Metropolitan Sociopaths Banished to Under a Rock,

From the author of The Cone Gatherers and as reviewed for Tumultuous Greenhorns, Formerly Doctrinaires, The Missionaries, Guests of War is set in 1939 at the beginning of WWII and it charts the fortunes of the women, children and school teachers of the city Gowburgh as they are forced to evacuate to the safety of Lanrigg, a respectable village in the Scottish Borders.

As with other books by Robin Jenkins, there are a great number of characters of which no one takes overall precedence. The story begins in Gowburgh as the schoolteachers prepare for the departure and decide which mothers will be allowed to accompany their children to the countryside. Some mothers qualified for the evacuation automatically because of the age and number of children they had whilst others like Mrs McShelvie had to be interviewed and selected to join the party as a caretaker.

Upon arrival at Lanrigg, the class difference begins to affect the evacuees. Initially, the mothers and children were stored like cattle in the tiny village hall before the town council decided which children would be fostered by which residents. Maverick schoolteacher, Mr Roy comes to the fore in aiding the Gowburgh evacuees’ struggle against the neglectful, resentful and incompetent Lanrigg people. He ensures that one of the nicest Gowburgh mothers is housed with Mrs Cargill, a wealthy, yet friendly lady on her grand estate. He battled to have the empty Lammermuir mansion available to accommodate the mothers and children for who foster homes could not be found; despite loaned to Lanrigg Council to host the Gowburgh contingent, the snobby council decided to leave it vacant in order to protect the architecture and artefacts of the building. In an act of revenge, he managed to alter the paperwork such that the schools two most hideous ruffians would be sent to the council leader’s house for care.

After some time, some mothers and children begun to yearn for Gowburgh whilst others became more attached to the Lanrigg life and began to behave in the style of its denizens. The most interesting case was that of Mrs McShelvie after being appointed caretaker of the Lammermuir mansion, she faced a battle with her inner self. She had always longed to live in the country and became desperate to stay in Lanrigg and grow into one on its townsfolk but at the same time, she knew that her background was in the deprived Gowburgh streets and she lived with the mothers and children of Lammermuir house who had no interest in bettering themselves or country life. Eventually, she grew distant from the occupants of Lammermuir and when her son died at his Lanrigg foster home in an accident, Mrs McShelvie isolates herself by deciding to veto Lanrigg’s plans for a mass celebration of his life and a huge funeral service in favour of a non-religious burial with only a few people in attendance.

I liked being able to identify with these two characters, non-conformists with a sense of duty. They have ambition but they know their limitations, and these limitations are imposed on them through no fault of their own, they were born into their backgrounds. Mrs McShelvie, in particular, feels helpless because she thinks that the prejudiced opinions of the Lanrigg people if the Gowburgh evacuees can all learn to behave with more dignity. Although this book was set nearly 70 years ago, I feel that much of the class differences still exist in today’s society, I feel out of place being a Methilite in St. Andrews, and should a similar city-to-country evacuation occur when The Canadian gets involved in WWIII, I’m sure the city dwellers might suffer a similar level of hostility.