Got a third of the way through, about 130 pages. I might come back to this, I might not. Maybe I'm just feeling very irritated by books or something. On the face of it this seems right up my street - based on an obscure historical event, cusp of the Industrial Revolution, class politics, well depicted fascinating landscape - but I just feel frustrated at this point. The one truly positive thing I will say is his descriptive writing is clever. I liked the heavy use of alliteration. There's definitely a mood, an image, being presented at all times.

On the other hand... it just feels like so far it mostly shies away from any interest, for me. There's a lot of people, but I don't get any sense of any of them. The coiner gang is portrayed as brutal and stupid. OK, you don't have to run a story about them being working class heroes or whatever, but it feels like he's not even interested in them being smart. "King" David Hartley is just presented as a violent thug, with no sign of what's so good about his plan, no sign of his supposed "charisma". The gang just forms and follows him for no obvious reason. How does the coin forging work? They find a mysterious wandering "magician" who did a trick levitating a dog (???) which apparently makes him perfect for forging coins. He talks in riddles. David Hartley also talks in pseudo-pagan natural world mysticism for some reason. He has a scene where he sexually assaults someone by wanking him off and then gets a bit telling the reader about how he didn't do that and he's very homophobic and hates gay people. Oh yeah, there's a typical third person narrative and then interspersed are bits of first person narrative written in phonetic spelling that are presumably in-narrative intended to glorify him but it doesn't work that way for us as readers.

And it intersects with a minor issue I always have with historical fiction, especially when it's presenting one specific event: how much of this has any basis in what we know? If the sources are biased against the gang, why did you just reproduce that? Is there a legend about them as local heroes that he felt he especially needed to puncture?

Overall it just feels really dull. I'm 1/3 in and barely anything has happened (a couple of antagonists have appeared for like, 5 pages), I don't know personalities, only the vague sense of the social system, I don't know what they're doing with the clipped coins or how their plan works, I don't know why the guy lives in a hovel despite presumably making a mint on his coin scheme... there's just nothing to grip on to. Maybe I'm being a dickhead, maybe I'm expecting too much, maybe I'm in a bad mood... just, decent prose doesn't hold me alone

I bought this 'local flavour' novel six years ago, on the recommendation of a colleague, found myself constantly put off by the cover, and the download disappeared into the vaults of my Kindle. The same colleague mentioned recently that the book is being made into a TV series by the BBC, and so I unearthed my copy. Honestly, though, after putting this book aside for another and then skipping through the passages in italics - which are not in the Yorkshire dialect, Emily Bronte would be aghast - I wish I hadn't bothered.

The Cragg Vale Coiners of the Calder Valley in eighteenth century Yorkshire make for an interesting Wikipedia article, and possibly a fuller non-fiction account, but Benjamin Myers is all about the gimmicks, not the content. The aforementioned phonetic 'diary' entries, dialogue without punctuation, page after page of vaguely poetic scene setting, repetition of the coiners' names, which didn't bring them to life or make me care about them at all. The wily, windy moors and hard living of Yorkshire folk is better portrayed in Wuthering Heights, complete with illegible local dialect.

Also, I was fully on the side of poor William Deighton and not 'King' David Hartley and his thick thugs. Hardly Robin Hood, more like the Kray Twins turn Teamsters, threatening reluctant yokels to join their money-spinning scheme. I have to agree with a review on Goodreads that this is a thoroughly blokey book - 'kind of like historical fiction for bearded real ale drinkers'. I think there's one woman in the whole story, Hartley's wife Grace, and when we first meet her, she's heavily pregnant but still being subjected to her wifely duty, bent over the bed while noticing spider webs that she missed while cleaning. Her life doesn't get any better. I know the 'action' is set in the 1760s but I was still depressed with all the macho bullshit.

Not an easy or a pleasant read. Maybe the adaptation will treat the history and the real life characters better. ( )

The author shines a new light on an important late 18th century (illegal) economic activity in and around Halifax, Yorkshire. The story concerns "King" David Hartley and his intrepid coiners or clippers, who collect coins to clip pieces off and melt down into new coins. This is the about the only economic activity at the time which produced a living income for illiterate families under a very feudal system. What legal work relating to hand looms there was, is under the shadow of the industrial revolution of powered looms and even worse working conditions for most of the population, allied to industrial pollution. Grim times indeed. ( )

It is a land where those in charge have no interest in you until you threaten their income and power, David Hartley is drawing together the local people to assist him in his master plan, coin clipping. He looks after those in need and is not afraid to crush opponents and as his power grows, he declares himself King. This fraud on an epic scale has been noted in London and excise men under the command of William Deighton are dispatched to ensure that justice is served and equilibrium is restored. Not everyone is happy in King David's court though, there are some who think that he is too greedy and has not given what they feel they are due. It is through these cracks in Hartley's organisation that Deighton begins to make his move. The power play between the self-proclaimed king and the Crown is set.

He listened to the sound of the water and the way it sang over the smoothed rocks of flint and grit. The way it danced down through the woods like a child.

This is the first of Benjamin Myers books that I have read and I first came across him and this book when Robert Macfarlane tweeted the very arresting cover. I had been meaning to read it for ages but my library had not got a copy on the shelf as it was always on loan. Myers has based this tale of rebellion in the West Riding area of Yorkshire on the true story of the Cragg Vale Coiners. He has written a thrilling historical tale with criminals, government men determined to enforce the law and the innocent people caught in the battle to control their way of life as the industrial revolution begins to bite This is a book that is deeply rooted in the landscape of the 1770's and what lifts this above other historical novels is the way he has captured the smells, sights, mud and hardship of just trying to make a living at that time. The prose is a delight to read, poetic, lyrical and visceral, it grips you and drags you into this tale. A brilliant book. ( )

I don’t know to whom I should recommend this book. It’s definitely a captivating read, well at least after the first few pages, but it’s also a heavy read, and dark at times. If you’re interested, be warned. This book isn’t always easy to stomach, but it rewards the reader with a lush landscape of fascinating descriptions and at least I am a sucker for detail. I just love the power with which the details of this story enveloped me, but I understand that such a level of detail might not be for everyone, and is often a point of contention if discuss books with other readers.

I think if I had to finish this review with a sentence, I would just repeat the advice of the bookseller I bought this book from almost two years ago in London, “It’s a good choice.”

For the full review: https://chwiggys-world.de/2020/01/18/myersbenjamin-thegallowspole/ ( )