The Offing: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick

Product Information

The novel is written in quite lyrical language, with lots of description of the landscape, the seasons, food, the sky. One member described it as “ really a book of poetry, but written as a novel”. As a book group based in the North East ourselves we enjoyed all the local references, even if some members found the early chapters a bit too slow moving. However even they were soon swept up into the story and most people found it difficult to put the book down after that. The writing is very atmospheric and perfectly evokes high summer in the meadows and on the coast. Overall we found this book beautifully written and produced, a rewarding read and one with plenty to keep the reader’s interest alive throughout, and with plenty to discuss. I adored Grace McCleen's earlier novel The Land of Decoration, and The Offering similarly has as its protagonist a young girl growing up in relative isolation with religious fundamentalists, deeply confused about what she believes to be her relationship with God. It’s Durham and summer and just after the war. Robert has just left school. Before starting work he decides to walk down the coast. At Robin Hood’s Bay he comes across Dulcie, an elderly lady living in a cottage within sight of the sea. Their summer together and their friendship changes both their lives. Dulcie is a really interesting character – she’s had a rich life, full of people and places and experiences. Her greatest love was a woman poet called Romy. I was absorbed by her love for Romy, her sorrow at her death – and by the inspiration she gave to Robert – leading him to a rich life too. The writing style is poetic, to match the poetic leanings of the narrator. A lovely summer and a lovely story.” About the author Your previous novels were put out by a small independent publisher, Bluemoose . After the Walter Scott prize and the huge sales of The Gallows Pole, The Offing feels like a departure both in the fact that it’s being published by Bloomsbury and in its more gentle, pastoral feel.

Dreamland sits at one end of Margate’s seafront; its other terminus is Turner Contemporary. I wanted to locate the show in the midst of these two destinations: somewhere between an attraction and an exhibition, looking out towards the horizon to see what’s coming. I found the original meaning of the show’s title in The Cloud as I stood on Margate Main Sands. Phone in hand, my eyes scanning the body of water for where the distant moves ever closer. Those of us finding solace in small acts of kindness, books, music, birdsong and walks in the park might consider such “little things” to be more than coping strategies but, in fact, ends in themselves. Since then he’s produced a series of award-winning novels across different genres developing a distinctive voice before arriving at this fully realised coming of age tale set in an England just about recovered from the Second World War. Succumbing to this irresistible urge to escape the claustrophobic confines of the County Durham mining village in which he has been born and raised, he sets out on a cross-country meander towards the coast, ravenous for new experiences:

Use this service to:

Benjamin Myers’s first novel since his Walter Scott prize-winning The Gallows Pole and switch from tiny indie publisher Bluemoose to Bloomsbury is an unexpectedly touching story of a friendship that conquers the barriers of age, class and gender. Set over a summer in the aftermath of the second world war, the book follows 16-year-old Robert Appleyard as he leaves his Durham colliery village to search for any work that isn’t coal mining: “an act of escapology and rebellion”. On reaching the east coast, he encounters Dulcie Piper, a woman three times his age who lives alone in a rambling cottage. They form an unlikely but symbiotic relationship, in which he gardens while she provides food, shelter and intellectual sustenance. When it comes, the release Madeline gains, is perhaps not the one she thought she was seeking, but the one she needed nonetheless.

The writing is beautiful and evocative describing a summer long gone but always remembered. The character of Dulcie is memorable and refreshingly open and non-judgemental.This is the story of 13-year-old Madeline who has been brought up by her preacher parents on a diet of “Jesus is our Saviour” but also with an emphasis on sins (not least among them the sin of “unnatural desires”, of course) and a vengeful, bloodthirsty old-testament God. When the family moves to an island to convert the local "unbelievers” Madeline is determined to find God that summer and keeps a journal on her quest whose entries - even considering her upbringing - don’t sound like anything such a young girl would write : too serious, intense, articulate, abstract. Sixteen year old Robert Appleyard sets off from his mining village on an epic solo walk across the rural north searching for something better he thinks is just beyond his limited horizons. This wannabe intellectual comes across posh eccentric Dulcie, living in faded glory above Yorkshire’s Robin Hood’s Bay, who helps him find the path he needs to take, but she is hiding a secret that will change both their lives Although drinking in his newfound freedom, Robert’s outlook is still limited by the beliefs drummed into him about what someone like him can expect to achieve. He is therefore unprepared when he meets Dulcie Piper, a wealthy and eccentric older lady living in a rundown cottage above a remote bay. She recognises the potential in the boy and sets about inculcating an appreciation of literature. Amongst other pleasures, including fine cooking and wider thinking, she introduces him to poetry. Afflicted by a restless desire to lose himself and both to leave behind the constraints of his normal life and to postpone his future as a miner, Robert takes up and travels across the northern countryside.

Members found both the two main characters intriguing and likeable, and found their friendship and enjoyment of each other’s company believable, despite the difference in their ages. Indeed several members said they would like to end up being Dulcie-like! –perhaps not so surprising given that most of us already live in fairly remote rural locations, and so could easily imagine living in Dulcie’s house on the coast. Although Dulcie seems at first quite hard and secretive, we enjoyed the way we get to see her softer edges as the novel progresses and we learn more of her life story. I am not sure how I came across this novel, but I am so glad I did, and so wish I had someone to discuss it with…… On his travels, Robert stumbles serendipitously across Dulcie Piper. A free-spirited and independent woman of astonishing vim and vigour, she sates the 16-year-old naif’s appetites – first for food, and later for spiritual and intellectual sustenance. Not, though, for carnal gratification – Myers deftly sidestepping the temptation to lapse into cliched male fantasy and turn Dulcie into a seductive Mrs Robinson. See Europe at the very least while you can, because soon enough someone else will decide to try to destroy it again. And, God knows, they like to rope the young into their messes.’”The Offing, by Benjamin Myers, is written in prose that is as mesmerising as poetry. The author conjures up a potent sense of place, rendering the beauty and power of nature alongside man’s small place in it. The tale is humbling but also uplifting. This is writing to be savoured. Aside from this, I was disappointed that a book by a northerner about the north gives all the best lines to a stereotyped portrayal of a progressive southern toff. It seemed unnecessary, particularly when North Yorkshire has no shortage of strong characters.