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Reviews for For His Mother

Trickie Woo 2005.09.11 - 05:48PM 4: First Signs of Magic Signed
I have read all four chapters and the reviews. I find all your chapters to be very evocative of the poorer areas of the West Riding of Yorkshire in the mid 60's when I lived there. I find whitehound to be very picky, was she there at that time or even born yet? I was 21 when we went there and, except for the wealthy times were hard for the people in the North, they weren't living much better than they were in wartime. I saw row upon row of those tiny, 2 up and 2 down terraced houses in the industrial towns of the West Riding. Yorkshire may not have been the heart of the cotton mill industry, but the West Riding had it's share of fabric mills and they were starting to switch over to make fabrics from synthetic fibers at that time. A large chemical company the specialized in making synthetic fibers was headquartered in Harrogate where I lived, unfortunately I can't remember the company's name, but they were actively lobbying the mills to switch over to thier fibers. I think your setting fits perfectly with your story, those mills were hiring and you are right about the lowest in senority being assigned to the least desirable shift. The unions were very strong and would have been made sure Eileen knew her place in the pecking order. The council schools were just as rough and tumble as you describe. Life wasn't easy if you were poor and working class in a West Riding industrial town. In 1997 the state of the neighborhood would be pretty much as JKR described it, we went over for a visit in 2003 and drove a rented car from the Manchester Airport to where our friends lived on a farm about 8 miles from Leeds. The rows of houses were still there in the towns we drove through, maybe not as many, but still there and most of them were boarded up with an occasional one still occupied. Your story fits the life and times of these people so well that it's like you lived there then and were writing from personal experience.

Author's Response: Wow. Thank you for your kind words. I've never lived in England, but I have read a lot of history. I've read a couple of books recently about the history of industrialization. I find that Snape's experiences correlate quite well to those of children in southern Georgia, USA. I grew up in the country, but the elementary school to which I went was just as rough as the one I describe here. Whenever we went into town, we'd drive through the poor mill communities. I knew quite a few people who lived very rough lives. It was even worse if you happened to be African-American, which I'm not. I've never worked in a mill, but I know people from the generation before me who have and have told stories about it. I have heard lots of accounts from the "old folks" about living without heat or electricity. Some of this is semi-autobiographical, of course; some is from research, and some is from observing the people around me.

Verity Brown 2005.09.10 - 01:41AM 4: First Signs of Magic Signed
Ouch. This reminds of one of the reasons I identify with Severus--being picked on in school. Poor child. :~(

June W 2005.09.09 - 04:24PM 4: First Signs of Magic Anonymous
Poor kid, the teachers should've done something to help. I can see this type of thing happening all too easily, and it will only get worse at Hogwarts with the Marauders. Thanks for posting.




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