Cotters' England

3.5/5 ( ratings)

This strange and fascinating novel is the first of Christina Stead's works to be set wholly in England, the England of the post-war working class, explored through the lives of one particular family, the Cotters, and their friends and acquaintances in the East End of London, in Newcastle and in Durham.

Through the lives of the sisters Nellie Cook and Peggy Cotter and their brother Tom, Christina Stead presents a picture of blighted aspiration and hope deferred, and of betrayal within the working class movement through the confusion and opportunism of many of its trade union and Labour Party leaders. 'Cotters' England' is also a novel about the variety of human sexuality - heterosexual love within and outside marriage, lesbian love, incestuous love.

With dramatic irony Christina Stead interweaves these personal and political themes in the glittering personality of the wildly eccentric Nellie, an incorrigible sentimentalist, one of Christina Stead's most unforgettable heroines. In her portrayal of Peggy, the phony idealist, the brilliant manipulator, the complexities and contradictions of life in England as it is experiences by most of its people come vibrantly to life.

First published in 1967, this is Christina Stead's tenth novel. A mature, ironic work of intense vitality and disturbing power.