Blood and Coal by Sue Harper

A University of Portsmouth Emeritus Professor who came from a poor Midlands background has dedicated her newly published memoir to her mother, who inspired her love of art. Veteran journalist Peter Gruner tells us more.

Sue Harper’s fascinating book Blood and Coal tells the story of her struggling mining family who lived in working-class Nottingham from the 1900s onwards. It was her mum Josephine, a flower seller and wreath maker, who suddenly discovered her own artistic talent and inspired her only daughter, Sue.

Today Sue, an accomplished writer, from Hayling Island, includes this dedication to her mum Josephine, known as Josie: ‘The best mother anyone could ever have had. “Sleep now, little bird.”‘ Josie came from a loveless family and her parents left her with relatives when they went to work in London. She was just eight.

Mum (Josie) aged 19
Sue and Mum (Josie) in 2010

Years later Sue herself remembers growing up in an atmosphere often filled with anxiety and money troubles. A Friday night dinner might be just sugar sandwiches.

Her dad Freddie, Josie’s husband, came from a particularly difficult background. He was just nine when he witnessed the death of his mother, who was pushed down the stairs by his father. He was pressurised at an early age to work down the pit. ‘He hated it,’ writes Sue. ‘The noise, the confinement and the dust.’

Freddie had a bad World War II. He was put on bombsite duties in Nottingham, where he often pulled out bodies.

After the war life became more difficult for Josie, who worked in an aunt’s flower shop where she made colourful wreaths for the relatives of the dead. She loved husband Freddie and wanted to make him happy but he became suspicious of women and more intransigent.  He died suddenly of a stroke aged 54 in 1974.

Sue, and Dad (Freddie)

Sue writes, ‘Something extraordinary happened. Mum began to paint. At first copies of great works of art (Monet’s Waterlilies, Van Gogh’s Sunflowers) and then images of her own, including landscapes and still-lives.’

Her paintings were as colourful and as inventive as the funeral wreaths she had woven long ago. ‘They poured out of her like blood. And people liked and bought them.’

Josie told Sue, ‘It was a good thing your father died young. He would have laughed at my paintings. He’d never have permitted it.’

Sue, despite her background, got into grammar school. One teacher declared in front of the class, ‘Girls like Susan will find it very difficult, as they come from such uncultured homes.’ However, Sue proved a lot of people wrong when she was later admitted to Reading University. She also thanks a Buddhist Nun called Ayya Brahmavara who helped her cope with life’s difficulties. ‘I spent 24 hours talking with her,’ Sue remembers. ‘It was like drinking at a cold spring when you were dying of thirst.’

Sue and Mum (Josie)

There are many other characters in the book: Grandfather Chum, who smuggled opium in Canton, Great Uncle Ernest, who was the first sailor to be killed by a German submarine and Grandfather Bill, who charmed the ladies. Part One of the book deals with Sue’s maternal family, Two, her paternal family and Three is imaginary conversations between family members who never met.

Summing up, Sue said, ‘Many films and novels see the Edwardian period (1901-1914) as one long hot summer.  There are the horses plodding the streets with water carts, and the pinafore-wearing children playing the hoops. But that England was for those blessed with privilege. For the rural poor, it was a brutal place.’

Sue is the last surviving member of her family.

 

Blood and Coal: The story of a Nottingham Mining Family (DB Publishing) is available to buy from JMD Media or on Amazon for £9.99 or on Kindle for £6.99.

All the pictures used here are courtesy of Sue Harper, who also thanks genealogist Carol Bannister for her contribution to the book.