JOHN OF GOD'S SENDING Article Review

ABSTRACT – ALLEN CLARKE – JOHN OF GOD’S SENDING. 1887-89 Palatine Books Of Blackpool. Subtitled THE LASS AT THE MAN AND SCYTHE. Historic fiction set against the backdrop of one of the bloodiest events in the English Civil War, the massacre of the people of Bolton at the hands of Royalists led by Prince Rupert and Lord Derby in 1644. The novel begins in 1625, when Derby and a friend, John Entwhistle visit Bolton, and find an abandoned baby. A minister christens him John Of Gods Sending. His mother, Alicia is having an affair with Isaiah, who is betrothed to another. As Derby & Entwhistle leave town, Alicia vanishes too. Twenty years later, John Of Gods Sending has grown to become a good man who loves a woman called Molly who loves the owner of The Man Of Scythe pub (A real pub in Bolton which still stands today). John keeps his love to himself, though Molly suspects it. An old witch appears in the town, and prophesises accurately the various fates of the characters around her. Molly treats her with sympathy, though others are frightened and driven to superstition. The old lady vanishes as quickly as she came, but occasionally reappears. Meanwhile a Mr Hopson, and a Mr Cooke know that the Royalist army is due to attack the town. They have conspired to breach a gate to the town to let them in for financial reward. Hopson also wants them to kill Molly’s lover so he can take her as his own. As the attack commences, Hopson decides to keep all the reward gold, and leave Cooke to die in the conflict. As prophesised by the witch, this is also his own undoing. The soldiers attack and spot him carrying more money than he can possibly hide. In the Man And Scythe, the main characters hear the massacre going on outside. As troops break in, John Of Gods Sending, who has been too cowardly to join the defence force, dies saving Molly from rape and murder. He confesses his love for Molly only as he dies, at which point the witch admits that she is in fact Alicia, John’s mother, returned from self-imposed exile. Seven years later, the Earl Of Derby is brought back to Bolton for execution. As in actual fact, he spends his lat hours waiting in the Man Of Scythe. The whole story reads like a poetic Shakespearean tragedy, and it has been performed as a stage play. The characters are convincing, and the tension and full horror of the massacre is perfectly pitched. The finale captures how despite Derby’s role in the massacre, the people of Bolton felt immense sympathy for him upon his execution. A remarkable little gem of a novel that has sadly been largely forgotten. .