by Annie Murray
I am feeling especially melancholy though today, as a terrible sad thing has happened. I think I told you in my last letter that I had palled up with an Irish lad, Christie O’Brien? He’d come from England, but he said he’d been training as a priest in Ireland and left the seminary. Wouldn’t say why, but he seemed to have had it hard. He was killed by a sniper yesterday – hiding out in the church tower they were. Got him straight through the head. I feel badly as I have no address to let his family know. He didn’t talk much about where he came from. I’ll miss Christie, though, God rest him. He was a good compañero.
I’m going to have to stop, when I feel I’ve barely begun, there’s so much to describe and there’s so much to feel. But this is to let you know how we are so far. Go and see Mam now and then for me, will you? And keep up those letters to Billy – you’ve done wonders for him.
All I want to say is too much to put down, about how you’re in my heart and all the bad I’ve done I’m ashamed of. But I’m rushing now and it’s coming out wrong. I do love you, however hard it is for you to believe me. You’re my light. I hope I’ll get another letter from you soon, dear Gwen.
Anyway, Salud! as they say here.
My love,
Daniel
Author’s Note
The ‘Federation’ and the ‘Movement’ referred to in the text are the South Wales Miners’ Federation and the National Unemployed Workers’ Movement respectively.
Miss Purdy’s Class
Annie Murray was born in Berkshire and read English at St John’s College, Oxford. Her first job took her to Birmingham, where she met and married her husband. They have four children. Her first ‘Birmingham’ novel, Birmingham Rose, hit The Times bestseller list when it was published in 1995. She has subsequently written nine other successful novels, including, most recently, Family of Women. Annie Murray now lives in Reading.
Also by Annie Murray
Birmingham Rose
Birmingham Friends
Birmingham Blitz
Orphan of Angel Street
Poppy Day
The Narrowboat Girl
Chocolate Girls
Water Gypsies
Family of Women
For Rose
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to the South Wales Miners’ Library, Swansea, the Labour History Archive and the Peoples’ Museum, both in Manchester, to the Big Pit at Blaenafon, to Tonypandy Library, Birmingham Central Library and Castle Vale Readers’ Group, Birmingham.
To written resources – most especially Lewis Jones (d.1939, RIP), to Hywel Francis, and to Peter D. Drake for his thesis on the Birmingham Labour Movement and the Spanish Civil War (1977).
To people – especially Alannah Darcy at Castle Vale Library, Sheila Ward, Jane and Lewis Jones for impromptu lessons in Birmingham’s social history and to Susan Langford-Johnson for her hospitality in Wales.
First published 2005 by Macmillan
This edition published simultaneously in 2005 by Pan Books
This electronic edition published 2010 by Pan Books
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ISBN 978-0-330-52769-9 PDF
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Copyright © Anne Murray 2005
The right of Anne Murray to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
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Table of Contents
Title page
Dedication page
Acknowledgements
Boxing Day, 1935
Contents
Spring Term
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Easter Holidays
Fifteen
Summer Term
Sixteen
Seventeen
Eighteen
Nineteen
Twenty
Twenty-One
Twenty-Two
Twenty-Three
Twenty-Four
Twenty-Five
Twenty-Six
Twenty-Seven
Twenty-Eight
Twenty-Nine
Thirty
Thirty-One
Thirty-Two
Thirty-Three
Thirty-Four
Summer Holidays
Thirty-Five
Thirty-Six
Thirty-Seven
Thirty-Eight
Thirty-Nine
Forty
Forty-One
Forty-Two
Autumn Term
Forty-Three
Forty-Four
Forty-Five
Forty-Six
Forty-Seven
Forty-Eight
Forty-Nine
Fifty
Fifty-One
Fifty-Two
Fifty-Three
Fifty-Four
Epilogue
Copyright page
