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www.ilkestonlife.com ILKESTON LIFE August 2021 2

A BLAST FROM THE PAST! From the Library shelves
Local From time to time, readers have asked for more of Jim Sumner’s by A Borrower
Independent stories in Ilson dialect. Jim was a regular contributor to Ilkeston Life
Fresh magazine before it morphed into a newspaper. To be honest, the Plainsong
magazine’s success was probably more down to Jim than anyone
Entertaining else. Sadly, this lovely and talented man who was a local school-
teacher and headmaster before retiring, died last year. Here is the
If you don’t get a copy through first part of one of his true stories from the magazine of November
your door, Ilkeston Life is available 2013. Enjoy! Kent Haruf
online and from various outlets
including newsagents, shops, cafes,
post offices, supermarkets and ent Haruf offers us a They wore jeans and boots
libraries in our growing circulation
area. Besides Ilkeston, we are cur- Kdefinition of his title as an and canvas chore jackets and
rently supplying many surround- epigraph: caps with flannel earflaps. At
ing towns and villages: the tip of Harold’s nose a watery
We also give free copies to Ilkeston Plainsong …unisonous vocal drip quivered and dropped off
Hospital, nursing and care homes, music … any simple unadorned
doctors waiting rooms, schools, melody or air. while Raymond’s eyes were
etc. and mail out copies to sub- It also serves as a declaration of bleary and red from the cow
scribers. his intention as storyteller. His dust and the cold.
We are grateful to our many novel brings to life a group of Their knowledge of females
correspondents and out volunteers
for their help in fund raising, interconnecting people in the small is limited to what they have
distributing the paper and raising American town of Holt, Colora- learned from their heifers. Their
awareness of it. do. His prose is both simple and attempts to apply this experience
unadorned but nevertheless evokes to Victoria’s situation provides
our deepest empathy for their some amusing exchanges. There
Editorial office: 1 Bath Street, lives. are initial misunderstandings but
Ilkeston, Derbyshire DE7 8AH Holt is a fictional place but prob- both parties are prepared to make
Tel. 07539 808390 ably based on the small towns the allowances and an affection and
loyalty develops between the
author knew as a child. His father
Editor-in-chief: Paul Opiah was a Methodist minister and brothers and their young lodger.
Editor: Robert Attewell the family moved often to new When this relationship is threat-
news@ilkestonlife.com
Staff reporter: Rod Malcolm congregations. Plainsong is the ened by the re-appearance of the
Staff feature writer: Patricia Spencer first in a loose trilogy of novels, all baby’s father we sense the anguish
Staff photographer: John Shelton set in Holt. It introduces a number it causes. The McPheron brothers
john@ilkestonlife.com of characters who will re-appear are the moral centre of the novel
Advertising: Christine Chell anchoring it to the harsh reali-
and Paul Opiah, in the second and third novels:
sales@ilkestonlife.com Eventide and Benediction. ties of life and death as they go
Distribution: Paul Opiah At the centre of the action in through the daily routine of caring
paul@ilkestonlife.com Plainsong is the Guthrie family. for their livestock.
Webmaster: Adam Newton
adam@ilkestonlife.com The father, Tom, teaches in the Haruf writes about the most
community school and is a man of shattering events of human life
few words, and a rather unbending without melodrama but with an
© Copyright 2021 character. His wife is suffering assured and quiet understatement.
The material in Ilkeston Life is pro- some kind of breakdown and has
tected by copyright. If you wish to He shows ordinary people behav-
reproduce anything, please contact the withdrawn from the family life ing with love and compassion but
editor. leaving their two young sons, Ike he does not ignore the darker side
While every care is taken to be accu- and Bobby, to be raised by their of being human. There are acts of
rate, we are only human and mistakes father. The two boys spend a lot of cruelty in the story and some sinis-
do occur occasionally. If you are
unhappy with any of the content in the time on their own and some of the ter and abusive behaviour inflicted
paper, please contact the editor in the most poignant chapters in the nov- on those least able to deal with it.
first place. el cover the dangers and trauma to He gives us an ending which offers
We accept news and information from which they are exposed while their hope but also hints at future threats
correspondents in good faith and father’s attention is elsewhere.
cannot be held responsible for inaccu- to the fragile happiness which has
racies. We try not to include stories The boys do not speak very much, been won.
which may cause distress to anyone. If even to one another and they are Kent Haruf had been writing for
you have a view on any of the articles, struggling to understand what is
please write and let us know. happening between their parents about twenty years before his
Your letters are always welcome, but first novel was published. He had
we reserve the right to withhold or in a household where feelings are earned his living as a teacher:
edit. Anonymous letters will only be hidden and not vocalised. experience he puts to good use
printed in exceptional circumstances. Another thread in the novel is the in Plainsong. He spoke to his
If sending photographs, we prefer story of Victoria Roubideaux, a
them in jpeg format. seventeen year old high school students about how he struggled
COPY DEADLINE: 22nd. student whose mother throws her to keep alive this little pilot-sized
Our print date is usually the first out of home when she discovers flame of talent during the years
Thursday of the month. Delivery that she is pregnant. Victoria turns of rejection. Plainsong, his third
from our printers to Ilkeston is the novel, received instant recognition
following day. So the paper comes out for help to one of her teach- when it was published in 1999 and
on the first Friday of the month. ers, Maggie Jones, a woman of was nominated for many prizes.
The deadline for both adverts and compassion and common sense.
editorial is always the 22nd for the fol- Maggie initially takes Victoria into One critic praised Haruf for his
lowing month’s paper, unless by prior extraordinary ability to dissect
arrangement. (So, for example, 22nd her own home and then, when this the minutiae of relationships.
January for the February issue.) Send causes distress to her own elderly The author was acknowledged as
to us by email if possible. We prefer father, comes up with a solution belonging to that group of authors
to receive images as jpegs. We do not which seems at first to be utterly
print discourteous letters or articles. unworkable but which enriches all celebrated for their evocation of
All articles and adverts should comply IN THE SAME ISSUE... American small town life.
with the style and standards of the • Hallcroft, School of Hard Knocks featured Miss Youle, Miss Severn, Mr Wil- their lives. Haruf died at the age of 71 in 2014
paper. We reserve the right to refuse son and Mr Riley; Maggie asks the McPheron
or edit. brothers, a pair of elderly, bache- but his legacy of six novels will
The best way to get your article in the • Mark Gatley of Kirk Hallam and Friends of Kirk Hallam Lake and Meadows lor farmers whose property is 17 be enjoyed by readers for years to
paper is to make it easy for us. For were among the winners in the 2013 Erewash in Bloom awards; come.
instance, when we are approaching a • Ilkeston lost 2-1 to Gresley in the FA Trophy; miles outside the town and who
deadline, an emailed ready-to-use arti- • The Scala’s £100,000 refurbishment was completed; have never shared their house with Plainsong and Kent Haruf’s other
cle will always take preference over an • A concert by the Spire Singers to benefit Treetops Hospice was advertised; a woman since their mother died, novels are available to borrow
article on paper that we have to key in. to give a home to Victoria. Haruf from Ilkeston Library.
Email us: news@ilkestonlife.com • Ilkeston Theatre Club announced their panto Aladdin would be staged at a
new venue: the marquee at the Seven Oaks Inn. introduces us to the brothers :