and likeable (perhaps forgiveable) than that. Equally well drawn are his wife Ann, the unforgettable Pen Muff, Labour leader Arnold Ryerson, aristocrat/exploiter Buck Lostwithiel and so many others. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about British life and the power and limits of politics to effect change in the 19th and 20th centuries. Howard Spring succeeded in telling a powerful story full of insight and compassion. Written in 1940, this book deserves to be read by a new and wide audience.
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