The Ballad of Peckham Rye ............ revisiting a book from 1960

Now it will be forty-four years since I read The Ballad of Peckham Rye, and a full 55 since my mother first brought a copy into the house.*

She raved over what was a bizarre comedy about Dougal Douglas who had been hired to “bring vision into the lives of the workers in a Peckham firm [and] introduced the wider horizons of tears, absenteeism, fraud, blackmail violence and murder.”**

Now I  wonder to what extent it captures that Peckham I grew up in  and I have to say after forty-four years I can’t remember, but on looking at what other people thought I was captured by two short quotes from another blog***

“Mr Weedin blew his nose and shouted at Dougal: ‘It isn’t possible to get another good position in another firm at my age……….Sometimes I think I’m going to have a breakdown.’ ‘It would not be severe in your case,’ Dougal said. ‘It is at its worst when a man is a skyscraper. But you’re only a nice wee bungalow”

And

“Merle ….sat down on the Rye and began to cry. ‘God!’ she said. ‘Dougal. I’ve had a rotten life’. ‘And it isn’t over yet,’ Dougal said sitting down beside her at a little distance. ‘There might be worse ahead’!!!!!!”

All of which promises a fascinating read if a tad away from my Peckham in 1960.

Picture; cover of the 1968 edition of The Ballad of Peckham Rye, photograph by Robert Croxford

* The Ballad of Peckham Rye, Murial Spark , 1960

**sleeve notes to the 1963 Penguin edition.

***What I thought of The Ballad of Peckham Rye, April 2012 http://theonlywayisreading.com/2012/04/26/what-i-thought-of-the-ballad-of-peckham-rye-murielsparkreadingweek/