In a celebrated essay, Macaulay sums up Bacon's career as a "chequered spectacle of so much glory and so much shame." The words may fitly enough be applied not only to Bacon's life but to most men's lives and to most large experiments of human action. In 1942 I began to write a novel whose purpose was to trace the course of one such experiment from its beginnings in the eighties of last century up to our present time. I intended to call this novel, which would have been very long, So Much ...

The story of William Essex, who rose from humble beginnings to become a successful dramatist and novelist, and his friend Dermot O'Riordon, a fervent Irish patriot and founder of a great London furnishing house; and their sons, Oliver Essex and Rory O'Riordon. Plus some other assorted characters, from old Mr Moscrop and his daughter Nellie, and Maeve O'Riordon. Those boys grow up in friendship, but the passing years create circumstances that divide them as their fathers learn the hard way ...

Maria Legassick is the youngest of the three daughters of a Cornish vicar, and she tells here the story of what happened, in a swiftly-changing world, to herself, her sisters, and her brilliant, gifted brother—Roger whom she loved too well; Louisa whom she admired but could never love; Bella whom she more and more despised. The book opens as an idyll in a beautiful part of Cornwall, with the vicarage looking out upon the sea, the stern old isolated father writing away for ever at ecclesias...

From the pomp of Victoria’s reign to the end of World War II, a brilliant panorama of life in England and Europe is the setting of the story of an extraordinary woman. Sarah Rainborough was a little girl when she was taken away from the elegance of London society to the estates of her step-father on the stormy Cornwall coast. Here she learned to know the giant sailor, Captain Rodda, who wenched and drank as ardently as he sang hymns, and his beautiful mistress, Lucy Evans. When Lucy came i...

When he was a schoolboy George Ledra watched the recruits of World War I marching through the Manchester streets. His account of his own life; which makes this novel, concludes with the ending of the second war. This is a stretch of time that Howard Spring has often written about—a slice of his own days; and how people fared in the swiftly-changing political and social scene of those three decades fascinates him (and us).

The theme of this particular book (set around Manchester and Cornwall, as so many of his are) is that there is no armour against fate; and the period it covers was certainly a fateful one, ranging as it does from the close of the Victorian era through two World Wars. It’s told in the first person, and takes the protagonist from a childhood of poverty to the distinction of the Royal Academy. If you’re new to Howard Spring, here is an excellent starting point.

In "Fame is the Spur," Howard Spring crafts a sweeping narrative that examines the tumultuous rise and fall of an aspiring politician, exploring themes of ambition, fame, and the moral compromises often encountered on the path to success. The novel is structured in a highly engaging, almost episodic style, rich with character development and societal insights that reflect the shifting landscape of early 20th-century Britain. Spring's prose is both lyrical and incisive, deftly portraying th...

“Shabby Tiger” by Howard Spring is about the gritty, bohemian life in 1930s Manchester, focusing on young, rebellious artist Nick Faunt and his unconventional relationships, particularly with the forthright Anna Fitzgerald, exploring themes of art, class, love, and survival amidst a colorful cast of characters like bookie Piggie White and social climber Rachel Rosing. It details their struggles to make ends meet, Nick's artistic ambitions, and the introduction of Rachel, a key figure in th...

Rachel Rosing by Howard Spring is about the ambitious, beautiful, and calculating social climber Rachel Rosing, focusing on her pursuit of fame and fortune as an actress, depicting her ruthless ascent through marriage and career. But will this be met with eventual downfall? Can she lose everything, including her beauty, and be left with only an empty life?

IF my aunt, Sarah Undridge, had lived until today she would have been a hundred years old. I was at a small party given for her ninety-ninth birthday, and she was spry enough then. There was a sense of festivity. All of us who were present were ourselves “getting on,” as they say. Certainly, more years were behind us than we could expect to find before us, and I suppose it was this, as much as anything, that made us all smile affectionately at old Sarah, sitting upright, thin as a lath and...

What a place it was, that dark little house that was two rooms up and two down... I don't remember to this day where we all slept, though there was a funeral now and then to thin us out.This is the powerful story of two hard-driven men – one a celebrated English novelist, the other a successful Irish entrepreneur – and of their sons, in whom are invested all their fathers' hopes and ambitions. Oliver Essex and Rory O'Riorden grow up as friends, but in the years after the G...

"Heaven Lies About Us" recounts Spring's childhood in Cardiff during the closing years of the 19th century. He grew up in an impoverished but loving family and left school at age 12 to support them after his father's death. The path of a writer: Spring's memoir details his humble beginnings working as an errand boy for a newspaper. This experience was his first step into the world of journalism and literature, which he pursued through evening classes, before later becoming a best-selling a...