MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO
FACULTY OF EDUCATION
Department of English Language and Literature
The Portrayal of the English Society in the Work of Dick Francis
Diploma thesis Brno 2008
Supervisor: Written by: PhDr. Pavel Doležel, CSc. Andrea Vymazalová Prohlášení: Prohlašuji, že jsem diplomovou práci zpracovala samostatně a použila jen prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury. Souhlasím, aby práce byla uložena na Masarykově univerzitě v Brně v knihovně Pedagogické fakulty a zpřístupněna ke studijním účelům. Declaration: I declare that I have compiled this diploma thesis by myself and that I have used only the sources listed in the bibliography. Hereby I agree with filing the thesis into the library at the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University in Brno and with using it for studying purposes. V Brně 14.4. 2008 Andrea Vymazalová ………………….……..... Acknowledgements: My sincere thanks are due to PhDr. Pavel Doležel, CSc. for his kind help, comments, views and valuable advice that he provided me through the work as my supervisor. CONTENTS Introduction 5 PART ONE 1.1. English Society 7 1.1.1. Social Classes 8 1.1.1.1. The Upper Class 10 1.1.1.2. The Middle Class 16 1.1.1.3. The Working Class 21 1.1.2. Social Behaviour and Social Rituals 27 1.1.2.1. Attempting to Be Invisible 27 1.1.2.2. Clubs and Gentlemen’s Clubs 29 1.1.2.3. Greeting Etiquette 32 1.1.2.4. Small Talk Rules 34 1.1.2.5. Politeness Principle 36 1.1.2.6. Tea Drinking 37 1.1.2.7. The English and Horse Racing 39 PART TWO 2.1. Real World in Literature 45 2.1.1. Setting and Characters in Works of Dick Francis 46 2.1.2. Dick Francis and his View of the English Society 49 2.1.2.1. Social Behaviour and Some Social Rules Pictured in Francis’s Books 50 Conclusion 68 Resumé 70 Summary 71 Bibliography 72 APPENDICES Appendix 1: The Short Biography of Dick Francis 1 Appendix 2: Dick Francis’s Literary Career 5 Appendix 3: Summaries of Books Mentioned in the Thesis 7 INTRODUCTION
This thesis deals with the English society and with the way how it is pictured in the work of a contemporary English writer Dick Francis. Its purpose is to demonstrate that a reader does not have to study thick volumes of various encyclopaedias in order to receive some knowledge about a certain nation, but that such information can sometimes be learnt from popular literature.
Dick Francis is one of my favourite writers and I have read almost all his books. My bachelor thesis was focused on Francis’s work as such – it analysed the settings, plots and characters of his novels. The style, language and Czech translations were also mentioned. During reading his novels I realized that they are not only detective stories set into the horse racing environment, but also works that portray the English society in a natural and readable way. Therefore, in my diploma thesis I have decided to concentrate more on the English society and to study its social behaviour and rituals.
The first part of the thesis provides information about social classes into which the society has been divided, i.e. the upper class, the middle class and the working class, and it also depicts their lifestyles. This chapter examines the areas where the class differences are visible the most – places of living and how they are furnished, education and occupations, or the language and accent that are used in a certain class. This part also mentions behaviour of the English – their inhibition and restraint, and conversely their desire to gather in various clubs; the rules of small talk and the greeting etiquette, and their ubiquitous politeness.
Some space is devoted to well known English phenomena such as gentlemen’s clubs, tea drinking and horse racing. The second part begins with a brief description of settings and characters in
Francis’s books. Some of the pieces of information that are comprised in the first part are applied on several Francis’s books that were written in the second half of the 20 th century – Bolt, Break In, Dead Cert, Enquiry, Forfeit, For Kicks, Knock
Down, Odds Against, Reflex and Risk. Extracts from these books are utilized to support some of the ideas that are discussed in the first part of the thesis.
PART ONE
1.1. ENGLISH SOCIETY
Each nation has its own distinctive features by means of which it can be distinguished from other societies. No matter which aspects of life these characteristics are related to, when observed, they are a good tool to get acquainted with a particular society and to understand better its behaviour, social life and customs. The nation living on the British Isles is not an exception.
There are certain stereotypes that immediately come to everyone’s mind when the English are being talked about. They are perceived as reserved and conservative people, associating with men and women of the same social status only, who spend their leisure time sitting over a cup of strong black tea with milk, talking endlessly about the weather. Nevertheless, when examined more thoroughly, it becomes apparent that this society has its foibles as each other nation.
The English behave according to certain rules that each person has gradually been learning to obey since their birth, and they do not think why they do so.
At the same time, they usually are not able to explain their rules and conventions to a foreigner because they take them for granted.
1.1.1. SOCIAL CLASSES
As Halsey claims, ‘a class ridden society (…) is the common judgement on
Britain made by social observers’ (Halsey 1986:26). It confirms the fact that the social class is a phenomenon that permeates the whole English nation, and that significantly influences lives of its citizens. The class is the environment which a person is born into, and it is a factor that, to a considerable extent, determines the future lives of all members of the class in both professional and personal aspects of life. It does not only predetermine which school people will attend or what kind of occupation they will do when they are adults, it also strictly defines the circle of friends with whom they are allowed to spend time.
A great number of books have been written about the social division of England and the criteria according to which the society has been divided.
In the past, the division of the nation was not complicated – on the one side there was the ruler of the country who possessed both wealth and power, together with his family and the aristocracy, on the other side there were poor peasants who cultivated their master’s fields and worked for him in the woods. When the feudal system was approaching its end, another group of people came to existence – merchants and craftsmen. In the course of the 18 th and 19 th centuries when Great Britain underwent the process of industrialization, the society gradually stratified into the upper, the middle and the working class, and this division has lasted until nowadays, although class differences mean less today to the majority of the British than they did in the past. However, this stratification is not as definite as it could seem since there is ‘adherence to no rigid orthodoxy as to the number of classes in twentieth century Britain’ (Halsey 1986:30). For instance, Halsey (1986) distinguishes the middle, lower middle and working class and completely ignores the upper class, Marwick (1996) concludes that the society is divided into the upper class, upper middle class, middle class, lower middle class and working class, whereas Oakland (1991) follows the same division as Halsey. For the purpose of this thesis, division into the three basic groups will be sufficient, although in some areas the sub classes will be touched.
Each class is characterized by various elements. The key terms here are e.g. family background, wealth, education, occupation, leisure time activities etc.
Storry summarizes it in one sentence that speaks for all: ‘The upper class had stately homes, aristocratic backgrounds and posh accents; the middle class, semi detached houses, suits and bowler hats; the working class, common accents, fish and chips and council flats’ (Storry 2000:203). However, the division is not as simple as that because
‘we judge social class in much more subtle and complex ways: precisely how you arrange, furnish and decorate your terraced house; not just the make of car you drive, but whether you wash it yourself on Sundays, take it to a car wash or rely on the English climate to sluice off the worst of the dirt for you. Similar fine distinctions are applied to exactly what, where, when, how and with whom you eat and drink; the words you use and how you pronounce them; where and how you shop; the clothes you wear; the pets you keep; how you spend your free time; the chat up lines you use and so on.’ (Fox 2004:15) To determine which class a person belongs to is a complicated process.
A widespread opinion is that the position on the social ladder is connected with money, i.e. who is wealthy is a member of the upper class. Although this idea is not always true, many people believe in it. Nevertheless, as Crowther admits,
‘people may have very little money yet still belong to the upper class, or be very rich and still think of themselves as working class’ (Crowther 2003:114). The previous sentence implies that nowadays people do not want to be allocated to one or the other class because of their earthly possessions, but they prefer to define their status according to their feelings.
Another factor that can help to allocate a person to a certain class is the occupation that the person pursues. As McDowall mentions, ‘most people are classified according to their work occupations, falling into two broad groups, as in other industrialised societies, the middle class (or white collar workers) and the working class (or blue collar workers)’ (McDowall 1993:93).
1.1.1.1. THE UPPER CLASS
There are many disputes about the question if there is any upper class at all in
Britain in the 21 st century, or if it is a ‘cliff hanger’ from the past. Undoubtedly in the second half of the 20 th century the upper class was not as large as it used to be several decades ago, but it was still there and had to be taken into account.
Looking back to the past, it is evident that the upper class was composed of wealthy aristocrats who had been passing their wealth and aristocratic titles of barons, princes and dukes to their eldest sons from generation to generation.
These heirs of the family possessions were allowed to marry only women from noble dynasties in order to maintain their social status, unlike their younger siblings who did not inherit the title and could marry outside the nobility.
Noblemen possessed important political privileges and they formed the House of Lords. However, as history progressed, ‘the aristocracy have been gradually replaced by a new upper class of businessmen who emerged with “gentlemanly characteristics” and settled in London and the south east’ (Storry 2000:208).
Those successful businessmen progressively infiltrated into the noble families
(probably via concluding rewarding marriages) at the beginning of the second half of the 20 th century, and started ‘to dominate the financial and political heart of British society’ (ibid). They were supported by old established family clans and their wealth.
The upper class elite were also characterized by excellent education that was received by studying at fee paying public schools 1 of fine sounding names, such as Eton 2 or Harrow 3. It was a tradition in the upper class families to study at these prestigious schools, and graduates of them often looked down upon the others whose parents could not afford to send their children to a public school.
Oxford or Cambridge, the two oldest universities in Great Britain, was another step in the way for highly appreciated education. ‘Thus, the upper class can be seen to be a relatively closed, coherent and self recruiting élite’ (Storry
2000:211).
However, it is not only education that distinguishes the upper class from the rest of English society, there are differences in all areas of life, e.g. in the style of living. One of the characteristic features of aristocracy and the upper class is the type of house where they live. In recent past, many barons, counts and dukes still lived in their large manors that evoked magnificent castles and palaces, and the upper class people’s residences were their old Georgian 4 or Edwardian 5
1 Despite their name, they are not part of the state education system, education is paid there. 2 An English public school for boys near Windsor in Berkshire, started in 1440 by King Henry VI, its students are mainly from rich families. (Crowther 2003:180) 3 A well known British public school for boys in north west London, established in 1571, it is often considered to be one of the major boys’ schools in Britain. (Crowther 2003:244) 4 Of the period of the British Kings George I, II and III, most of the 18 th century and the beginning of the 19 th century. (Crowther 2003:220) 5 Of the time of King Edward VII (reigned 1909 – 1910), especially in relation to the fashions and social customs of that period. (Crowther 2003:167) mansions that have been owned by one family for many generations and inherited from father to son.
Picture 1: A Georgian house
Picture 2: An Edwardian house
Not only houses as such, but also the style in which they are furnished and decorated shows a lot about their owners’ membership in a class. For instance, in an upper class residence one would not find a fully carpeted floor, as they ‘prefer bare floorboards, often part covered with old Persian carpets or rugs’ (Fox
2004:115). Furniture in upper class houses is mismatching on the one hand, but antique and valuable on the other, often with some scratches and threadbare places showing the evidence of the fact that such furniture has been used for a long time, which implies that it was, and should also be in future, a part of the patrimony. Kate Fox gives the following example in her book:
An upper class Tory MP6 once sneered at fellow Tory Michael Heseltine 7 by remarking that Heseltine had ‘had to buy all his own furniture’ – the put down implication being that only nouveaux 8 have to buy their furniture: genuinely upper class furniture is inherited. (Fox 2004:117) The class also influences the way how people maintain they gardens and even determines the plants and flowers which they are ‘allowed’ to grow there, because ‘in England you grow up learning to find some flowers and arrangements of flowers “pretty” or “tasteful” and others “ugly” or “vulgar”’
(Fox 2004:131). Therefore people with a higher position on the social ladder will condemn certain varieties of flowers (e.g. zinnias, marigolds and petunias), and prefer clematis, shrub roses, herbaceous borders or laburnum in their gardens.
Nevertheless, people should not be too strict when they are trying to classify someone else’s garden because even an upper class person can have a gnome or a goldfish pond (inherent components of lower classes’ gardens) in their garden simply because they like them and not because they belong to a lower class.
But they risk that they will be exposed to their friends’ incomprehension and even surreptitious sneering. What is more surprising is the fact that a higher class garden should not be flawlessly weeded and neat – an upper class garden should arouse an impression of a natural grouping of trees, plants and flowers,
6 A member of one of the two main political parties in Britain from the 1670s until the 1830s. The Tories were originally a group of politicians who wanted the Roman Catholic James, Duke of York to be allowed to become king of England. (Crowther 2003:541) 7 A British Conservative politician. He went into politics in 1966 after establishing a successful publishing business, joined the Cabinet in 1979, and by 1986 was Secretary of state for Defence. (Crowther 2003.250) 8 Nouveau riche (pl. nouveaux riches, from French, disapproving) – a person who has recently become rich and likes to show how rich they are in a very obvious way. (Hornby 2002:867) preferably with no bright colours. Meticulous weeding is considered to be lower class, and wealthy upper class people often complain about their lower class gardeners that they are too precise in maintaining the garden.
Except a gardener, upper class people also used to have other servants to look after their residences, e.g. a cook, several maids, and a butler, the most important person whose responsibility was to issue commands to the domestic staff and to keep the household going. As the end of the millennium was approaching, it was more and more difficult to look after large residences, probably due to the fact that it was not easy to find the staff that would live in their employer’s house and because the costs were increasing. Nowadays upper class families usually do not have servants living in their houses, but they can employ a cleaning lady who comes several times a week to keep the house tidy and clean, or a part time employed gardener.
Nonetheless, the material wealth and all advantages resulting from it are not the only components of life that distinguish the upper class from the rest of the society. It is also the linguistic aspect that plays its significant role here. As Fox states, ‘one cannot talk at all without immediately revealing one’s own social class’ (Fox 2004:73), because at the very moment that someone begins to speak, it ‘tells us a person’s position on the class map’ (ibid). McDowall adds:
Since the days of Shakespeare, the English of south east England has been considered the ‘standard’, for no better reason than that the south east is the region of economic and political power. The emergence of an upper and upper middle class mode of speech, ‘received pronunciation’ (RP), was systematically established through the public (in fact private) school system attended by the boys of wealthier families. RP persists as the accepted dialect of the national elite. (McDowall 1993:103). The first factor that influences the judgement is pronunciation. Upper class people believe that their pronunciation is the only correct one and show their contempt for those whose way of speaking differs. A trained ear can hear these differences e.g. in pronouncing, or rather not pronouncing vowels, as if these speech sounds were somehow minor and not worth being concerned with.
Thus the word ‘house’ can be pronounced as ‘hs’, or ‘garden’ as ‘gdn’ .
Terminology or the choice of words is another factor that helps people to classify others in compliance with their speech. Fox (2004) mentions seven expressions that can indicate the class when they are used incorrectly.
This group includes words as ‘pardon’, ‘toilet’, ‘serviette’, ‘dinner’, ‘settee’,
‘lounge’ and ‘sweet’. It is not necessary to deal with all of them, two examples would be sufficient. The most striking ‘deadly sin’ is using the word ‘Pardon?’ since it will immediately locate the person no higher than the middle class, although many people would think that ‘Pardon?’ sounds much better than
‘Sorry – what?’, which is more likely to be heard from an upper class person.
‘Dinner’ can also cause various misunderstandings, because each class uses this word to denote different meals in different times of the day. When upper class people say ‘dinner’, they mean the evening meal which is bigger than ‘supper’.
But if a working class person speaks about ‘dinner’, almost certainly the midday meal is meant.
Everything related to speech that has already been discussed suggests that people are more concerned with the way of speaking and not with the wealth or the style of living when somebody’s belonging to a certain class is being questioned. As Fox says:
Your accent and terminology reveal the class you were born into and raised in, not anything you have achieved through your own talents or efforts. And whatever you do accomplish, your position on the class scale will always be identifiable by your speech, unless you painstakingly train yourself to use the pronunciation and vocabulary of a different class. (Fox 2004:82) As far as political life is concerned, a typical member of the upper class will vote the Conservative Party 9 since they have the same political persuasion.
1.1.1.2. THE MIDDLE CLASS
Unlike the upper class whose members have been born into wealthy and old established families and thus without problems concerning their future financial existence, middle class people have not usually had any rich ancestors who would smooth the path for them, and have always had to rely on themselves and their own abilities to succeed in the labour market.
The beginnings of forming the middle class fall within the period of the 18 th century, especially the time of the Industrial Revolution 10 . At that time, the structure of the society began to change. People who were willing to take certain risks started up their businesses and gradually ‘changed Britain from a village based society in which goods were made by hand to an urban economy in which goods were made in large quantities in factories by machines’ (Crowther
9 One of the main British political parties. It developed from the old Tory Party in the 1830s and is still sometimes called by its name. It is a right wing party, supporting capitalism and free enterprise (= an economic system in which there is open competition in business and trade, and no government control). (Crowther 2003:126) 10 The phrase used to describe Britain’s progress in the 18 th and 19 th century from being largely an agricultural country to being an industrial one. (Crowther 2003:270) 2003:114). This situation resulted in establishing new and important positions such as factory managers and self employed traders.
The middle class is a class that developed at a considerable speed, especially in the first half of the 20 th century, primarily due to better access to higher education which provided people with more opportunities how to acquire various qualifications and subsequently better and reasonably paid jobs. Majority of these people received secondary education at state schools where they did not have to pay enormous school fees as those at public schools, and a considerable amount of secondary school graduates continued studying at various colleges and universities. The second half of the 20 th century was very favourable for majority of middle class people since their salaries were rising, especially in the 1970s.
Not only were they able to pay their regular expenses but they could also furnish their houses with new electrical appliances, purchase a car or go on holiday abroad – simply they had enough ‘money to spare for what were once undreamt of luxuries’ (Robson 1991:295).
Generally, middle class people are called white collar workers, which indicates the fact that they spend their working hours in an office and not doing manual work. This category comprises e.g. teachers, doctors, managers or clerical workers. However, there are many authors of sociological books who think that the middle class should be divided into several sub classes or sub groups. Storry sees the problem from the point of view of the diversity of occupations that people pursue, and claims that there are four groups that form the middle class. The first group consists of doctors, lawyers, architects, accountants and business executives; the second group includes teachers, local government officials, civil servants and social workers. The third and the largest group is formed by real white collar workers who sit in their office from nine to five o’clock. Self employed businessmen and shopkeepers belong to the fourth group (Storry 2000:212 214). Fox takes into account the whole standard of living and distinguishes the upper middle, the middle middle and the lower middle class.
Although middle class people receive good salaries for their work, they do not own such wealth as the upper class, and therefore their dwellings are more modest. Majority does not live in the city centres where real properties are bought and sold for enormous prices, but in less expensive areas or on the suburbs, usually in terraced houses with a small back and sometimes even smaller front gardens. Such houses, seen from the bird’s eye view, look as rows of red or grey cubes with tiny green places in front of and behind them, which proves the rule that the English long for having their own green piece of land, no matter how small it is. Richer middle class people can also live in a semi detached or detached house with bigger grounds.
Picture 3: Terraced houses
Each class prefers different style and has different taste in furnishing the house, which is confirmed by Fox when she says that ‘the way in which we arrange, furnish and decorate our homes is largely determined by social class
[and] this has little or nothing to do with wealth’ (Fox 2004:115). Fox further mentions that rooms in upper middle homes may be similar to those of upper class houses, i.e. with wooden floors and mismatching, a little shabby and unkempt furniture; unlike middle middle and lower middle homes where fitted carpets are preferred and where brand new leather sofas are likely to be found rather than antique chairs. Matching sets of settees and armchairs are also a characteristic of middle middle and lower middle classes. ‘The upper echelons, proud of their eclectic antiques, sneer at matching “suites”; the lower echelons, ashamed of their ill assorted cast offs, aspire to them.’ (Fox 2004:117).
As far as the interior of a house is concerned, there are two typical class indicators – curtains and coasters. If curtains are present, the house almost certainly belongs to nobody higher than the lower middle class. Coasters are often found in middle class homes to protect their tables from being damaged by drinks. One usually will not see them in upper class residences, probably because their tables have already been scratched and damaged by having been used for several generations. The working class does not need them since it owns cheap furniture that is not worth protecting.
If people are familiar with the differences in arranging gardens, this fact can help them to distinguish the class to which the owner of a house belongs even without having to enter the house. A middle class garden differs from an upper class one in several aspects. It is usually not as large, flowers that are grown there are of brighter colours, and the more the garden owner is approaching the lower end of the broad middle class group, the more likely a gnome or a goldfish pond appear in the garden. Various types of trees and plants will probably be found there, although ‘garden fashions change [and] it is therefore better to look at the general style of the garden, rather than becoming too obsessed with the class semiotics of individual plants’ (Fox 2004:131).
No matter what their position on the social ladder is, everyone who owns a garden attempts hard to make it look the best. Nevertheless, if a house has both front and back gardens, they do not receive equal amount of care. The front garden is considered to be something like an outside ‘living room’, whose role is to impress passers by, therefore it has to be precisely tidied and weeded, whereas the back garden is not so neat and it is sometimes a little neglected.
Picture 4: Terraced houses with front gardens
Picture 5: A typical English back garden
As it has been already mentioned in the chapter about the upper class, the whole English society uses the same language, but each class pronounces certain words in a different way, and says the same words in different situations.
Fox provides an example concerning furniture – if an upholstered seat for two people is called a ‘settee’, it is certainly said by someone who belongs to the middle middle class and lower, and if it is named a ‘sofa’, the person is upper middle or above (Fox 2004:78).
When time for the elections comes, the political parties which many of the middle class people vote are the Liberal Democrat Party or the Labour Party.
1.1.1.3. THE WORKING CLASS
There were (and sometimes still are) certain stereotypes that depict the working class. One example is given by Storry:
In the 1950s, there was a traditional picture of typical, usually male, members of the working class. Such people left school without any qualifications to find a job as a manual worker. They had a regional accent, a trade union membership card and lived in a close knit community of ‘two up two down’ 11 terraced houses owned by a landlord or the council. They enjoyed a pint down the local pub, a bet and a trip to football match. The chip shop was the central aspect of local cuisine and the Sunday roast dinner was a national ritual. They always voted Labour and enjoyed a shared experience. Of course, the working class woman was depicted as a wife who always stayed at home to look after the kids with very few leisure activities, except perhaps Bingo 12 . The working class saw themselves as ‘Us’ and the middle and upper classes as ‘Them’. (Storry 2000:217). It is obvious that this picture of the working class was based on a real
historical situation. Working class members were poor people who were born to
their poor parents to their poor homes, with no or a very little chance to escape
from their indigent background. Since their birth, they were predestined to work
manually, and in the period before the Industrial Revolution they most often became farm labourers or servants in wealthy upper class families. These were
not jobs where a lot of money could be earned; nevertheless they did not have
a wide choice of occupations because of their inadequate education. That was
caused by several aspects. The widespread reason was the fact that many young people were not allowed to attend schools at all because their hands were needed
in order to help with cultivating their families’ fields, or, when the Industrial
Revolution broke out, they had to begin to do menial jobs at an early age (e.g. as
auxiliary workers in factories) and to contribute to the family budget. Others
attended at least the elementary school but left it at the first possible
11 An arrangement of a house – two rooms on the ground floor, two rooms on the first floor. 12 A game of chance for any number of players. Each player is given a card with numbers on it. Players mark their cards as numbers are called out, and the first person to have all their numbers called wins a prize or an amount of money. In Britain it is thought of as a game for older people. In the 1970s it became so popular that many large buildings such as cinemas were converted into bingo halls. (Crowther 2003:54). opportunity 13 because either they were not willing to study several years more to obtain a qualification degree, or their parents’ incomes were low and they could not afford to finance their children’s further studies. These were the prevailing reasons why a numerous part of the working class was formed by unskilled workers.
During and after the Industrial Revolution, the living conditions of the working class were terrible. People lived on the suburbs in small, dirty and poorly furnished houses without bathrooms, worked for unbelievably long hours in factories for low wages, and ate cheap food that was not nutritious enough to keep them in good health. Various diseases were spreading in the cities and towns since people were not able to pay for the doctor.
However, in the course of time, the living conditions were slowly becoming better and the standard of living of the working class was gradually improving.
People had more opportunities to complete their apprenticeship, thus they were well trained to do a particular job, which increased their chance for finding better occupations and earning more money.
Between the two World Wars, councils began to feel responsible for people who lived in slums or in inappropriate conditions, thus many new buildings were built where those workers whose wages allowed them to do so found their new homes. Thousands of little terraced houses with tiny back gardens appeared throughout the country, and their tenants paid the rent to the local councils.
These houses were usually built of red bricks, were crammed one to another in the suburbs and usually had three or four rooms that were not spacious enough for a family with several children. Houses with lower rent did not have any front 13 In Great Britain, compulsory school attendance for children from 5 to 10 years of age was established in 1880. In 1918 The Education Act decided that the earliest age for leaving school is 14. Nowadays children have to go to school from 5 to 16 years of age. gardens, and the places behind them were large enough only for a little lawn and a few flower beds which were usually planted with zinnias and petunias in various bright colours.
Picture 6: Council housing
During the 1960s and 1970s the economic situation in Great Britain was improving and wages were rising. However, prizes were rising as well, but not as much as wages, so not only the upper and middle class people but also people from the working class could, except paying the necessary costs of living (i.e. clothes, food, rent, electricity, etc.), ‘spoil’ themselves with things that previous generations were unable to afford because of the lack of money. Actually, ‘the
1970s saw a 270 per cent increase in average wage rates’ (Robson 1991:296).
For instance, skilled workers earned £195 a year in 1935, which increased to
£805 in 1960 (Robson 1991:295). Skilled workers were the necessary workforce for factories, and there were branches of industry where the employees were remunerated well. As a result, those people could be considered to be the upper working class which almost reached the standards of the lower middle class. As Robson presents, ‘formerly exclusively middle class possessions such as electric irons and vacuum cleaners were now to be found in most homes, while an increasing proportion of the population could boast ownership of washing machines and refrigerators’(Robson 1991:296). The richest members of the working class could also fulfil their dreams and buy a car or even a small house and furnish it with new furniture and electrical appliances which made the lives of many working class women easier.
As Fox says, ‘we all see the arrangement, furnishing and decorating of our homes as an expression of our unique personal taste and artistic flair’ (Fox
2004:115), and the houses of the working class are not any exceptions. Unlike the upper class that prefers to have their rooms furnished in light and dull colours, working class homes usually distinguish themselves by being decorated in brighter colours and patterns. Other features that are typical for working class households are e.g. patterned wall to wall carpets and chintzy bedspreads.
However, concerning the interior, one can find certain differences which are the result of the financial situation of the house’s owners. Furniture in the poorest houses is mismatching and old (but not antique), whereas the richest working class members may boast with brand new matching items of furniture that the upper class would never purchase. The age of the inhabitants also plays its role – the dominant item in an elderly couple’s living room may be a cabinet or a shelf where postcards from their relatives and various souvenirs from holidays are displayed to catch the attention of visitors; but younger people will show their new big television or an expensive stereo.
Fox further claims that a working class home can be identified from the outside by the presence of a satellite dish, and ‘many people classify entire neighbourhoods by counting satellite dishes’ (Fox 2004:117). In the English society, watching satellite television is considered to be a feature of lower classes and poorer people, because for the wealthier ones there are different countless ways how to spend their leisure time.
The way how the working class speaks also bears some characteristics, e.g. dropping initial consonants, usually ‘h’, and mispronouncing others such as ‘th’ as ‘f’ (then ‘thing’ becomes ‘fing’) or ‘v’ (‘that’ becomes ‘vat’) (Fox 2004:75).
The differences can also be heard in the terminology that is used. Several examples have already been discussed in the chapter about the upper class, but another one can be added – the word ‘toilet’. ‘The correct upper middle and upper term is “loo” or “lavatory” (…), the working classes all say “toilet” as do most lower middles and middle middles, the only difference being the working class omission of the final “t”’ (Fox 2004:77). Generally, among the members of the upper class, the speech of their working class fellow citizens is regarded as wrong and second rate.
The political party that working class people tend to vote for is the Labour
Party.
1.1.2. SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIAL RITUALS
A man is a social animal and living in the society is the source of innumerate interactions in which he participates, either deliberately or accidentally. At the first sight it could seem that these contacts are something completely natural and that people do not think about these processes at all. However, if these interactions are examined more closely, their mechanisms are revealed.
1.1.2.1. ATTEMPTING TO BE INVISIBLE
Each nation evokes certain stereotypes when social behaviour is concerned.
For instance, the Japanese are seen as polite people who are always on time, the
French are thought to be gourmands with a unique sense of fashion, etc.
The English are usually depicted as conservative, reserved and unsociable people who pretend that other people around them do not exist rather than talk to them, which means trying to ‘avoid talking to strangers, or even making eye contact with them, or indeed acknowledging their presence in any way unless absolutely necessary’ (Fox 2004:139).
A train journey can serve as a typical example. In the mornings and evenings when thousands of people commute to and from work, each train compartment offers the same scene: Several pairs of legs dressed in similar dark trousers or skirts, and several pairs of hands holding newspapers. The upper parts of the commuters’ bodies cannot be seen since everyone uses their newspapers as a shield in order to protect themselves from the rest of the world, creating a kind of microclimate which no one dares to enter. Even though these people meet at the railway station or on a train for several months or even years, they will neither start a conversation nor will they greet each other.
Fox admits that a particularly outgoing people can start greeting each other with a slight nod, but it will not take less than a half a year or more before they venture to do so, because ‘even a brief nod constituted a fairly drastic escalation of intimacy’ (ibid). Therefore the English, too anxious to lose their privacy, behave in public as if each of them was living in a bubble that no one else can share, and they painstakingly hide their faces behind the newspapers as soon as they sit down on a train, or never raise their eyes from the pavement when they are passing someone else in the street. Fox adds that ‘we judge others by ourselves, and assume that everyone shares our obsessive need for privacy – so we mind our own business and politely ignore them’ (Fox 2004:147).
The English speak to strangers only when it is inevitable and the situation really requires it, e.g. when two people accidentally bump into each other in the street and they have to apologize to one another or in a shop when a person wants to reach a product on a shelf and somebody is obstructing.
This timidity and uncertainty in dealing with people is also evident in their relationships. It takes them a long time to get to know each other better, thus a high level of formality is used in their conversations, no matter which areas of human life are discussed. The English are very cautious in establishing friendships, they are not too open when talking to somebody to whom they have just been introduced, or who they know only for a short period of time. They are also not too willing to share their personal life with anyone until they know each other better. Only then they slightly open the imaginary door to their privacy. As far as emotions are concerned, the ‘rule of invisibility’ is observed as well. The English attempt to employ distinguished manners under any circumstances and govern their feelings well in order not to make fuss, since they do not like being in the centre of attention. They do not express their actual emotions in public and keep a stiff upper lip for most of the time.
1.1.2.2. CLUBS AND GENTLEMEN’S CLUBS
Nevertheless, Fox admits that ‘there is an apparent contradiction, which has puzzled a number of commentators, between the strong individualism of the
English and our penchant for forming and joining clubs, between our obsession with privacy and our “clubbability”’ (Fox 2004:250). It really seems strange – on the one hand there is the desire to be invisible and to sail through the society without being noticed, on the other hand there are numbers of clubs where people with the same interests can meet. Fox claims that ‘every conceivable English leisure pursuit has a magazine or six, each one also has a club, if not a National
Society’ 14 (ibid).
As she further says, the English need some ‘props’ to have a reason to socialize, and their leisure time activities serve this purpose best. No matter what activity a person does (it can be e.g. yoga, pottery, embroidery, collecting butterflies, or playing cricket), because almost certainly a club where people with the same hobby gather can be found in their neighbourhood or in the neighbouring one. People, especially women, attend such clubs or charitable 14 Club is often used to refer to a group of people who regularly meet together socially or take part in sports. (…) A society is usually concerned with a special interest, e.g. birdwatching or local history, and sends newsletters or magazines to its members. (Crowther 2003:117) gatherings in order to meet other people from their village or town. Sometimes the original reason of their comings functions only as a pretext – they do want to socialize, but due to their innate inhibition they are too shy to speak to somebody in the street, even to their new neighbour when they both are weeding their gardens on a Saturday afternoon. They really need their desire for a company to be hidden behind something more culturally appropriate. The thing is that the shared interests serve as a bridge for establishing a contact with someone else.
Then, when the contact has been made, the relationship between the people can gradually change and they can become more effusive.
A different kind of clubs is represented by so called gentlemen’s clubs. These places are not attended by people who share the same hobby; they are the meeting areas for men from the upper class and for honourable citizens. Women are normally forbidden to enter an overwhelming majority of these clubs, with the exception of being sometimes invited for lunch or dinner there by their husbands.
Gentlemen’s clubs have a longstanding tradition. Their roots stretch back to the 18 th century, when men used to meet in coffee houses 15 , primarily to discuss their business matters. However, those meetings progressively altered into gatherings which had more social character, and, as time went by, some of the coffee houses changed into social clubs. They were not open to everyone.
Their members were conscientiously selected only wealthy men from privileged backgrounds could receive the membership, and the probability of being chosen increased much more when some of the current members could recommend the candidate as a competent future member, since ‘the principle of personal
15 Places that were established in Britain in the 18 th century and where the new drinks – coffee, tea and chocolate – were served. acquaintances guarantees exclusiveness’ (Glinca 1986:6). Glinca also says that
‘membership in gentlemen’s clubs often functions as a social passport’, therefore
‘on a gentleman’s visiting card, (…) the name of his club [is printed] in the right hand corner’ (ibid). Moreover, ‘one did not just become a mere member of some club, but a member of a much greater, invisible club of the élite of the nation’
(Glinca 1986:18).
Apart from solving business affairs, gentlemen also used their clubs as places where they could read their newspapers undisturbed for several hours, lead vigorous debates on politics or any other topics, or just sit and savour a nice cup of tea.
Clubs, or ‘clubland’, as Glinca calls it, were located in the centre of London nearby banks and government buildings, especially in Pall Mall and St James’s
Street, so that its members who worked in these institutions could lead their business transactions there in comfort and over a good meal and a drink.
The clubs could also satisfy their members’ aesthetical feelings because
‘clubland consists of luxurious drawing rooms’ (Glinca 1986:3), which can boast marvellous paintings, comfortable leather sofas and armchairs. Each prestigious club also had its own letterhead paper.
In the second half of the 20 th century the clubs still held their traditions and elitism. They remained in their original locations and kept the atmosphere from previous centuries. However, they still needed money in order to be able to provide an excellent service to their members, so they established ‘the principle of personal sponsorship’ (Glinca 1986:21). A certain amount of money was annually paid by each member to the club, and those funds were used in order to run the institution. In extraordinary but rare cases, a sizeable sponsorship could help to shorten the long process of approving a new member of the club, although the candidate’s origin and background still played the most important roles.
1.1.2.3. GREETING ETIQUETTE
In each society, including the English one, even a disinterested observer can notice several different varieties of greetings that people use. The way how they greet each other is determined by several factors, especially by the level of formality that they maintain, their mutual relationship, and their social class and status. Two acquaintances are likely to greet one another in a rather different way than two good friends whose greetings will be warmer; similarly people who have known each other for a longer time will probably use different expressions than two people who have already met for the first time. Also, greetings between people from different classes will have a different form than greetings between individuals from the same class.
Informal greetings have several forms, and the most common expressions are probably ‘Morning’ and ‘Evening’, where the word ‘Good’, that is normally placed before these words, is omitted, and ‘Hi’ or ‘Hello’ which are preferred among young people. A greeting is often accompanied by the phrase ‘How are you?’ which requires the answer ‘Fine, thanks, and you?’. Another expression that is used in the same situation is ‘How’s it going?’.
In England, a person should not start talking to someone else if they have not been introduced to each other. When the introduction is being made, the most common formal greeting is a short, firm handshake together with a phrase such as ‘Nice to meet you’, ‘Pleased to meet you’ or ‘Delighted to meet you’. Another form of greeting is the well known expression ‘How do you do?’ to which the only correct reaction is to repeat the question. The handshake, as Fox explains,
‘is always somewhat awkward, very brief, performed “at arm’s length”, and without any of the spare hand involvement – clasping, forearm patting, etc. – found in less inhibited cultures’ (Fox 2004:38).
Since the English do not prefer physical contact during greeting (except a handshake which is usually done only when people meet each other for the first time), a kiss on a cheek of a person of the opposite sex is acceptable only when the people are close friends and have not seen each other for a very long period of time. The aforementioned reason also applies to hugging. However, Fox admits that ‘the French custom of a kiss on each cheek has become popular among the chattering classes 16 and some other middle and upper middle class groups, but is regarded as silly and pretentious by many other sections of society, particularly when it takes the form of the “air kiss”’ (ibid).
When honoured citizens are greeted, the distinction of their status is made by adding the word ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ after the greeting (e.g. ‘Good morning, madam’), primarily when they are greeted by someone who belongs to a lower class, or who is younger than they are.
16 The people in society who like to give their opinions on political or social issues. 1.1.2.4. SMALL TALK RULES
Courtesy is very important for the English nation, therefore it is very impolite not to make several polite remarks after being introduced to somebody in other words, not to begin small talk. Small talk functions as a form of ice breaker among people as well, e.g. before two businessmen begin to discuss the conditions of their future contract, they spend several minutes talking about non business matters and only then they move to the main reason of their meeting.
Together with any other area of social life, small talk is also controlled by certain rules which, in accordance with old conventions, have to be obeyed.
These unwritten rules especially determine which topics are appropriate for small talk, and which should not be mentioned.
Probably the ‘safest’ topic for small talk is the weather – it seems that everyone in England has always something to say about the weather. However,
Fox thinks that phrases such as ‘“Nice day, isn’t it?”, “Ooh, isn’t it cold?”, “Still raining, eh?” and other variations on the theme are not requests for meteorological data: they are ritual greetings, conversation starters or default
“fillers”’ (Fox 2004:26). Simply, the real meaning of such phrases is not to discuss passionately the peculiarities of English weather but to start a conversation with someone else, or keep the conversation going when lack of other topics occurs and the discussion reaches a deadlock.
Other topics that are suitable for small talk are for instance travelling (‘Did you have a good journey?’), nature (‘The plants in the garden are lovely, aren’t they?’), music (‘What sort of music do you prefer?’), television (‘Did you see the romantic comedy last night?’), etc. The English like pets much, dogs and cats in particular, therefore starting a conversation on this topic should also not offend anyone, and sentences such as ‘What a nice dog! What is his name? I love dogs.’ will certainly help to create warmer atmosphere.
Conversely, there is a list of certain topics that should be avoided during small talk. When people are talking to other individuals, they are unlikely to ask about personal and intimate subjects such as age, religion, appearance, weight, or their relationships, because they also do not like being asked similar questions.
Queries as ‘How old are you?’, ‘Do you have a girlfriend at the moment?’, or
‘Do you go to the church regularly?’ are considered impolite and everyone who is adept in rules of small talk would never utter them.
Talking about money is another taboo of the English society that should not be broken, which applies not only for small talk, but for conversation in general.
If an inquisitive foreigner, unaware of this forbidden topic, asks about the height of someone’s income, such question will definitely be frowned upon. The answer that the person is likely to get will be a variation of the following type: ‘Ehm, well, er, …, you know, ehm, …, the average salary in my profession is about, ehm, ehm, £ 20,000 a year’, and the questioned person will certainly attempt to change the subject of the conversation as soon as possible. Fox confirms the aforementioned fact by the following statement:
Our distance for money talk in everyday social life is well established: you never ask what someone earns, or disclose your own income; you never ask what price someone paid for anything, nor do you announce the cost of any of your own possessions. (Fox 2004:188) The English include everything connected with money into the sphere of their privacy and are unwilling to discuss money matters openly even in the world of work and business. Fox mentions that the money talk taboo is also influenced by a person’s class – the higher in the social structure the people are, the more uncomfortable they are when they have to deal with financial issues. She says that ‘the middle and upper classes tend to be more squeamish about it than the working classes. Indeed middle class and upper class children are often brought up to regard talking about money as “vulgar” or “common 17 ”’ (Fox 2004:189).
1.1.2.5. POLITENESS PRINCIPLE
‘It pays to be honest’, an old proverb says. For the English, the previous statement could be altered into ‘It pays to be polite’, because as it has already been mentioned before, they attach great importance to politeness and to behaviour that is commensurate with a particular situation, therefore they follow the aforementioned principle. Words that are abundantly used in a conversation are ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, since
‘we just have rules about Ps and Qs [read ‘please’ and ‘thank you’], which most of us observe, most of the time. Our scrupulous pleasing and thanking of bus drivers, conductors, taxi drivers and the like is another manifestation of the “polite egalitarianism” (…) – reflecting our squeamishness about drawing attention to status differences, and our embarrassment about anything to do with money. We like to pretend that these people are somehow doing us a favour, rather than performing a service for financial reward.’ (Fox 2004:151). The same principle that is described above is applied e.g. in the shop when the shop assistant and the customer are exchanging the goods and money.
17 The word common means lower class in this context. Another word that occurs very frequently when the English are talking is the word ‘sorry’, which is, according to Fox, ‘a useful, versatile, all purpose word, suitable for all occasions and circumstances’ (Fox 2004:150). The English use this expression when they want to apologize for anything that they have done, when they want somebody to move away and clear the way for them, or when they ask someone else to repeat what he or she has already said. Briefly, they
‘use the word “sorry” as a prefix to almost any request or question’ (Fox
2004:150).
1.1.2.6. TEA DRINKING
Tea, the quintessential English drink, immediately comes to people’s minds when they are asked to think about something that is typical for the English nation. In Great Britain, every day about 165 million cups of tea are drunk and around 144 thousand tons of tea are imported each year into this country
(http://www.woodlands junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/food/tea.htm).
It would be arduous to attempt to seek one particular reason why this beverage became so popular nationwide. It was in the middle of the 17th century when tea appeared in England for the first time, and since that time it has been popular with people across the society. Tea has been produced in numerous varieties with a broad range of flavours, but black tea keeps the longest tradition in England and is presumably the most preferred. The English custom of drinking tea with milk is known worldwide. Due to the fact that the English people are a community that used to emphasize class differences (and in some aspects of life it still does), the way how people drink tea can reveal much about their position on the social ladder.
Higher echelons tend to drink bitter black tea flavoured with milk only, since adding sugar into tea is regarded as a sign of the fact that the person ranks among the lower classes. The amount of sugar can thus be considered to be a class indicator – the more sugar is put into the cup, the farther from the imaginary peak of the society the person is.
Not only is tea a widespread beverage that has been drunk in large quantities every day; it is also a liquid to which the English attribute certain healing properties.
Tea is still believed, by English people of all classes, to have miraculous properties. A cup of tea can cure, or at least significantly alleviate, almost all minor physical ailments and indispositions, from a headache to a scraped knee. Tea is also an essential remedy for all social and psychological ills, from a bruised ego to the trauma of a divorce or bereavement. This magical drink can be used equally effectively as a sedative or stimulant, to calm and soothe or to revive and invigorate. Whatever your mental or physical state, what you need is ‘a nice cup of tea’. (Fox 2004:312)
It is highly improbable that tea as such could be used as a medicine. It rather serves as a distraction from the real problem, because the person is likely to concentrate on the hot cup in their hands and on the process of drinking, and may forget about the unpleasant thing that happened, at least for a little while.
Nevertheless, the English consume tea at each possible occasion, either drinking it at leisure and sometimes even making a ritual of it, or just having a cup in a hurry before they leave for work in the morning.
1.1.2.7. THE ENGLISH AND HORSE RACING
Horse racing, a sport with a long standing tradition, is a popular pastime for majority of the English people. Obviously, the previous statement does not mean that all the inhabitants of the country go horse riding in their leisure time, but that they watch flat racing or more dangerous steeplechasing 18 on television, or they go to the racecourse in order to experience the atmosphere.
There are several racecourses all over the country and a certain system functions on each of them which ensures that the races happen in accordance with the rules that were created by the Jockey Club in the past, and which have been more or less followed until nowadays. The Jockey Club was established in
1752 by a group of gentlemen who were interested in horse racing and wanted to give this sport a system of rules. These rules, originally invented for Newmarket racecourse, were soon adopted by other racecourses throughout the country, and the Jockey Club gradually became an organization that was responsible for governing the races. There were about 130 members in the club, elected from honourable citizens ‘for their knowledge and experience of racing’
(http://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/doc.php?id=41557 ). Their main duties were to arrange the races and guarantee their smooth and fair process. Although the stewards did not receive any money for their service, to be chosen into the
Jockey Club was considered to be a matter of prestige. These people were, and in fact still are, treated with certain deference that ensues from their status at the racecourse.
18 Flat racing – horses run against each other over a set distance. Steeplechasing – horses jump over fences and ditches round a course. (Crowther 2003:440) The day to day decisions and rulings of the stewards may occasionally be questioned, but their right to make such judgements is rarely challenged, and their orders are generally obeyed. A jockey may protest against a suspension imposed for, say, careless riding – but it is usually the law itself, drawn up by the more remote colonial chiefs in Portman Square, that is criticized, not the racecourse stewards who are obliged to enforce it. (…) Individual officials also recognize that they must earn the esteem of jockeys by being scrupulously fair and consistent in all their judgements and decisions. (Fox 2005:63 64) Stewards are present at each racecourse during the racing days in order to serve in many functions. There are several judges who supervise the races and had to scrutinize the video recording if it is not clear at the first sight who the winner is, the starter whose responsibility is to ensure that no horse leaves its starting box before he waves to do so, the clerk of the scales who checks if the jockeys have the weight that is given for each horse, and many others.
The Jockey Club was the only institution responsible for regulation of horse racing until 1993, when the British Horseracing Board was established and when it took charge of several functions previously held by the Jockey Club.
This was intended to help modernise the sport, as the Jockey Club is a private members’ club with a traditionally aristocratic membership, and was seen by some as being unaccountable and a relic of the tradition of amateurism in British sports administration. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Horseracing_Board )
The British Horseracing Board thus began to be responsible for governing the races, whereas the Jockey Club ‘retained responsibility for matters concerned with the regulation of the sport, such as integrity, discipline and equine health’
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Horseracing_Board ).
In 2007 the British Horseracing Board merged with the Horseracing
Regulatory Authority, which was a part of the Jockey Club and whose main task was to deal with the regulations of horse racing, and a new organisation came into existence – the British Horseracing Authority which now governs and regulates the sport. ‘As a result, the Jockey Club has formally ended its link with the regulation of the sport, and the British Horseracing Board ceased to exist on
31 st July 2007.’ (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Horseracing_Board )
Horse racing is an activity which permeates the whole English society, beginning with the working class and ending with the royal family. Nevertheless, the participation of all classes in the horse racing life is not equally balanced.
Not many people can afford to own a racehorse, or more precisely, to expend considerable finances on its good training, therefore only the nobility and the rich can boast having such an expensive hobby. Those who are not so wealthy to be able to own a horse only visit the racing courses as spectators, place bets on horses and hope to return home with more money in their pockets than they had when they arrived.
Moreover, horse racing can be understood as a cult which has been worshipped all over the country for several centuries, and as it has already been mentioned, it is probably the only area of life which connects all levels of the society. As Fox claims, a racecourse is ‘a cross section of all ages and social classes’ (Fox 2005:xix). Whole family clans beginning with a baby in a pram and finishing with an eighty year old grandmother can be seen there enjoying their family afternoon. It seems as if in England there was no other place than a racecourse where representatives of the whole society could be seen together.
Nonetheless, the nobility and the upper class watch the races from their private boxes where some refreshments is served, the middle class usually watches the struggles on the track from the not so expensive part of the grandstand, and the working class can be seen sitting or standing in the cheapest places.
There is also a different system of social hierarchy which functions among people who come into the closest contact with the horse that is in the centre of attention. It is not a matter of class, but a question of social status.
The stable lad who tends to the animal throughout the day has the lowest status; the jockey who rides the horse occupies a higher position in the traditional hierarchy; the trainer whose contact with the animal is limited to the saddling ritual is above the jockey; and the owner who merely gives the horse an occasional pat is at the top. (Fox 2005:25) A jockey and a trainer have to be polite and careful in dealing with the owners whose horses they ride or train, because the horses are their means of earning a living. If the owners are not satisfied with the results of their horses or with the way how the trainer or the jockey works with their precious possessions, they can transfer the horses to other stables. That is the reason why trainers have to agree with the owners’ opinions on the results of a race even though their views may be completely different, and jockeys cannot say what they really think of the horses that finished a race at the end of the field. Instead of saying that the horse they have already dismounted is a lazy animal that has not tried to win at all, they have to utter something like ‘Stayed on well, he’s a real trier – a step up in distance might suit him’ (Fox 2005:164).
On the contrary, trainers should be treated with a certain degree of deference too because they are thought to be the most powerful people in the horse racing world. Owners are those who possess enough money to finance the training of a horse, but the trainer is the person who has the biggest influence on the animal, who trains it and prepares it for the races, and who is probably the most responsible for the performance of the horse.
Although the English are known as reserved people, at the races they often put aside their mask of unsociability and become more friendly and talkative, which can be caused by the fact that ‘the racecourse creates its own “social micro climate”, characterized by a highly unusual combination of relaxed inhibitions and exceptional good manners’ (Fox 2005:xxv). The English would never speak to a stranger on a train or in the street, whereas at the races they do not hesitate to talk to people who are standing in front of them e.g. in the queue in a bar. ‘What do you fancy in the next?’ is probably the question that is uttered the most often during the day, and where the expression ‘next’ can be replaced by the time when the race begins. Similarly as questions about weather, this question is a typical racecourse conversation starter and not a real request for the description of the horse’s chance to win the race. Nevertheless, in most cases such conversations are a kind of means how to fill up the time between two races, and not beginnings of long lasting friendships.
There is another feature typical for horse racing – betting. There are several ways how people can place their bets on horses of which they are persuaded that they will win. They can back a horse at subsidiaries of big betting companies
(e.g. Ladbrokes or William Hill 19 ) in advance, or to bet some money at an independent bookmaker directly at the racecourse before the race begins. Another
19 Ladbrokes – the largest British gambling company founded in 1886; it owns over 2,200 retail betting shops in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium. It also operates several gambling websites. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladbrokes) William Hill – one of the largest betting companies founded in 1934, operating in the United Kingdom and in Ireland, and offering also betting by phone and over the internet. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hill_%28bookmaker%29 ) possibility is to place a bet at the Tote 20 , which sometimes does not offer as favourable terms of the bet as other bookmakers, but which invests all its profit back into horse racing. Betting is a profitable sort of industry because thousands of people enjoy the feelings of fear and thrill when they watch ‘their’ horse running to the winning post, no matter if they have bet only five pounds or one thousand.
20 The informal short name for the Horserace Totalisator Board, a British government organization, established in 1929, which operates a system of betting on all British racecourses and owns a chain of more than 100 betting shops. Its profits are put back into the sport of horse racing. (Crowther 2003:542) PART TWO
2.1. REAL WORLD IN LITERATURE
Among others, literature may be a powerful instrument which can be used for expressing characteristic features and various moods of a particular historical period. Together with the author’s mastery of writing, a literary work can provide a vivid account of a time. As time passes, each period of the world’s history has been portrayed, whether credibly and truthfully or not, in many publications of various literary genres. Depicting the epoch can be the primary aim of the work and the author, and then the book belongs to the category of non fiction and its main purpose is to provide a reader with real information and a factual account of events. Other writers can remain on the field of fiction and the historical era then serves only as a background for their fictitious stories. In such cases, the heroes are completely made up or only partly based on real people, whereas the atmosphere of the certain period of time is usually described truthfully since the writers draw upon their knowledge of the time and environment (provided that the authors set their stories in their age). Nevertheless, characteristics of the given epoch do not have to be portrayed overtly. The author can sometimes use only hints concerning for instance the political system, the structure of the society, the economical situation, and social customs and behaviour, and an attentive reader can assemble such pieces of information and form a picture which depicts a particular nation or society at a certain time.
2.1.1. SETTINGS AND CHARACTERS IN WORKS OF DICK
FRANCIS
Dick Francis 21 is an English author of over forty detective stories who wrote his books primarily in the second half of the 20 th century. That period was the period of postmodernism 22 which was characterized by several distinctive features, e.g. magic realism (combining fantastical events with a realistic story), parody, crossing borders among different literary genres, self referential fiction, etc. Many authors, trying to keep abreast of the time, utilized the aforementioned features of postmodernism in their works, but Francis remained uninfluenced, probably due to the fact that his first encounter with writing was in the field of journalism where every single word has to count and any extravagance in writing is frowned upon.
As it has been already mentioned, Dick Francis does not embark on any literary experiments that would not have to be comprehended by his readers, but he writes in a realistic, descriptive style. He truthfully depicts the milieu that he is familiar with and that is close to his heart – the world of horse racing. Since he used to be a successful professional steeplechase jockey 23 for several years, his riveting stories are set in the horse racing environment or they are at least somehow connected with horses. The author sometimes also draws upon his own experience.
The works do not contain any complicated symbols, metaphors or fantastical 21 See Appendix 1 – the short biography of Dick Francis. 22 The period from 1960s up to now, characterized by the growth of globalization, increasing focus on consumption and advertising, as well as the rise of democracy and economy. 23 Professional jockeys earn their living by racing, they are usually employed by well established stables. Amateur jockeys are not paid for racing, they have a full time employment and participate in races in their leisure time. elements that would make the understanding of the story difficult. Conversely, various events are pictured objectively and truthfully and the structure of the narrative is logical. Locations in his books are not imaginary because he uses names of real towns and villages (e.g. Newmarket, Lambourn), which adds more credibility to the lives of the heroes. Although the writer often devotes much space to descriptions of different places, these passages are not tedious since
Francis concentrates on details that help put the finishing touches to the story.
When reading those lines, a reader can easily imagine the particular place that is being described – a racecourse, stables, or a bookmaker’s office.
When introducing characters, Francis also gives much detailed information about their appearance, character and the style of living. The main hero of all books is a man between 20 and 40 years of age. Most often he is a jockey, or a former jockey, who cannot turn a blind eye to problems and injustices that occur in the horse racing world from time to time, and attempts to solve the trouble or to remedy the wrong that has happened. He abounds in positive character qualities, such as truthfulness, tolerance, honesty, modesty and empathy. Not infrequently does he have to risk his own life when he wants the villains to be punished or to learn a lesson from their bad behaviour. Although the protagonist always succeeds in his struggle for justice (however, sometimes hurt on body or soul), he does not boast about what he has done or whom he helped, and remains modest. As the story develops, the hero’s character usually undergoes a change in thinking, mainly due to the fact that he is influenced by the case that he is involved in. Even though he sometimes has to resort to artifice or even violence, he still retains his moral qualities, for which he resembles heroes of the era of romanticism – inner strength, sense of justice, courage and chivalry.
Numerous minor characters in each novel are also incredibly convincing and lifelike, no matter if they represent the good or the evil side. They act as normal village and town people who live their everyday lives with all their small pleasures and sorrows. Also these characters are not flat, most of them develop psychologically as well, although it is not as overt a process as in the case of the main hero.
When Dick Francis was writing a new novel, he often based his characters, primarily the positive ones, on people with whom he came into contact, which gave him the advantage to depict them in a lively and credible way.
2.1.2. DICK FRANCIS AND HIS VIEW OF THE ENGLISH
SOCIETY
The purpose of this thesis is not to show Francis’s mastery of writing, but to analyse another aspect of his books – his look at the English society in the second half of the 20 th century. In his detective stories, Francis deals not only with horse racing, but he also introduces social life in England, including class differences, because
‘horse racing, British national sport, attracts variety of people and therefore a racecourse is a perfect place for watching members of all different social classes, their behaviour and their interaction. You can see there plainly dressed men who have stopped there on their way home from work to watch a race and have a chat with friends they will certainly meet there, or a couple with a baby in a pram who are spending their free afternoon there and hoping to win some amount of money to help their family budget. Of course the upper class and nobility cannot be missing because keeping an excellent and expensive racehorse helps to raise their prestige.’ (Vymazalová 2005:12)
All these factors help Francis use his creativity and literary skills and provide him with the opportunity to develop in full his talent to portray life and people in a lively manner. Francis, having met hundreds of people during his jockey career and having had to get along well with various horse owners, had abundance of
‘material’ stored somewhere deep in his consciousness, and these pieces of knowledge and experience rose to the surface after the end of his horse racing when he began writing novels, and they meant great help in picturing the environment and people in a realistic way.
In his novels, Francis does not focus on one social group only – both the lower and the higher echelons are represented. People of various backgrounds, social status and professions are introduced and they all are given adequate space
– no class is privileged.
2.1.2.1. SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR AND SOME SOCIAL RULES PICTURED
IN FRANCIS’S BOOKS
Class differences and the importance of appearance
Nobility was an inseparable part of the English society even in the second half of the 20 th century although it did not have the same position as it had had during the previous centuries. At the end of the millennium, the role of the aristocracy was only symbolic – they retained their titles of barons, princes and dukes, but they did not rule any more and their power did not stretch as far as it used to in the past.
Dick Francis does not avoid having noble characters in his stories, but he does not concentrate on them in detail, he only mentions them e.g. when he is describing the spectators on a racecourse. Exceptions are books Break In and
Bolt , where one of the main characters is a French Princess living in England, and her family. In Francis’s description, she is not a fossilized and stiff old lady who keeps herself aloof (as noble people are often seen by the others), but a woman of flesh and blood who has adapted herself to the present time.
Nonetheless, Francis shows that there still are aspects of life where the set old customs prevail. The following extract is from the beginning of the book Break
In , and it is said by a jockey. She called me ‘Kit’, and I called her ‘Princess’ (at her request) and we shared a positive and quite close friendship which nevertheless began and ended at the racecourse gates. If we met outside, as occasionally happened, she was considerably more formal. (Francis 1987:5).
It shows that a princess can have acquaintances or even friends among people of a different social class (what a jockey undoubtedly is) but, in such a case, there must be certain rules which none of them is allowed to break. In this example, the jockey has to show some deference that is required by the princess’s status. This is done by the way how he addresses her. The princess, even if she wanted to, cannot allow her jockey to call her by her first name. However, it is obvious that she can call him ‘Kit’, not ‘Mr Fielding’, which also shows who is on the higher rung of the social ladder. She also cannot be too familiar to her jockey since such behaviour is unacceptable for higher echelons.
Older aristocrats usually persist in keeping the old manners, whereas their descendants may feel a little ashamed of their noble origin, and they do not have to insist on observing the protocol. The following excerpt is a conversation between a prince and a jockey who rides horses for the prince’s aunt.
Without enquiring, he [the prince] poured white wine for Danielle and Scotch for himself and me. ‘OK?’ he said, proffering the glass. ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘Call me Litsi,’ he said easily. ‘All this protocol… I drop it in private. It’s different for Aunt Casilia, but I never knew the old days. There’s no throne any more… I’ll never be king. I live in the modern world…so will you let me?’ ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘If you like.’ (Francis 1988:99) Concerning the upper class, its representatives appear more often in Francis’s stories than the aristocracy, primarily as horse owners, Jockey Club stewards, or members of old families that have to be respected because of their name and the long history of their clans. When reading, a reader can see that there is certain aloofness in communication between people of different classes, which is easily recognizable in the dialogues that people in Francis’s books lead. Usually, the upper class person speaks contemptuously and looks down on those who are from a lower class or from a background that is considered unpopular or inappropriate in a certain situation.
The following passage is a conversation between an old upper class lady whose niece has been given a horse as a birthday present from her uncle (without his wife’s approval) and has begun visiting horse races and has just made friends with two jockeys. The feeling of superiority directly radiates from the lady’s words.
‘Kate tells me you are a jockey, Mr York.’ She said it as if it were as dubious as a criminal record. ‘Of course I am sure you must find it very amusing, but when I was a gel it was not considered an acceptable occupation in acquaintances. But this is Kate’s home and she may ask whoever she likes, as she knows.’ I said mildly, ‘Surely Aubrey Hastings and Geoffrey Bennett were both jockeys and acceptable when you were – er – younger?’ She raised her eyebrows, surprised. ‘But they were gentlemen,’ she said. I looked at Kate. She had stuffed the back of her hand against her mouth, but her eyes were laughing. ‘Yes,’ I said to Aunt Deb, with a straight face. ‘That makes a difference, of course.’ ‘You may realize, then,’ she said, looking at me a little less frigidly, ‘that I do not altogether approve of my niece’s new interest. It is one thing to own a racehorse, but quite another to make personal friends of the jockeys one employs to ride it. I am very fond of my niece. I do not wish her to make an undesirable…alliance. She is perhaps too young, and has led too sheltered a life, to understand what is acceptable and what is not. But I am sure you do, Mr York?’ (Francis 1976a:149 150) When somebody is talking to upper class people, the aspect that plays an important role and that sometimes is the key factor on which the result of the talk depends is the proper form of addressing. For instance, in Reflex there is a situation in which a jockey is talking to the Jockey Club steward and he starts or finishes almost each sentence with the word ‘sir’ because high echelons expect to be addressed ‘sir’ or ‘madam’ by everyone who is not of the same class and status as they are and if it is not so, they could feel offended. By calling someone
‘sir’ or ‘madam’ the person also expresses their deference to these people.
An example is given in the next dialogue which takes place between a wealthy horse owner and a stable lad – when the lad forgets to add ‘sir’ at the end of the sentence, he is immediately reminded by the owner’s facial expression that he has done something wrong.
‘You’ll pay for it if those horses of mine don’t last the day. I ride them hard. They need to be fit.’ His voice had the same expensive timbre as October’s. ‘They’re as fit as the snow would allow,’ I said calmly. He raised his eyebrows. ‘Sir,’ I added. ‘Insolence,’ he said, ‘will get you nowhere.’ ‘I am sorry, sir, I didn’t mean to be insolent.’ (Francis 1967:184) In the next excerpt a jockey is telling another jockey how he has to address a certain upper class lady so that the rules of the etiquette are observed.
‘Aunt Deb is the Honourable Mrs Penn to you and me, mate, and Aunt Deb to Kate alone. She has a chilly sort of charm that lets you know she would be downright rude if she were not so well bred. She disapproved of me, for a start. I think she disapproves on principle of everything to do with racing (…).’ (Francis 1976a:124) As any other nation, also the English are bound with various traditional views of the structure of the society. There are also diverse prejudices prevailing from the distant past, often irrelevant at the time in which Francis’s books are set, nevertheless still deeply rooted in people’s minds.
The most common is probably the fact that proves the saying ‘Clothes make a man’ – in other words, the tendency to judge people’s occupations, backgrounds and sometimes even characters according to the clothes they wear.
The aforementioned situation is described several times in the book For Kicks .
To understand the following extracts better, it is necessary to outline the plot of the novel.
Daniel Roke, a young proprietor of a stud farm in Australia, is asked by the
British Jockey Club official the Earl of October to come to England in order to help them with investigating a series of cases of doping horses. Daniel has to accept a job as a stable lad in stables of low reputation and to attempt to discover the elaborate system of doping. Since his new role demands perfect communion with the environment of stables, he has to alter his present style of living and behave as a young and a little dishonest stable lad. In order not to be disclosed, it is necessary for him to be absolutely inconspicuous, which, apart from other things, includes changing a perfectly sewn suit for clothes which are suitable for a stable lad, and altering his manners and even the style of speech. During the time when he tries to fulfil his assignment, Daniel has to face up to prejudices concerning his appearance.
Even before the beginning of the investigation, when Daniel meets the Earl of
October for the first time, he is mistaken for a lad because of the clothes he is wearing at the moment, which supports the fact that people feel strongly about the first impression.
‘Where can I find Mr Daniel Roke?’ he asked. An English voice, which even to my untuned ear evoked expensive public schools; and he had a subtle air of authority inconsistent with the opening patter of representatives. I looked at him more attentively, and decided after all not to say I was out. He might even, in spite of the car, be a prospective customer. ‘I,’ I said, without too much joy in the announcement, ‘am Daniel Roke.’ His eyelids flicked in surprise. ‘Oh,’ he said blankly. I was no one’s idea of the owner of a prosperous stud farm. I looked, for a start, too young, though I didn’t feel it; and my sister Belinda says you don’t often meet a business man you can mistake for an Italian peasant. Sweet girl, my sister. It is only that my skin is sallow and tans easily, and I have black hair and brown eyes. Also I was that day wearing the oldest, most tattered pair of jeans I possessed, with unpolished jodhpur boots, and nothing else. (Francis 1967:1 2) When Daniel accepts the task he has been asked for, he has to adapt his outward appearance to his new identity.
With the door open and with one foot in the car he [the Earl of October] said, ‘I suppose it would be part of your…er…procedure…to appear as a slightly, shall we say, unreliable type of stable lad, so that the crooked element would take you?’ ‘Definitely,’ I grinned. ‘Then, if I might suggest it, it would be a good idea for you to grow a couple of sideburns. It’s surprising what a lot of distrust can be caused by an inch of extra hair in front of the ears!’ I laughed. ‘A good idea.’ (Francis 1967:27 28) Terence, the manservant, with whom I had reached a reserved but definite friendship, woke me on the fourth morning by coming into my room with a laden breakfast tray. ‘The condemned man ate hearty,’ he observed, lifting a silver cover and allowing me a glimpse and a sniff of a plateful of eggs and bacon. ‘What do you mean?’ I said, yawning contentedly. ‘I don’t know what you and his Lordship are up to, sir, but wherever you are going it is different from what you are used to. That suit of yours, for instance, didn’t come from the same sort of place as this little lot.’ He picked up the fibre suitcase, put it on a stool, and opened the locks. Carefully, as if they had been silk, he laid out on a chair some cotton pants and a checked cotton shirt, followed by a tan coloured ribbed pullover, some drain pipe charcoal trousers, and black socks. With a look of disgust he picked up the black leather jacket and draped it over the chair back, and neatly arranged the pointed shoes. (…) I finished my breakfast, bathed, shaved, and dressed from head to foot in the new clothes, putting the black jacket on top and zipping up the front. Then I brushed the hair on top of my head forwards instead of back, so that the short black ends curved on to my forehead. Terence came back for the empty tray and found me standing looking at myself in a full length mirror. Instead of grinning at him as usual I turned slowly round on my heel and treated him to a hard, narrow eyed stare. ‘Holy hell!’ he said explosively. ‘Good,’ I said cheerfully. ‘You wouldn’t trust me then?’ ‘Not as far as I could throw that wardrobe.’ ‘What other impressions do I make on you? Would you give me a job?’ ‘You wouldn’t get through the front door here, for a start. Basement entrance, if any. I’d check your references carefully before I took you on; and I don’t think I’d have you at all if I wasn’t desperate. You look shifty … and a bit … well … almost dangerous.’ (Francis 1967:40 42) The statement that the style of clothes that people are wearing influences the
way how they are perceived by other people is also confirmed in the next paragraph – when Daniel changes his appearance, the servant immediately stops
calling him ‘sir’. It is caused by the fact that in the servant’s mind people
looking as rogues do not deserve being addressed ‘sir’, no matter who they really
are. It is their external appearance that matters the most.
‘You haven’t got anything of your own with you?’ ‘Only my watch.’ ‘Fine,’ he said. I noticed with interest that for the first time in four days he had failed to punctuate any sentence with an easy, automatic ‘sir’, and when I picked up the cheap suitcase he made no move to take it from me and carry it himself, as he had done with my grip when I arrived. (Francis 1967:42 43) Francis also mentions several situations in which the society, being firmly
grasped by the prejudices, draws immediate conclusions from a person’s
hairstyle or clothes, and makes it abundantly clear that people whose clothes are
shabby and not neat should not be present at some places. For instance it is presumed that they should not use taxis or visit luxurious restaurants.
The next intimation I had that my change of clothes meant a violent drop in status came from the taxi driver I hailed at the bottom of the square. He refused to take me to King’s Cross station until I had shown him that I had enough money to pay his fare. (Francis 1967:43) On Tuesday evening, when Hogmanay was in full swing, I braved the head waiter of L’Aperitif, who to his eternal credit treated me with beautifully self controlled politeness, but quite reasonably checked, before he gave me a little table in a corner, that I had enough money to pay the bill. Impervious to scandalized looks from the better dressed dinners, I slowly ate (…). (Francis 1967:159) October led the way into the dining car, but as I was about to sit down opposite him a waiter caught hold of my elbow. ‘Here you,’ he said roughly, ‘clear out. This is first class only.’ ‘I’ve got a first class ticket,’ I said mildly. ‘Oh yes? Let’s see it, then.’ I produced from my pocket the piece of white cardboard. He sniffed and gestured with his head towards the seat opposite October. ‘All right, then.’ To October he said, ‘If he makes a nuisance of himself, just tell me, sir, and I’ll have him chucked out, ticket or no ticket.’ He went off, swaying to the motion of the accelerating train. (Francis 1967:342 343) Apart from the prejudice regarding clothes that has been referred to in the previous paragraphs, another social drawback that is widespread among people is the habit to judge their fellow citizens according their speech, especially their
accent. Upper class people often look down on those whose style of speech does
not sound as well educated as their does, and also on those whose family background is totally different from those of the higher echelons. They
sometimes also think that it is beneath them to socialize with these people, and it
takes much effort to change their deep rooted mode of thinking.
In the two following extracts there are dialogues which take place between
a jockey and a trainer’s daughter. The jockey is trying to show her that her view
of some people can be wrong.
‘I thought I knew you. Now it seems I don’t.’ ‘What did you expect?’ ‘Well … Father said you came from a farm cottage with pigs running in and out of the door.’ ‘Father exaggerates.’ She lifted her chin to ward off the familiarity, a gesture I’d seen a hundred times in her and her brothers. A gesture copied from her parents. ‘Hens,’ I said, ‘not pigs.’ She gave me an up stage stare. I smiled at her faintly and refused to be reduced to the ranks. I watched the wheels tick over while she worked out how to approach a cactus, and gradually the chin came down. ‘Actual hens?’ Not bad at all. I could feel my own smile grow genuine. ‘Now and then.’ ‘You don’t look like … I mean …’ ‘I know exactly what you mean,’ I agreed. ‘And it’s high time you got rid of those chains.’ ‘Chains? What are you talking about?’ ‘The fetters in your mind. The iron bars in your soul.’ ‘My mind is all right.’ ‘You must be joking. It’s chock a block with ideas half a century out of date.’ (Francis 2007:64 65) Six feet away sat three fellow jockeys resting their elbows among a debris of empty plates and coffee cups. ‘Kelly!’ One of them exclaimed in a broad northern voice. ‘My God. Kelly. Come over here you old so and so. Bring the talent with you.’ The talent’s chin began its familiar upward tilt. ‘Concentrate on the character, not the accent,’ I said. She gave me a raw look of surprise, but when I stood up and picked up her plate, she came with me. They made room for us, admired Roberta’s appearance, and didn’t refer to anyone being warned off. Their girls, they explained, were powdering their noses, and when the noses reappeared, immaculate, they all smiled goodbye and went back to the ballroom. ‘They were kind.’ She sounded surprised. ‘They would be.’ She fiddled with her fork, not looking at me. ‘You said the other day that my mind was in chains. Was that what you meant … that I’m inclined to judge people by their voices … and that it’s wrong?’ ‘Eton’s bred its rogues,’ I said. ‘Yes.’ (…) ‘Where did you go to school?’ ‘In Wales.’ ‘You haven’t a Welsh accent. You haven’t any accent at all. And that’s odd really, considering you are only …’ Her voice trailed away and she looked aghast at her self betrayal. ‘Oh dear … I’m sorry.’ ‘It’s not surprising,’ I pointed out. ‘Considering your father. And anyway, in my own way I’m just as bad. I smothered my Welsh accent quite deliberately. I used to practice in secret, while I was still at school, copying the BBC announcers. I wanted to be a Civil Servant, and I was ambitious, and I knew I wouldn’t get far if I sounded like the son of a Welsh farm labourer. So in time this became my natural way of talking. And my parents despise me for it.’ (Francis 2007:143 144) Clubs
Probably no book that deals with the English at least a little forgets to mention gentlemen’s clubs, and this statement is true for Francis’s novels as well. These clubs, usually connected with the upper and middle class men, offer both privacy that their members need for their business or personal meetings, and the opportunity to socialize with the others at lunchtime.
Francis mentions going to clubs in most of his books – his characters are members of various clubs, they discuss their business affairs there or they go there in order to spend a pleasant evening with friends over a glass of wine and leading intelligent conversation. However, in most of the clubs their members are carefully chosen, and non members can visit the clubs only as guests of the existing members. The previous rule applies not only for gentlemen’s clubs, but also for private ones, e.g. gambling halls. Therefore, if someone needs to talk to somebody who spends his spare time in his club, the non member has to find a way that will enable him to enter the club, as an accountant Roland Britten did in Risk .
He laughed. ‘Connaught Powys comes here to play, most Fridays.’ ‘What time?’ ‘You do ask a lot, my dear chap. After dinner to dawn.’ ‘How about making me an instant member?’ He sighed heavily. ‘If you are bent on suicide, I’ll tell the desk to let you in.’ ‘See you,’ I said. ‘And thanks.’ (…) Vivian, good as his word, had left a note for me to be let in, and as an extra, treated as a guest. (Francis 1979:112,121)
Places to live
Since characters appearing in Dick Francis’s books are people from different social groups, it is only natural that various kinds of houses are depicted in his novels, and that they give accounts of different lifestyles. The author uses a rich language and provides his readers with details that enable them to imagine the houses and the styles of living of the members of the upper, the middle and the working class.
Imposing Georgian, Edwardian or Victorian mansions where dozens of various rooms can be found (e.g. several bedrooms and bathrooms, a dining room, a living room, a drawing room, a library, guest rooms, and many others), with large grounds surrounding the buildings, and which have been owned by old established families for several centuries are nothing exceptional in England, and their descriptions often appear in the novels, as the following extracts confirm.
The ground floor of the big house consisted of offices, a guest suite, a library and a breakfast room. It was upstairs that the princess and her husband chiefly lived, with drawing room, sitting room and dining room on the first floor and bedrooms on three floors above. Staff lived in the semi basement (…). (Francis 1988:24 25) Kate lived in a superbly proportioned Queen Anne house which generations of Gothic ruin minded Victorians had left miraculously unspoilt. Its graceful symmetry, its creamy gravelled drive, its tidy lawns already mown in early spring, its air of solid serenity, all spoke of a social and financial security of such long standing that it was to be taken entirely for granted. (Francis 1976a:147 148) While reading, the readers will learn that most of these upper class residences are not furnished with modern furniture but with antiques that have been passed from one generation to the next, therefore the rooms can look a little unkempt.
Francis also admits that not everyone is able to discern and to appreciate the value of the furniture or things.
Inside, the house was charming, with just a saving touch of shabbiness about the furnishings, as if, though rich, the inhabitants saw no need to be either ostentatious or extravagant. (Francis 1976a:148) No noise filtered into Beckett’s office. The room was square and high, and was painted a restful pale greenish grey colour, walls, doors, and ceiling alike. I supposed that here the furnishings went with rank; but if one were an outsider one would not know how much to be impressed by a large but threadbare carpet, an obviously personal lamp shade, or leather, brass studded chairs. One had to belong, for these things to matter. (Francis 1967:338) It would be impossible to maintain and tidy such large houses without the help of the domestic staff, therefore keeping several servants was a real necessity in the past. For each noble and upper class family it was entirely common to have a cook who would do all the cooking instead of the lady of the house, several maids who would tidy the house, look after their lady’s clothes and polish the silver cutlery, a valet who would attend to the lord’s needs, and a butler whose responsibility would be to supervise all the members of the staff. It is also evident that if an upper class family had not had several servants and had done all the household chores by themselves, they would have been frowned upon by their neighbours and friends. In Francis’s stories, the presence of the domestic staff is mentioned as a feature typical for upper class households, as e.g. in the following paragraphs.
She smiled. ‘How would you like being cosseted in a sort of mansion in Eaton Square with a cook and maids and a butler? And a chauffeur. All last week the chauffeur drove me to work and picked me up after.’ (Francis 1987:122) ‘Did you come by car?’ Uncle George asked. I nodded. He said to Kate, ‘Then ask Culbertson [a chauffeur] to put Mr York’s car in the garage, will you, my dear?’ ‘Yes, Uncle George,’ said Kate, smiling at him. (Francis 1976a:154) Mrs Cross tapped on the door and came in. She was a quiet, unobtrusive mouse of a woman with soft brown hair and a slight outward cast in her grey green eyes. Although she seemed to have no spirit whatever and seldom spoke, she ran the place like oiled machinery, helped by a largely invisible squad of ‘dailies’’. (Francis 1996:28) In another book Francis depicts the kind of house in which most of the middle class live, and which is very different from the upper class residences.
The cottage was one of a terrace of seven built in the Edwardian era for the not so rich and currently inhabited, apart from me, by a schoolteacher, a horsebox driver, a curate, a vet’s assistant, sundry wives and children, and two hostels ful of stable lads. I was the only person living alone. It seemed almost indecent, among such a crowd, to have so much space to myself. My house was in the centre: two up, two down, with a modern kitchen stuck on at the back. A white painted brick front, nothing fancy, facing straight out onto the road, with no room for garden. A black door, needing paint. New aluminium window frames replacing the original wood, which had rotten away. An old thing patched up. Not impressive, but home. (Francis 1976:56) Working class dwellings are represented by the description of a stable lads’ dormitory in For Kicks .
Wally, the head lad, a wiry short man with ill fitting dentures, said I was to sleep in the cottage where about a dozen unmarried lads lived, beside the gate into the yard. I was shown into a small crowded upstairs room containing six beds, a wardrobe, two chests of drawers, and four bedside chairs; which left roughly two square yards of clear space in the centre. Thin flowered curtains hung at the window, and there was polished linoleum on the floor. (Francis 1967:45)
Tea
For the English, drinking tea is a natural activity, therefore Francis’s books abound with scenes when people are consuming this drink. They drink it at home, at restaurants, at the races, etc. Francis takes this phenomenon for granted, for him as for an Englishman it is nothing exceptional. He shows his readers that in
England everyone drinks tea in all possible situations – for instance it is an excellent means how to calm themselves after an accident or in a tense moment. In contrast, a cup of strong black tea can also be used as a stimulant when a person is in a bad mood and needs to be cheered up.
Tea as a cure for all possible kinds of problems appears in all Francis’s novels. Whereas in another country people are offered a little of an alcoholic drink to recover from a shock, the English put the kettle on and make some tea.
The situation described in the following paragraph is a typical example.
A man is looking after a woman who has been involved in a car accident, and the first thing that he can do for her is to comfort her with a cup of tea, although the woman thinks that something stronger would be better.
‘What you can give me now,’ she said, ‘is a large drink.’ ‘Er…How about some hot strong tea?’ She stared. ‘No. Brandy.’ ‘I haven’t any.’ She gestured impatiently. ‘Whisky, then. Gin. Anything will do.’ ‘I’m afraid,’ I said apologetically, ‘that I haven’t anything at all.’ ‘Do you mean,’ she said in disbelief, ‘that you have no alcohol of any sort in this house?’ ‘I’m afraid not.’ ‘Oh my God,’ she said blankly. She sat suddenly on the kitchen chair as if her knees had given way. I said, ‘Tea is honestly better when you’re injured. I’ll make you some.’ (Francis 1975:45 46) Preparation of tea is often used as a good means to avoid talking about a thorny problem or to obtain some time before making a difficult decision. As in the following extract, it can also be used when a person does not want someone else to stay in the room and to hear what the others will speak about.
As lives went, Harry’s had been uneventful. No Blaze material in what he had told me, and precious little for Tally . Resignedly, I asked him if he intended to keep Egocentric [a horse] indefinitely. ‘Yes, yes, I think so,’ he said. ‘He has made quite a remarkable difference to us.’ ‘In what way?’ ‘It puts them several notches up in lifemanship,’ Gail said coolly. ‘Gives them something to boast about in pubs.’ We all looked at her. Such was her poise that I found it impossible to tell whether she meant to be catty or teasing, and from his uncertain expression, so did her uncle. Here was no ducking it, however, that she had hit to the heart of things, and Sarah smoothly punished her for it. ‘Gail dear, would you go and make tea for all of us?’ Gail’s every muscle said she would hate to. But she stood up ostentatiously slowly, and went. (Francis 1970:21 22)
Horse racing
Horse racing and everything that is connected with this sport is Francis’s principal field of interest. Since he spent a part of his life in the stables and at the racecourse, he depicts this milieu in detail and enables his readers to get acquainted with this popular English pastime and to experience the atmosphere of the horse racing business via his novels.
As mentioned before, even if main heroes of Francis’s stories are not always jockeys or trainers, the plot is related to horses. In his books, Francis introduces all aspects of horse racing, beginning with buying a horse and ending with the dilemma that each jockey has and which concerns the question how long he will still be able to ride, and what he will do when the inevitable end of his career comes. He also portrays all kinds of people who are somehow involved in horse racing – jockeys, trainers and their families, owners, the Jockey Club stewards, racecourse managers, vets, transport boxes drivers, bookmakers, and many others who are necessary so that the racing world would not stop revolving.
Francis describes the style of life that these people lead, and brings them into mutual interactions where, as in other aspects of the life of the English society, certain rules have to be obeyed. The paragraph below describes a situation when a jockey has suffered a fall and has to prepare an explanation that the owner of the horse and the trainer would accept. It is also a good example of the relationship among the people – the jockey cannot be impolite to the owner and the trainer because they are the people who decide which jockey and how often will be placed on which horse.
Squelching uphill to the stands in paper thin racing boots unsuitable for hiking, I thought only and firmly about the horse I’d started out on, sorting out what I might and might not say to its trainer. Discarded ‘How do you expect it to jump if you don’t school it properly?’ in favour of ‘The experience will do him good.’ Thought better of ‘useless, panicky, hard mouthed, underfed dog’, and decided on ‘might try him in blinkers’. (Francis 1976b:2) As far as a jockey’s life is concerned, Francis, having been a steeplechase jockey himself, is able to depict this occupation very well because he can draw on his own experience. This fact gives him the advantage to describe both the positive and negative aspects of such means of earning a living truthfully, with all its joys and sorrows.
Winded and coughing, I lay on one elbow and spat out a mouthful of grass and mud. The horse I’d been riding raised its weight off my ankle, scrambled untidily to its feet and departed at an unfeeling gallop. I waited for things to settle: chest heaving, bones still rattling from the bang, sense of balance recovering from a thirty mile an hour somersault and a few tumbling rolls. No harm done. Nothing broken. Just another fall. (Francis 1976b:1)
CONCLUSION
The aim of this thesis was to show that popular literature does not always have to be for entertainment only, but that it can sometimes contain true information and thus have a certain educational value.
This thesis studied social stratification of the English society, its social behaviour and some of its typical features and habits. These aspects were analysed in the first part of this work, whereas in the second part extracts from works of popular literature were used to support or to confirm some of the ideas which were mentioned in the first part. For this purpose, several books by Dick
Francis were used.
Francis uses the English society and especially the horse racing world as a framework for his elaborate detective stories. He incorporates the description of the society into the stories in such a natural way that when people read them for the first time they do not usually realize that certain pieces of information are not only an inseparable part of the stories, but real facts. This knowledge can help the readers understand the English more, which, on the other hand, can then help them understand the books better. Various social rules and behaviour codes can be found in Francis’s books – to discover them there, careful reading is required.
Nevertheless, it is necessary to be aware of the fact that Francis’s books are not highly sophisticated sociological works, but only stories that have been written with one main aim – to entertain the readers with excellent detective stories and give them the pleasure of attempting to surmise who the crook is.
Therefore, information comprised in his novels should not be understood as one hundred per cent sure and genuine since the writer could have embellished it a little so that the particular situation blends with the story and with the author’s intention better.
RESUMÉ
Cílem diplomové práce je ukázat, že člověk nemusí získávat informace pouze z odborných publikací, ale že jedním ze zdrojů může být i populární literatura.
V první části práce je analyzována anglická společnost v druhé polovině dvacátého století, společenské třídy a jejich charakteristické rysy. Dále jsou zde zmíněny některé společenské zvyky, pravidla a rituály.
Druhá část práce se zabývá zobrazením těchto zvyků, pravidel a rituálů v díle anglického autora detektivních románů Dicka Francise. Poznatky z první části jsou aplikovány na několik Francisových knih a podpořeny ukázkami z těchto děl.
Závěr práce připouští, že informace o anglické společnosti v knihách Dicka
Francise nemusejí být naprosto pravdivé, protože autorovým primárním cílem je pobavit čtenáře zajímavým detektivním příběhem, a ne poskytnout mu sociologické údaje o anglické společnosti.
SUMMARY
The aim of this diploma thesis is to show that a person does not have to receive information from non fiction only, but that fiction can sometimes be used as one of the sources.
The first part of this thesis analyses the English society in the second half of the 20 th century, its social classes and their characteristics. Some social customs, rules and rituals are also mentioned.
The second part deals with picturing these customs, rules and rituals in the work of an English author of detective stories Dick Francis. Pieces of information which were discussed in the first part are applied on several
Francis’s books and supported by extracts from these works.
The concluding part admits that information about the English society that can be found in Francis’s novels does not have to be absolutely true, because the author’s primary aim is to entertain his readers with an interesting detective story and not to provide them with sociological data about the English society.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(In alphabetical order)
CROWTHER, Jonathan. Oxford Guide to British and American Culture . 4th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003. 599pp. ISBN 0 19 431332 8.
CULPIN, Christopher. Making Modern Britain . 4 th printing, London: Collins Educational, 1993. 282pp. ISBN 0 00 327257 5.
FOX, Kate. The Racing Tribe: Watching the Horsewatchers . London: Metro Publishing Ltd., 2005. 223pp. ISBN 1 84358 156 6.
FOX, Kate. Watching the English: The Hidden Rules of English Behaviour . London: Hodder and Stoughton, 2004. 424pp. ISBN 0 340 75212 2.
FRANCIS, Dick. Bolt . London, Pan Books, 1988. 354pp. ISBN 0 330 30138 1. FRANCIS, Dick. Break In . 2 nd edition, London: Pan Books, 1987. 400pp. ISBN 0 330 29380 X. FRANCIS, Dick. Dead Cert . London, Pan Books, 1976a. 364pp. ISBN 0 330 24621 6. FRANCIS, Dick. Enquiry . London, Pan Books, 2007. 312pp. ISBN 978 0 330 45034 8. FRANCIS, Dick. Forfeit . London, Pan Books, 1970. 312pp. ISBN 0 330 02532 5. FRANCIS, Dick. For Kicks . London, Pan Books, 1967. 362pp. ISBN 0 330 10596 5. FRANCIS, Dick. Knock Down . London, Pan Books, 1975. 274pp. ISBN 0 330 24620 8. FRANCIS, Dick. Odds Against . London, Pan Books, 1996. 345pp. ISBN 978 0 330 10597 2. FRANCIS, Dick. Reflex . London, Pan Books, 1976b. 388pp. ISBN 0 330 26662 4. FRANCIS, Dick. Risk . London, Pan Books, 1979. 314pp. ISBN 0 330 25712 9. FRANCIS, Dick. The Sport Of Queens . 1 st edition, New York: Harper and Row, 1969, 247pp. ISBN 0 415 15326 2.
GLINCA, Werner. Legacy of Empire: A Journey through British Society. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1996. 200pp. ISBN 0 7190 2262 X. Translated by Stephan Paul Jost. First published as Erben des Empire . Frankfurt am Main: Verlag, GmbH, 1983.
HALSEY, A.H. Change in British Society . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. 214pp. ISBN 0 19 289200 2.
HORNBY, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary . 6 th edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 1540 pp. ISBN 0 19 431 585 1.
MARWICK, Arthur. British Society since 1945 . 3 rd edition, London: Penguin Books Limited, 1996. 525pp. ISBN 0 14 024939 7.
McDOWALL, David. Britain in Close-Up . London: Longman Group UK Limited, 1993. 208pp. ISBN 0 582 06461 9.
OAKLAND, John. British Civilization: An Introduction . 2 nd edition, London: Routledge, 1991. 256pp. ISBN 0 415 06475 9.
PAXMAN, Jeremy. The English: A Portrait of a People . 3 rd edition, London: Penguin Books Ltd., 2007. 309pp. ISBN 978 0 141 03295 5.
ROBSON, W. 20 th Century Britain . Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1973, new edition 1983, reprinted 1985, 1986, 1989, 1993. 343pp. ISBN 0 19 913285 2.
STORRY, Michael; CHILDS, Peter. British Cultural Identities . 3 rd printing, London: Routledge, 2000. 350pp. ISBN 0 415 13699 7.
VYMAZALOVÁ, Andrea. The Attractiveness of Dick Francis’s Style: bachelor thesis. Brno: Masaryk University, Faculty of Education, 2005. 31p., 4p. appendices. Supervisor PhDr. Pavel Doležel, CSc.
Internet sources http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Horseracing_Board http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Francis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horseracing_in_the_United_Kingdom http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ladbrokes http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Hill_%28bookmaker%29 http://www.thejockeyclub.co.uk/doc.php?id=41557 http://www.woodlands junior.kent.sch.uk/customs/questions/food/tea.htm www.dickfrancisbooks.com www.mandry.net/dickfrancis/bio.html www.wejosephson.home.mindspring.com/dfrancis.html Sources of pictures 1) Picture 1 http://www.totaltravel.co.nz/photos/antrim house nz/exteriorfront.jpg 2) Picture 2 http://www.peakdistrictonline.co.uk/content.php?categoryId=1744 3) Picture 3 http://www.simsandbrown.co.uk/images/cleveland.jpg 4) Picture 4 http://www.matthewsbenjamin.co.uk/properties/A1096.JPG 5) Picture 5 www.combegardendesign.co.uk/s_19.asp . 6) Picture 6 www.castlemorpeth.gov.uk/.../Council houses.jpg
Appendix 1
THE SHORT BIOGRAPHY OF DICK FRANCIS
Dick Francis
Richard Stanley Francis, which is Dick Francis’s full name, was born on
October 31, 1920 in Tenby, Wales, as a second son of Vincent and Molly
Francis. No wonder that he has been interested in horses since his early childhood – his grandparents owned a farm where horses and ponies were more than enough; and his father dedicated his whole life to working with these beautiful animals. At the age of six Francis decided to learn everything about the art of horse riding and began to implement his plans to become a jockey. At that time his father began to work as a manager of Smith’s Hunting Stables near the town of Maidenhead, and thus Dick Francis and his older brother Douglas
Francis were given the opportunity to ride and train all sorts of ponies and horses than most of other boys of their age. A year later, as a seven year old boy,
Francis started to show ponies at various horse auctions and exhibitions. He participated in these events for several years and, owing to his tiny figure, soon became very successful, which nourished his passion for being a jockey.
As Francis’s parents did not want their son to leave home so young and to become an apprentice for flat racing 24 , he had to attend the hated school until the age of sixteen, when he started to work as his father’s assistant at their own stables that his father had just established. There he could participate in training young horses and in hunting.
Since his desire to begin a jockey career had not still been fulfilled, in 1940
Francis decided to enter the army before he would be conscripted and to join the cavalry. Unfortunately, he was not admitted and therefore signed on as an airframe fitter, on which position he spent almost three years until his thirty seventh application to be transferred to flying school was accepted and he became a pilot of various types of planes. At the end of the war Francis met his future wife Mary Brenchly and after the war he returned to the family business.
During the following years Francis did not stop dreaming about the career of a jockey. In 1946 George Owen, a former excellent jockey and a racehorse trainer at that time, employed Francis as a secretary at his stables, where he was given the opportunity to ride in various races as an amateur jockey 25 . At the beginning of March 1948 Francis had already ridden over one hundred races, more than any other amateur, therefore he was asked by the National Hunt
Committee to become a professional steeplechase jockey 26 , which he did.
In the following seasons Francis made the horse racing world aware of himself and rode a large number of better and better horses for many wealthy and
24 Flat racing – horses run against each other over a set distance. Steeplechasing – horses jump over fences and ditches round a course. (Crowther 2003:440) 25 Amateur jockeys are not paid for racing, they have a full time employment and participate in races in their leisure time. 26 Professional jockeys earn their living by racing, they are usually employed by well established stables. well known horse owners, including the Queen Mother27 . Dick Francis soon became a celebrity in the world of British National Hunt Racing 28 . His excellent racing season was that of 1953 – 1954, when he won 78 races and was given the title of the Champion Jockey.
Dick Francis during a race Each jockey would like to win the Grand National Steeplechase 29 at least once in his career. Francis rode eight times in this world famous race, and nearly won in 1956 when his horse, the Queen Mother’s Devon Loch, suddenly collapsed when he was only a few strides away from victory. Francis was immensely disappointed by this unhappy incident, which brought him, on the other hand,
27 a) A title sometimes used by the wife of a British king after his death if she is the mother of the next king or queen. b) Queen Elizabeth (1900 2002), the widow of King GeorgeVI, mother of the present Queen Elizabeth II 28 National Hunt is the British name for professional horse racing over fences, also called steeplechasing. (Crowther 2003:368) 29 The most famous and important steeplechase held annually in spring at Aintree near Liverpool. long lasting friendship with the Queen Mother and Queen Elizabeth II, and hoped to be the winner the following year. Nevertheless, his dream definitely dwindled away in January 1957 when he suffered a serious fall and finished his jockey career.
Appendix 2
DICK FRANCIS’S LITERARY CAREER
Almost immediately after the end of Dick Francis’s jockey career The London
Sunday Express asked him to write several articles about horse racing for them, which led into cooperation of a long duration. He also completed his autobiography entitled The Sport of Queens in 1957. The unexpected success of this book encouraged him to start fiction writing, and his love for horses continued in his literary works because it is horses that is the linking element of all his novels.
An amateur steeplechase jockey Alan York tries to solve the cause of his friend Bill Davidson’s fatal fall during a race and discovers that it has not been an accident. The previous sentence is a brief summary of the story of Francis’s first book Dead Cert which was published in 1962 and soon achieved great popularity. It did not take more than a year and the author, stimulated by the success of his first work, published his second book Nerve , and the series of more than forty novels started. It would be tedious to list here all of them, as representatives can be chosen e.g. four novels having a private detective Sid
Halley as the main hero ( Odds Against, 1965 ; Whip Hand, 1979 ; Come to Grief,
1995; Under Orders, 2006), thrilling Blood Sport (1967) which is about a chase for lost horses in the United States, or a fascinating book about moral blackmail
Reflex (1981).
With invaluable help of his beloved wife Mary who was always the first reader and critic, Francis wrote one book a year. When writing Shattered (2000), dedicated to the Queen Mother’s 100 th birthday, he claimed this book to be the last. Mary died several months later and Francis decided to finish his literary career. Nevertheless, Francis gave way his passion for writing again and wrote
Under Orders in 2006, and together with his son Felix Dead Heat (which has not been translated into Czech yet) in 2007. All his books have become bestsellers in a number of countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages including all European languages, Japanese, Korean, Taiwanese, Bantu and several dialects of Chinese. The author has been awarded by several prestigious literary awards, for which the following ones can be mentioned: the British
Crime Writers’ Association’s Silver Dagger in 1965, Gold Dagger in 1980 and
Cartier Diamond Dagger for his outstanding contribution to the crime genre in
1990. He is also the holder of honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Tufts
University of Boston. In 1996 Dick Francis was made a Mystery Writers of
America Grand Master for a lifetime’s achievement and in 2000 he received a CBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honour list. 30
30 CBE (Commander of the British Empire) – an award given twice a year in Britain (on New Year’s Day and in the middle of June on the present Queen’s official birthday) to people who distinguished themselves in some way. Appendix 3
SUMMARIES OF BOOKS MENTIONED IN THE THESIS
Break In
‘There had been Fieldings and there had been Allardecks in racing further back than anyone could remember: two families with some land and some money and a bitter mutual persisting hatred’ (Francis 1987:45 46). Holly Fielding and a trainer Bobby Allardeck have got married despite the disagreement of their families, and their generation has buried the hatchet.
Suddenly, someone starts to malign Bobby. The problem is that many people from the racing world have been given a newspaper called The Daily Flag with a red framed text full of scurrilous information about Bobby and his financial situation. The result of this action is that owners start to transfer horses to other stables, and Bobby and Holly lose their means of earning a living. Therefore,
Holly asks her twin brother Kit to help them to find who and why is doing it.
Kit is a professional steeplechase jockey, not a private detective, but he promises to do his best to find the villain. He and Bobby catch two men doing something on the roof of Bobby’s house, who turn out to be journalists from The
Daily Flag. But what have they been doing there? Kit finds pieces of an eavesdropping device on the roof. After having several discussions with the journalists, he understands that the whole libellous campaign has not been aimed at Bobby, but at his father Maynard Allardeck, an industrial tycoon who hopes to be given a knighthood. However, he has done much harm to many people, therefore The Daily Flag tries to prevent it. Kit talks to people who have happened to be Maynard’s
‘victims’, and makes a videotape that proves Maynard guilty of dishonest practice. Kit also persuades The Daily Flag to apologize to Bobby and to pay him a financial compensation for problems that they have caused.
Bolt
Bolt is another novel where Kit Fielding is the main hero. Whereas in Break
In the person whose horses he rides, Princess Casilia, stands rather in the background, in this novel she and her family are in the centre of attention.
Princess Casilia’s husband, disabled Monsieur de Brescou, is one of two proprietors of a factory in France. Henri Nanterre, the son of the other owner who has died, wants to expand the production and to begin making plastic guns.
M. de Brescou does not want to agree with this kind of product, therefore Henri
Nanterre attempts to have it his way by threatening the whole family.
Princess Casilia asks Kit, who is her niece’s Danielle fiancé, to protect their family against Henri Nanterre and to help them solve the situation. Kit is doing his best to find a solution, when suddenly a new shock comes – someone has shot several Princess’s beloved horses. Everyone thinks that it is another Nanterre’s attempt to force M. de Brescou to sign the new contract but Kit finds out that this problem has come from another direction, and that it has been meant to hurt him, not the Princess. Meanwhile, Kit has to deal with a personal problem. Danielle seems to have changed her mind concerning their future marriage and to have fallen in love with one of her distant relatives. However, in the end she decides the right way.
Dead Cert
When the main hero of this novel, an amateur jockey Alan York, sees his friend Major Bill Davidson dying after a serious fall during the races, he thinks that it has been only bad luck which sometimes happens at the racecourse. After searching the place where the fall has happened, Alan realizes that it was a perfectly prepared accident which unfortunately turned into a murder, even if not planned. He wants to know who and why has killed his friend, therefore he begins to act on his own initiative. Meanwhile he meets Kate Ellery Penn, a young upper class lady who was given a horse as a birthday present, and he immediately falls in love with her. After some time he also meets her aunt and uncle in whose house she lives.
During his investigation, Alan finds certain pieces of information that may help him detect who has caused Major Davidson’s death. These facts are so dangerous that Alan is warned to stop investigating he is attacked in the same way as Major Davidson has been, fortunately with no fatal results.
However, Alan is not discouraged from continuing the investigation.
He discovers that a taxi company called the Marconicars is involved in the case, and that the firm is used as a cloak for illegal ‘protection’ and crooked racing.
The chief of this company is a person named Claud Thiveridge who gives his orders via the telephone only and no one has ever seen him. Alan completes the fragments of information that he has heard here and there, and he suddenly knows who Claud Thiveridge really is, and it is a shocking disclosure.
Enquiry
Kelly Hughes, a jockey, and Dexter Cranfield, a trainer, are accused of manipulating a race, in which the favourite horse has not win and an outsider has been the winner. Kelly Hughes is guilty of pulling his horse back during the race, and Dexter Cranfield of arranging the whole thing because he has backed the outsider to win. The problem is that both horses are from Canfield’s stables.
Both of them do not want to agree with the situation, especially because the investigation has been led in a strange way, it has seemed as if someone wanted them to lose their licenses. Kelly promises Cranfield to get the licenses back, and starts looking for evidence that the whole process has been fabricated in order to stop their careers. The only problem is to find out who and why could do such a thing.
During his investigation Kelly’s life is endangered, which only proves his suspicion that everything has been arranged against them, and that there is someone who does not want them to arrive at the truth. Meanwhile Kelly becomes close with Canfield’s daughter Roberta, and he unconsciously exposes her to danger.
As the story approaches its end, Kelly slowly finds pieces of information that finally lead him to the disclosure of the person who has organized the whole process – Jack Roxford, also a trainer. He knows a terrible secret which concerns one steward and which must not be revealed, and this fact plays its role in the story. Moreover, Jack Roxford fears that a wealthy owner will place his horses into Cranfield’s stables and not into his.
Forfeit
James Tyrone is a journalist who works for The Sunday Blaze , which is a tabloid whose number one policy is to look for some scandals and to blow the roof off. James’s colleague Bert Checkov has told James so that he would sell his column in the newspaper under no circumstances. It seems that Bert has done so because he has been tipping horses as certain winners in big races, but the horses have not started at all then, and many people have lost their bets. The thing is simple – the horses are on the starting list, but a few days before the race their participation is cancelled. However, people have already backed them in advance in order to get better odds, so they lose their money. There is the possibility that the same thing could happen to Tiddely Pom, the favourite for the Lamplighter
Gold Cup.
James wants to find out who is behind the whole thing and it brings him into many problems. A man called Vjoersterod appears in England and he threatens
James that he will kill James’s disabled wife if he does not stop investigating.
He also attempts to discourage James by using violence on him, but James is a strong person and he wins in the end.
For Kick
Daniel Roke, a young proprietor of a stud farm in Australia, is asked by the Jockey
Club official the Earl of October to come to England in order to help them with investigating a series of cases of doping horses. Daniel has to accept a job as a stable lad in stables of low reputation and to attempt to discover the elaborate system of doping.
Since his new role demands perfect communion with the environment of stables, he has to alter his present style of living and behave as a young and a little dishonest stable lad.
In order not to be disclosed, it is necessary for him to be absolutely inconspicuous, which, apart from other things, includes changing a perfectly sewn suit for shabby clothes which are suitable for a stable lad, and altering his manners and even the style of speech.
Due to misapprehension with Patricia, one of October’s daughters, the good relationship between October and Daniel is weakened, but Daniel continues in his investigation. During several months he gradually uncovers the terrifying system of doping horses. However, sometimes he is not careful enough and brings himself and even Elinor, the other October’s daughter, into highly dangerous situations.
At the end of the story everything is explained, the villains are punished and
Daniel is offered a job in an espionage department in Britain.
Knock Down
When the bloodstock agent Jonah Dereham and his client Mrs Kerry Sanders leave Ascot horse sales, they are attacked and the horse that Jonah has just bought for Mrs Sanders is taken away. He buys a new horse but the situation repeats, only with the difference that now Jonah is prepared for the attack, manages to defend himself and the horse is not stolen. But the people who are against the whole thing do not want to surrender. One night a horse escapes from Jonah’s stables and it causes a car accident, due to which Jonah meets Sophie Randolph who becomes his girlfriend. Jonah finds out that the horse has not left by accident but that it has been another act made by the unknown person. Jonah runs out of patience when his stables are burned down and he decides to find the person who wants to destroy his existence.
There are other bloodstock agents, e.g. Vic Vincent and Fynedale, who have started a system of so called kick backs which is very profitable for them but not favourable for the breeders. Jonah is probably the only one who does not agree with this system and does not ask for any kick backs. It is the reason why he has to be shown that he should do the same as the others do.
Jonah finally discovers who the main aggressor is, and when this aggressor comes to Jonah’s house in order to settle the accounts with him, Jonah’s brother is killed by accident, but the aggressor is stopped in his wicked behaviour.
Odds Against
Sid Halley has to finish his racing career after a serious fall when his left hand is badly injured. After some time he begins to work for Hunt Radnor
Associates, a private detective agency.
During investigating a blackmail case a trap is set for the blackmailer but it fails and Sid gets shot. When he is spending his convalescence in his ex wife’s father Admiral Charles Roland’s house, he meets Mr and Mrs Kray who have been invited to dinner there, but they have not been told Sid’s present job.
Sid secretly makes some pictures of documents in Mr Kray’s briefcase which are the evidence that he is buying up the shares of Seabury racecourse in order to get the majority of the shares and then sell the racecourse for building houses there.
Sid also discovers that Mr Kray has been involved in the blackmail case.
Sid persuades Lord Hagbourne, the Jockey Club steward, that something has to be done otherwise Seabury will soon disappear from the map of racecourses.
There have been several problems at the racecourse that nevertheless have looked as bad luck, so the racecourse is guarded before the next racing day. Sid comes to check the guards, but he finds them asleep, and he himself is chased across the whole racecourse by Mr Kray and his followers. He is able to prevent sabotage, but he is captured and cruelly tortured. Finally he manages to call help for himself by using a trick, but he suffers terrible scars on both body and soul.
Reflex
A thirty year old steeplechase jockey Philip Nore, whose mother used to take drugs, did not look after him properly and died when he was eighteen, is very surprised when his dying grandmother Lavinia Nore who hates him calls for him and wants him to find his sister Amanda (who he does not know about) because she wants to leave her some money. Some time later Philip’s friend Steve
Millace’s father, a famous photographer George Millace, dies in a car accident, then Steve’s mother is attacked and finally their house is burgled and burnt.
Philip does not know yet that the burglars have wanted something that is in his house now – a box of George Millace’s photographic material which looks damaged at the first sight, but in fact it is his ingenious and secret archive.
Philip, an excellent photographer too, solves George’s puzzles and finds literary dynamite – photographs and letters concerning drugs, sex and cheating during races. They could compromise a few people in high positions and endanger the whole horse racing world. Philip realizes that George was a blackmailer. He decides to use some of the material in the same way as George did and he and his friend, a young lawyer Jeremy Folk, almost die because of these materials.
Philip also fulfils his grandmother’s wish and finds Amanda who lives with a religious sect, which his grandmother would not agree with, so he tells her that he has not succeed in looking for her granddaughter. Lavinia Nore finally leaves half her money to Philip and half to her homosexual son James although she has not intended to do so.
The book has a happy ending – evil has been beaten and Philip starts a family life with his girlfriend Clare.
Risk
An amateur jockey, accountant Roland Britten, is kidnapped from the racecourse right after he has won the Cheltenham Gold Cup. When he wakes up, he finds himself on a ship, captured in a small cabin. There are some people on the ship but they are not willing to give him any explanation. After several days on the sea Roland manages to escape and he is not caught again only thanks to
Miss Hilary Margaret Pinlock who hides him in her hotel room at Minorca
Island, which is the place around which the ship with Roland has been sailing.
After arriving back to England, Roland continues his work which involves checking accounts of his clients. As an accountant who works for many people involved in horse racing, he knows a lot about their financial situations, and therefore he has found a fraud which has been done by men called Powys, Glitberg and Ownslow. Roland thinks that the kidnap has been their revenge for the fact that they have been to prison because of him, but he is on the wrong track. Roland’s partner Trevor King is on holiday, therefore Roland does some work instead of him and he finds some discrepancies in William Finch’s accounts.
Suddenly Roland is kidnapped again and left in a van in an old warehouse for several days before the police finds him. Trevor King comes back from holiday and Roland wants to talk to him about the problems in the accounts, but Trevor does not want to discuss this issue.
However, Roland wants to solve the account problems, so one day he tells
Trevor that he knows that Trevor is involved in the fraud, and who has arranged the kidnap. Next day he goes to Trevor’s house where Trevor and William Finch, a trainer and father of Roland’s friend Jossie, are. To Roland’s horror, other people come – Powys, Glitberg and Ownslow, and now they take their revenge which is really cruel.
Anotace
Vymazalová, Andrea: The Portrayal of the English Society in the Work of Dick
Francis, diplomová práce. Brno, MU 2008, 74s., 16s. příloh.
Diplomová práce se zabývá složením anglické společnosti a některými jejími společenskými zvyky a pravidly v závislosti na určité společenské třídě. Tyto poznatky jsou podpořeny ukázkami z několika knih Dicka Francise, které ukazují, že někdy lze jako zdroj informací využít i populární literaturu.
Klíčová slova: anglická společnost, společenské třídy, společenské zvyky a pravidla
This diploma thesis deals with the stratification of the English society and with some of its social customs and rules depending on certain social class.
These pieces of information are supported by extracts from several books by
Dick Francis which confirm that sometimes also popular literature can be used as a source of information.
Key words: the English society, social classes, social customs and rules