The Offing: A BBC Radio 2 Book Club Pick

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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. Meine Erwartungen waren riesig, lieben doch so viele dieses Buch. Vor allem die unabhängigen Buchhandlungen, denn zu deren Lieblingsbuch wurde es 2020 gekührt. Und so wurde ich auch zuerst darauf aufmerksam. Indeed, The Offing has become even more “a novel for our times” since it was published last year. With the world firmly in the grip of the coronavirus crisis, Dulcie’s claim that “‘We live in a most shadowed present … These are uncertain times’” rings truer than ever. Robert feels he owes it to those who have sacrificed their lives to live his own to the full, while Dulcie insists that “‘the likes of you and I, we must fight to make the world a more liveable, colourful and exciting place’” – a perfect post-pandemic rallying cry if ever there was one. A draft of cool, clear water, it feels like a cleansing book ... He's such a good and brave writer ... there's a lot of heart in this book ... I was comparing it to some Ted Hughes poetry and it's so much more hopeful than that ... there's light in this landscape ... A very original writer and has pushed the form in all kinds of ways * MONOCLE * As time passes we also see the way in which Robert’s presence alleviates Dulcie’s loneliness. It is because of Robert that Dulcie decides to revisit of her own past, and so she shares the most wonderful and heartbreaking moments of her life with him.

I'm sure I remember reading somewhere that this was the first novel McCleen wrote, though it was published after her others; I can't find confirmation of that now, but turned up several references (e.g. here) to the fact that she wrote all three of her books in the same year, 2010. The reason I remembered this in the first place was that The Offering seems to bear traces of amateurishness I didn't detect in McCleen's elegant second novel, The Professor of Poetry. The story is narrated by Madeline, a long-term patient at Lethem Park Mental Infirmary. She's in her mid-thirties, although – deliberately? – she sounds decades older. Admitted as a teenager, Madeline has never recovered any memories of what happened the night she ran away from her parents' cottage (or so she claims). As she is treated by a disruptive new doctor, Dr Lucas, the story she has repressed for two decades is slowly revealed. 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. 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. 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.

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McClean also made this story so relatable to everyday issues, without trying to fit too much in. With the issues of mental health and how religion can take over the mind, this novel incorporated so much of the real world whilst keeping it detailed as though through the limited scope of a young girl who knows nothing of the outside world. 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…… Aided by the diary she kept at the time, Madeline reluctantly sets out on a journey towards recollection, painfully reliving the claustrophobic experiences of a childhood dominated by the religious zeal of her father, a childhood in which she perceives the world with a hallucinogenic intensity: In the course of this pivotal summer Robert’s mind and body develop. Dulcie encourages him not to limit himself, not to view his future as preordained.

The tension of their relationship is diminished. So too is the book’s central mystery about Dulcie’s long-lost lover, Romy. Okoh’s version is a three-hander in which Romy (Ingvild Lakou) moves from a haunting presence to a character in her own right, shortcutting the book’s slow-burning revelations. What a radical thing, these days, to have written a book so full of warmth and kindness. Two complaints: it made me hungry, especially their first meal. It made me want to swim so badly. It's gorgeous -- MAX PORTER Benjamin Myers ist trotz aller Einwände ein Roman gelungen, der unterhält, der ein gutes Gespür für die Atmosphäre des unmittelbaren Nachkriegsenglands, aber auch für jene grauen Landstriche im Norden beweist, die durch Kohlebergbau, Armut und den allgegenwärtigen Staub geprägt wurden. Man begreift die Lebenslust und Neugier dieses jungen Mannes, der die Kriegsjahre als Heranwachsender erleben musste und somit die Zeiten der Entbehrung, der Lebensmittelkarten und Rationierungen früh im Leben kannte. Sein Zusammentreffen mit Dulcie ist auch ein Fenster in eine vergangene Zeit, die Vorkriegszeit, in der es einen gewissen europäischen Kosmopolismus gegeben hatte, eben auch Frauen eine gewisse Freiheit besaßen, ungebunden zu reisen, die Welt zu erforschen. Wobei Dulcie und Romy auch in ihrer Generation wahrscheinlich Ausnahmegestaltenihrer gewesen sein dürften. Diese alte und doch so lebensfreudige Dame bemüht sich inständig, den durch die britische Propaganda beeinflussten Jungen mit einem Interesse für die Welt jenseits der Grenzen des Landes zu begeistern, ihm auch die Deutschen als Kulturvolk nahe zu bringen und ihn zudem in die Welt des (europäischen) Geistes einzuführen, was ihr schließlich auch gelingt. As well as feeding him up, Dulcie encourages Robert to go to university and introduces him to poetry: “mankind’s way of saying that we’re not entirely alone”. In doing so, she reveals she was once the lover of Romy Landau, a tragic German poet. When Robert discovers a manuscript of Romy’s final unpublished collection (also called The Offing), it leads Dulcie to a message from beyond the grave.

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This is a poetic book with a winning generosity of spirit, moving from a folksy celebration of the rural north to a revelation of the broader horizons that can come from reading and some serious culture * SUNDAY TIMES * 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. Struggling to make sense of what she sees, Madeline uses the only frame of reference she knows - the stories of the bible. The result is a vivid and passionate confusion in which poverty, isolation, and a passionate response to the natural world are all mixed up with her understanding of the personality of God.

I wanted very much to enjoy this book, to really sink into it. It seemed like a good moment to read a heartwarming tale of a golden summer and life lessons learned between an older woman and a teenage boy. I have been craving depictions of the natural world, and I spent most of my childhood holidays just a few miles from where this book it set. I’ve heard great things about the writer, and I appreciated that it was a northern writer. 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 authorI was obsessed with Judy Blume books, to the extent that every week I’d write a book report for my teacher in junior school about the latest Judy Blume I’d read, even though I didn’t have to. I read all of them and knew everything there was to know about training bras and periods by the time I was 10. I read a lot of American writers like Betsy Byars and Paula Danziger. Then I started reading horror. I got a taste for the macabre very early on. When I was about 10 or 11 I read a really graphic book about Denis Nilsen [the serial killer] and I think that had a massive effect on me. Dr Lucas has an agenda and I am part of it: he stands to win or lose depending on the result of my treatment… In any case I have an agenda too, entitled “release’. Everyone has an agenda, its just a question of who reads whose first. If, however, I am to be a pawn deployed to prove or disprove his theory….. then it is crucial to let the mover believe the pawn is a pawn, and oblivious to his intent.