MIRIAM: A Tale of Pole Moor and the Greenfield Hills links the protagonists to The Burn Platts, an area above Slaithwaite near Pole Moor where a group of Romanys or Gypsies lived around the time of an incident which took place, in 1832, at the Moorcock Inn, on the edge of the bleak moorland above Greenfield near Saddleworth. It was at this remote pub that the landlord and his gamekeeper son were violently murdered. The Burnplatters were described by MR. G. S. Philips in 1848 as a group of savages "living in log huts thatched with sods, and paying neither rent nor taxes. They were a community to themselves, and had their own wild laws and government. They were the terror likewise of all wayfarers, and it was dangerous for any man to go amongst them alone." It includes substantial portions of dialect spoken at that time in the area when Greenfield was still part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The author has attempted to reproduce this phonetically using the conventional alphabet. He is not always consistent in the way the dialect is transcribed though this in itself illustrates the nature of dialect.
In all of Sykes' novels he draws heavily on his own life experiences though none more so than in this, his third, semi-autobiographical novel. The Edward Beaumont of the novel is indeed Sykes; his solicitors practice and early political aspirations are featured along with his romance of the daughter of a Lincolnshire vicar. From newspaper articles we can also confirm that he was a councillor and a potential parliamentary candidate for the West Staffordshire constituency; his embroilment with the weavers dispute, bankruptcy and his dependency on alcohol are also well documented. He is however selective in what he chooses to reveal about himself and uses artistic licence to make the book more readable. He does give us an insight into his ideas, opinions and aspirations and the turmoil he must have endured before turning his life around. It is a salutary lesson in how a talented man can be destroyed for his convictions and his struggle, with support, to regain his self-respect.
In all of Sykes' novels he draws heavily on his own life experiences though none more so than in this, his third, semi-autobiographical novel. The Edward Beaumont of the novel is indeed Sykes; his solicitors practice and early political aspirations are featured along with his romance of the daughter of a Lincolnshire vicar. From newspaper articles we can also confirm that he was a councillor and a potential parliamentary candidate for the West Staffordshire constituency; his embroilment with the weavers dispute, bankruptcy and his dependency on alcohol are also well documented. He is however selective in what he chooses to reveal about himself and uses artistic licence to make the book more readable. He does give us an insight into his ideas, opinions and aspirations and the turmoil he must have endured before turning his life around. It is a salutary lesson in how a talented man can be destroyed for his convictions and his struggle, with support, to regain his self-respect.
MIRIAM: A Tale of Pole Moor and the Greenfield Hills links the protagonists to The Burn Platts, an area above Slaithwaite near Pole Moor where a group of Romanys or Gypsies lived around the time of an incident which took place, in 1832, at the Moorcock Inn, on the edge of the bleak moorland above Greenfield near Saddleworth. It was at this remote pub that the landlord and his gamekeeper son were violently murdered. The Burnplatters were described by MR. G. S. Philips in 1848 as a group of savages "living in log huts thatched with sods, and paying neither rent nor taxes. They were a community to themselves, and had their own wild laws and government. They were the terror likewise of all wayfarers, and it was dangerous for any man to go amongst them alone." It includes substantial portions of dialect spoken at that time in the area when Greenfield was still part of the West Riding of Yorkshire. The author has attempted to reproduce this phonetically using the conventional alphabet. He is not always consistent in the way the dialect is transcribed though this in itself illustrates the nature of dialect.
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