“Lawrence’s Muse” - Scarthin Books 23/02/24

Over the past few years, either by accident or design, we’ve done a fair bit of following in Lawrence’s footsteps: through the streets of Eastwood and Taormina, the meadows around Greasley Church and, most recently, the footpaths of the Amalfi Coast. What a beautiful experience that was last Summer when we walked from Agerola to Positano on the airy Il Sentiero Degli Dei (The Path of the Gods) and, in amongst the tumbling lemon groves and stunning coastal views, came across a colourfully ornate information board dedicated to DH Lawrence who, while staying in nearby Ravello, loved to walk this path and admire the vista “west towards the Isle of Capri, that steep, sultry coast with crystalline mountains where today’s gods are abandoned and a lost Mediterranean is discovered again.” How long ago that sunny Italian afternoon seemed, separated by months of rain, murk and half an alphabet of named storms, when, late last month, we walked through the soggy streets of Spondon to the railway station to catch the 16.17 to Cromford and embark upon our latest Lawrentian jaunt, a talk and discussion about Jessie Chambers, Lawrence’s Muse, led by Kate Foster and Andrew Cooper, the very engine room of the Haggs Farm Preservation Society.
In forty five minutes we were transported from platform 2 of Spondon Station, adjacent to the sprawling industrial site of what was once British Celanese, to the picturesque backwater of Cromford Station, where, at the start of Alison Uttley’s “A Traveller in Time”, Penelope alights to begin her adventures, swapping the smoky streets of 1930s London for the magical Peak District! Perhaps Lawrence felt that same mood shift after he had walked the three miles from Eastwood to Haggs Farm.
The Edwardian era of Lawrence’s bookish courtship of Jessie is easier to imagine when you come to a place like Cromford. Despite its proximity to the busy A6 it feels nicely old fashioned with its millpond and plethora of Methodist chapels. And Robinson’s fish and chip shop on the market place, as a chilly dusk settled on that February afternoon, was like the pre neon chippies of my childhood as we queued up for our tea, aware that we were the only ones who didn’t know the ladies serving behind the counter by their first names. Fortified by alfresco fish, chips and mushy peas we wandered up The Promenade to Scarthin Bookshop, without which it’s difficult to imagine Cromford. A bit like Bert without his muse Jessie, as Kate and Andrew would go on to argue.
We were still a bit early for the 6.30 start so had decided to pop in for a browse amongst the shelves and many rooms of Scarthin. However, upon walking in we saw that Sophie was behind the counter and so began a ten minute blether about Wirksworth, Public Service Broadcasting, Brookfield Community School, her band Haiku Salut and how, in Sophie’s words, “They’re expecting a right good crowd tonight.” Thus aware that seating would be at a premium we limited ourselves to a swift half at The Boat, almost as much a Cromford institution as the nearby bookshop, and were back at Scarthin, in the cafe/auditorium, for 6.30 on the dot. Here we found a semi circular table facing the counter/stage where we took our seats next to old friends Heather and Dawn who had just arrived from Chesterfield with Kate, who a few days earlier had been worried about a poor turnout. Ten minutes later those fears had been truly confounded as additional seating was brought and squeezed into the cafe arena.
As David Mitchell, otherwise known as Mr Scarthin Books, introduced Kate and Andrew and mentioned the recently published “Lawrence’s Muse”, all seating options had been exhausted and late comers had to stand in the corridor.
Over the course of Kate and Andrew’s talks, through extracts from journals and letters, as well as photographs, we learned about how much Haggs Farm and the Chambers family meant to Lawrence and his blossoming as a creative force. For him it was “an exhilaration and a joy”, especially Jessie and the countryside walks they shared, their intense friendship fired by a mutual love of novels and poetry. We also gained a vividly sympathetic picture of Jessie who, after effectively launching Lawrence’s literary career by sending his work to the English Review, found herself rejected by the man with whom she thought she would spend the rest of her life.
Another particularly poignant part of the evening, after hearing of the convivial wonder of Haggs Farm, best summed up by Lawrence who wrote in 1928 “Whatever I forget, I shall never forget the Haggs - I loved it so”, was learning of its current state of near dereliction, despite its status as a Grade II listed building. The land on which it stands is still owned by the Barber family who, before the nationalisation of the coal industry, controlled several pits in the area and didn’t like the way Lawrence portrayed their ancestors in “Women in Love” thus consigning Haggs to the weeds and brambles, a sort of cancelling of an integral part of Lawrence’s legacy. Perhaps the countless numbers of other local families, those whose ancestors worked these dangerous mines, might have some thoughts on the irony of this situation. Decades after the pits have closed it is still the one time owners who have the power to obscure what should be like, say Hardy’s Cottage, The Parsonage at Haworth or Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, a site of literary and cultural significance. Another slightly depressing angle might be noted when, in his otherwise excellent “Out of Sheer Rage”, Geoff Dyer, upon visiting Eastwood in search of Lawrence, called it “An ugly little town in an ugly little county” suggesting a certain geographical snobbery at work, thus making the work of the HFPS all the more onerous.
By the end of Kate and Andrew’s presentations we had learned more about Jessie’s strength of character, her adventurous spirit, talent as a writer and her lifelong commitment to the twin causes of Socialism and Pacifism. While we warmed to “Lawrence’s Muse” perhaps one could sense a general anti Lawrence sentiment bubbling up amongst the packed audience, summed up by one of the stood in the corridor fraternity offering the view that “This Lawrence was a bit of a bastard wasn’t he?” which was an excellent prompt to further contributions from the floor. You could argue that this epithet is a prerequisite of all writers, who should be in the business of ruffling feathers and rattling the cage of complacency and accepted wisdom. Jessie wasn’t on her own in feeling slighted by Lawrence. Compton MacKenzie, his old pal, fellow Italophile and one time resident of Capri, wasn’t best pleased to be the subject of Lawrence’s satire in the short story “The Man Who Loved Islands”. Moreover, Lawrence’s later novels would provoke vehement criticism with TS Eliot remarking that the author of Lady Chatterley “a very sick man indeed”, a view pretty well shared by second wave Feminist Kate Millett whose 1970 book “Sexual Politics “, in the words of Daphne Merkin, rendered Lawrence “persona non grata on college syllabi and literary discourse in general “ all of which must have been music to the ears of the Barber family. Yet as the evening wound down and I began to wonder if we’d need to run to catch the 21.01 back to Derby, never mind about a quick pint at The Boat, Kate made a strong defence of Lawrence saying that his depiction of Miriam’s character and thus Jessie in “Sons and Lovers” is, to the modern reader, an inspiration, as a strong, imaginative and self sufficient autodidact. The residual hurt and bitterness of Bert and Jessie’s falling out can be seen through the lens of those rigid social and moral codes that stifled Edwardian England, any transgression of which would, more often than not, bring shame and opprobrium to the woman. Above all, that inspiring interpretation of Jessie/ Miriam’s character is vindicated by what came after Lawrence’s departure from the Haggs. Far from being a footnote in literary history Jessie would go on to fulfill the admirable template depicted in Lawrence’s characterisation of Miriam to the point that books are still being written and published about her and Friday evening events in her honour at prestigious bookshops are packed out!
We just about made the 21.01 back to Derby giving us the option of calling off at The Brunswick for a pint. There we would raise a glass to the three fine institutions that made this wonderful Friday night out possible : Five Leaves Publishing, Scarthin Bookshop and, of course, the Haggs Farm Preservation Society 

Ian Lakin