{"product_id":"national-provincial","title":"National Provincial","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"width: 500px;\"\u003e\u003cimg src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0278\/7642\/5795\/files\/leeds_2_1.jpg?v=1593113225\u0026amp;width=700\"\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cspan class=\"redtext\"\u003ePREFACE BY RACHEL REEVES\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cbr\u003e624pp\u003cbr\u003eISBN 9781910263204\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNational Provincial\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e(1938) is first and foremost ‘a social-political novel, a sprawling panorama of West Riding life and politics in the mid 1930s’ as Rachel Reeves, MP for Leeds West, writes in the Preface.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis 600-page book begins with an enticing description of the central character's arrival home (Lettice Cooper draws us so inexorably into the Aire world that we are gripped from the first line). Mary\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e has left her job as a journalist in London \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003eto take up a position on the \u003cem\u003eYorkshire Guardian\u003c\/em\u003e close to her childhood home, mostly so she can help care for her mother, who has rheumatoid arthritis, when her sister marries\u003c\/span\u003e\u003cspan data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e a well-known local cricket star. \u003c\/span\u003e Just like Mrs Gaskell’s \u003ci\u003eWives and Daughters\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e (1866) \u003c\/i\u003eand Winifred Holtby’s \u003ci\u003eSouth Riding (1936)\u003c\/i\u003e, the novel evokes Yorkshire life in all its facets, as well as the everyday experience of a young woman living there.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe climax of the book is a strike. But the main focus throughout is on snobbery, and very British kinds of snobbery; like Dorothy Whipple (another Northern writer), Lettice Cooper is clearly amused by this, and yet her interest remains very much in the political and social aspect of it all.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRachel Reeves ends her Preface with a beautifully written description of present-day Leeds, a city which ‘has a proud history and confident future, but the inequalities of wealth and power that the Left Book Club attendees in Lettice Cooper’s novel sought to abolish are still with us. In an age in which tensions between the national and the provincial persist, her story is of timeless relevance today.’\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhen \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNational Provincial \u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003ewas first published, the \u003ci\u003eTimes Literary Supplement\u003c\/i\u003e said that the author ‘brings quick feeling to her commentary on a scene that is obviously in her bones’ while the \u003ci\u003eManchester Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003ereviewer wrote that she ‘has done for a contemporary industrial town pretty much what \u003ci\u003eMiddlemarch\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003edid for a nineteenth century country town. It is a story that she tells beautifully and movingly, and it is a story that is hers as well as her characters.’ \u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cb data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003ci data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eNational Provincial\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e is a great favourite of book groups: despite its length, it is oddly page-turning, with plenty to discuss (domestic feminism, social inequality, women in journalism, and so on) and there's even a love story in there too. We can't recommend it highly enough. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eEndpaper\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eAn early 1930s design by John Churton for the Silver Studio, intended for production as a woven cloth. © MODA, Middlesex University\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePicture Caption\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp class=\"endpaper-caption\"\u003eGeneral Post Office, City Square, Leeds, opened 1896\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Lettice Cooper","offers":[{"title":"None","offer_id":54098789400883,"sku":"ugv1789694734475","price":24.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Tissue\/Endpaper","offer_id":54098789433651,"sku":"kku1789694734476","price":28.8,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Cambridge Imprint paper","offer_id":54098789466419,"sku":"wop1789694734477","price":39.78,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true},{"title":"Reusable fabric napkin","offer_id":54098789499187,"sku":"cdi1789694734478","price":42.21,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0989\/0578\/4627\/files\/national-provincial_1.jpg?v=1789694739","url":"https:\/\/sandstepclad.shop\/products\/national-provincial","provider":"My Store","version":"1.0","type":"link"}