The Fortnight in September

The advancing tide has driven the holidaymakers ever closer to the sea wall to the point where they huddle together in uncomfortable proximity.  Just such a scene is described in R C Sherriff’s novel, The Fortnight in September, along with the social anxiety it gives rise to.  It tells the story of a lower middle-class South London family meticulously planning and making the best of their annual late summer holiday in the south coast resort of Bognor - when the holiday ends the novel ends too. Published in 1931 just a few years after Sheriff’s First World War drama, Journey’s End, had been a great success on the stage on both sides of the Atlantic. Sherriff followed up his great drama with a novel in which drama is entirely absent.  No action or event is too insignificant to be described in detail along with the inner voices of the characters as they attempt to conduct themselves with decency and propriety while at all costs avoiding stepping into the sea of embarrassment that never ceases to threaten. Painfully aware of their modest status in the hierarchy of social class, the head of the family must lead his dependants safely through the social minefield and he’s never more tormented than when he finds himself in the company of his social superiors with every muscle tensed to avoid transgressing the boundaries of class.

The Stevens family is a model of English decency and emotional restraint, ever polite and respectful to all, never allowing a mean thought to enter their heads.  Their ambitions are tempered by realism and they share the capacity to take pleasure in simple things.  They enjoy each other’s company much more than the company of strangers.  Routine is what holds the family together and builds a fortress against negligence and chaos.  In the Great March to Bognor, everyone must play their part as assigned by Father and his masterplan.  Before it has even begun, he contemplates the end of the holiday and the accompanying sense of melancholy - his glass is resolutely half empty. The holiday is the single great annual event in their lives and has followed the same pattern for 15 years.

In those 15 years the children have grown up while the boarding house where they stay has aged and decayed. It’s impossible to ignore the declining quality of service and the impact of the ageing process on their hostess.  All of which signals that change is on the horizon - and change is the enemy of routine. Another sign of change is the growing independence of the older children as they move into a future outside the family.  Mary is the oldest, at 19 increasingly aware of the male gaze and in a mood to take her chances with the opposite sex.  After a year working in a white collar job, Dick (17) is restless and has begun to dream of training to become an architect. Forces are gathering that will drive the family apart.  Quietly and incrementally, the universe that Father created is collapsing around him.  His own future is equally uncertain - his much valued post as secretary to the local football club has deviously been taken away from him. At work his thoughts of promotion to senior management have come to an end with a discreet message that this can never happen. Mother is the least contented character and the least likely to articulate her unhappiness.  She scarcely has a voice and her very existence is overlooked by all while she labours night and day at the endless domestic tasks that make family life possible.  The sea terrifies her, yet when she goes missing at the seaside, the family display only limited concern. Typical of the silly goose to get lost and cause a lot of unnecessary fuss.

Sherriff created a single event in the life of an unexceptional family and explored some major themes as he recorded their addiction to ritual and resistance to change.  There’s no peace of mind to be had while survival seems poised on the edge of disintegration. Despite eternal vigilance not everything can be controlled. How to live with unfairness and small failures.  Loss is one of life’s great certainties and Sherriff placed it at the heart of this book with his subtle account of the passage of time eroding everything that we value and depend upon for emotional wellbeing.