posted on 08 Apr 2016

Out of the Pit by J.B. Pick

I’m pretty sure that this 1951 novel by John Barclay Pick is currently out of print – which probably reflects a view from publishers that it’s a piece of fiction about a vanished world that would have very little relevance to the modern reader. In that it deals with the frustrations of young people who feel themselves trapped in their tightly-knit , working class mining community there may be some truth in that. However, the fact that it addresses, in dramatic and very recognisable terms, the significance of identity and the powerful draw of community, it is in reality a universal story as relevant today as it was when it was published.

Pick himself is a somewhat forgotten character. Born in Leicester in 1921 he died last year at the age of 93 in his adopted Scotland. He was a tireless advocate of literature and of Scottish authors in particular – he was the author of a biography of Neil Gunn and a great champion of the work of the science fiction writer David Lindsay. Pick was co-founder of the Cannongate Classics imprint and a regular reviewer on The Scotsman newspaper.

Out of The Pit is the story of Dave Stand, a young miner who sees himself as something of an outsider, a miner not by conviction but by dint of peer pressure and community assumptions. He falls for a young bus conductor, Phyllida Markham, and between the two of them they construct a fantasy of eventual escape from their community, their families and what seems to be their inevitable fate. Pick makes it clear that Dave is troubled and searching for something he can’t define. He struggles to understand the sense of alienation he feels and attempts to fill that gap through self-education, making visits to the library a regular part of his life. His father’s view of his son’s behaviour is interesting because he takes the view that the working man needs to be smart enough to know when he is being exploited but not so well educated that it makes him unsettled in his community.

But Dave finds it  almost impossible to reconcile to the community he comes from. Despite the fact that he tries to blend in and spend time leisure time with his work mates, he never feels in tune with them. He sees himself as institutionalised ‘like a prisoner who has been in jail too long’ and despairs of breaking free.

However, when the pit managers and trade unions agree to host a film crew who want to make a promotional movie about the nationalised coalfields an opportunity comes Dave’s way to make a break. But, what looks like a resolution to his problems actually merely acts to hasten his ultimate dilemma. When his pit is called out on unofficial strike he is forced to choose between the prospect of his new life and the pull of his loyalty to his trade union and his work mates. He doesn’t want to lose the opportunity of making a new life in film-making – even though he knows it might not be a realistic long term option – but at the same time he feels a deep emotional need to support his colleagues in their trade union struggle.

The powerful conflict this sparks in him forces Dave to the realisation that the resolution of his conundrum lies not in where he is physically but where he is mentally. Ultimately, he comes to recognise that the community will always be more important than the aspirations of the individual. In the end neither Dave or Phyllida are able to leave the town – physically or emotionally - and are left to find salvation in their commitment to each other.

This is a chunk of British proletarian social realism that is quite unfashionable today in a marketplace dominated by novels of middle class angst but it has an immediacy and an urgency that I found engaging. If you want to get a copy, you’ll need to look out for it on the second hand market – copies can be found for £10 or a little more.

 

Terry Potter

April 2016