Anna Hope’s debut novel, Wake was a stand-out novel amongst many contenders who have written about the First World War and so it when I heard that The Ballroom was a book about mental illness, my fingers were firmly crossed that this would also receive insightful treatment – it does!
The Ballroom takes a look at three different characters, all whose home, temporary or otherwise is Sharston Asylum. We first meet Ella Fey, a young woman whose incarceration is following an incident at the mill where she worked and it is decided that she is suffering with ‘hysteria.’ John Mulligan, an Irishman who is suffering with melancholy, a man who thrives carrying out the hard work at Sharston where the physically capable male patients work in the fields, or as John does when we first meet him, digging graves. The other character lives in the staff barracks, Dr Charles Fuller a First Assistant Medical Officer who doubles up as Bandmaster for the weekly Friday dances where selected male and female patients meet for supervised association.
This is a well-researched book which takes a thoughtful look at the role of such asylums at the time that this book is set, in 1911. As much as the scenes at the beginning of the book are those that we are all familiar with, life in the asylum provided refuge for those simply unable to live in the community, in this instance that of the West Riding of Yorkshire. This was an asylum that catered for both men and women who were kept separated at all times unless they were deemed suitable to attend the weekly dance with a band made up from the hospital staff played from the stage and the patients hopefully lifted their spirits by dancing for a couple of hours. As is only to be expected though, given the subject matter, this tale is also an unbearably sad one at times.
In line with the subject matter Dr Charles Fuller is a man who is interested in Eugenics, a movement which was gaining popularity at this time and had many influential supporters. As the book starts he is keen on submitting a paper in support of segregation of the feeble minded but as the book continues obsessional thoughts take over and the line between sane and mad becomes ever more blurred. I will leave you to make up your own minds on which of the patients were best served by being committed to the asylum but it is clear that this wasn’t the answer at all for some of them.
The story is told by each of the three narrators; Ella, John and Charles each evocative in different ways and perfectly providing the reader with a picture of the summer of 1911 when the heat was unbroken, the fields filled with crops and the steamy and smelly laundry where Ella washed underwear and sheets, was damp and hot.
This is an outstanding novel, one that I’m sure achieved exactly what Wake did, which is to provide an unforgettable story at the same time as being highly informative. Anna Hope dedicated this book to her Great Great Grandfather who was admitted to Menston Asylum, which inspired The Ballroom, in 1909 and died there in 1918 which just made the story held within the pages, all the more poignant.
I’d like to say a huge thank you to the publishers Random House UK who kindly allowed me to read a copy of this book. This review is my honest opinion of The Ballroom which is going to be published on 11 February 2016
I can’t wait to read this, I loved Wake. So excited to see you gave it 5 stars!
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Excellent! I do hope you live it too
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I have this on my TBR, so excited to get round to reading it after reading this review!!
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That’s great news – I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
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This sounds very atmospheric, Cleo, and I’m sure there are terribly sad parts, given the state of asylums at that time. And it sounds as though Anna Hope has done some good research on the topic, too, which I always find a plus when I read. I’m glad you enjoyed this.
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The best research is when it is woven into the book seamlessly and is usually found when the storyline isn’t a re-hash of the most commonly held opinion. Even better there was a link in the afterword to the ‘real’ asylum run by a historian with pictures of a ballroom.
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I have a thing for books set in asylums…
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Me too… not sure it’s healthy!
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I’m seeing several books around that mention eugenics. Must be another ‘hot’ topic. There is a non-fiction book about to be published in the US by Adam Cohen called Imbeciles and it’s about eugenics. I noted it in passing and thought it looked interesting. I’ll keep this one in mind.
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I hadn’t realised the eugenics movement had gained so much pace in the UK until I read Andrew Cohen’s Worthless Men back in 2013. As you say there seems to be a crop of books around this subject now.
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This sounds fascinating! I’ll have to look for a copy.
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It’s out later this week – well worth a read!
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I haven’t read Wake, but books on mental illness, especially those that show us historical ways of dealing with the issue, are up there on my list. As much as I feel outraged by the idea of the asylums, I also realize that sometimes we have to accept that those in charge were doing the best they could with the information available. Thanks for sharing.
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I’d love to hear what you think of this one – the part set in the asylum really made me think and the story definitely isn’t the well-trodden one, there is the sense that this really could have happened.
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looking forward to reading this
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I hope you enjoy it!
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A lovely review of a book that I loved too. Anna Hope is certainly an author to watch.
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Sounds like an emotional read – glad you enjoyed it! It’s a difficult subject to treat sensitively but it sounds as though Hope has achieved it…
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This sounds interesting. It kind of fascinates me to think how asylums back then could have been masks to put those away who you wanted out of the way.
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Yes isn’t it a scary thought – I think I might have been put in there for being so opinionated!
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I am interested in this despite my aversion to historical fiction because I work in mental health and anything that can show me where we have come from in supporting people is fascinating to me
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Hmm, the man suffering from melancholy was assigned to dig graves? Interesting! It sounds like a very intriguing book, glad you loved it.
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Wake was such a fantastic book – I’m so glad this holds up to it! Great review Cleo, I can’t wait to read this one.
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I haven’t read Wake but really enjoyed The Ballroom- so skilfully written.
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