The book is available here
Jim Aitken reviews Alan Morrison’s latest book, starting with a comparison between the two main characters in the book and two other famous fictional characters
Jared Amory and Gideon Wade could be like any other young lads at any other time. They could be Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn looking for adventures, getting into scrapes and managing to live another day. While this comparison cannot be pushed too far there are nonetheless similarities. There are class differences in both groups of boys and there are also divisions in terms of religious adherence with Huckleberry professing little in terms of religious faith, being a poor lad on the margins forced to look after himself. Tom attends church and Sunday School but has little appreciation for religion, something that is unimaginable for Jared and Gideon.
For Jared and Gideon, living in the maelstrom of seventeenth century England, the identification with religion is as natural as breathing. It is part of their being. Add into this a fervent political atmosphere which attempts to overthrow a monarchy that believes in the Divine Right of Kings and challenge the Anglican faith that supports it, and you have a revolutionary situation.
While Gideon comes from an Anglican family, Jared is a stout Puritan. As local boys growing up in Hampshire, their days are ‘green enchanted childhood days.’ The events they encounter sees them swept up in both revolutionary and religious fervour.
Alan Morrison has, over many years, made an extensive study of the English Civil War. In The Alderbank Wade (published by Culture Matters) he has put this extensive learning into creating a novel in verse form that looks at the events of that period. The narrator is Jared and his recollections cover much of those traumatic times.
Not only does Morrison give us an insight into the ruptures within a monarchically absolutist state, he also gives us an insight into the forces that the rupture against absolutist monarchy created. While it is fair to suggest that many Parliamentarians wanted a greater role in the governance of the Kingdom, there were lower classes who also wanted an end to the monarchy because it accorded with their Christian beliefs in greater equality for all.
Revolutionary ruptures give rise to many and various demands. They also test previous allegiances, cause strife within families and the expectations that are voiced have either to be met or not met. They may even be crushed. This has been the case with many revolutions before. It is interesting that we always talk about the French Revolution which took place more than a hundred years after the events in England yet the term English Civil War has been the general norm. Interestingly, Morrison gives his readers a list of the books he consulted, including those of the Marxist historian Christopher Hill, and they consistently use the word ‘revolution’ for the events that took place in seventeenth century England.
Morrison also takes us into the religious mindsets of the period. Puritanism has many beliefs that diverge from Anglicanism and Catholicism, the latter which was demonised by the Puritans as the Anti-Christ. The author tells us about antinomianism, the view that you are saved by faith alone. This view demands no good deeds from you in your life time. All you need do is profess your faith. This was a view, prevalent in Presbyterian Scotland, and this was satirised by Burns in his poem Holy Willie’s Prayer which was first published in 1789.
Willie is at prayer and throughout the duration of the prayer Willie exposes all the hypocrisies associated with such a religious view as he makes venal comments on others while admitting to certain indiscretions of his own that seem to merit no sense of remorse or contrition on his part whatsoever. Though Burns loved to ridicule the hypocrisy of such people, the Puritans remained in 17th century England – and today in England and abroad – impervious to criticism as their binary belief system acts like an armour against anything that can be levelled against them. Morrison at one point does talk of ‘the grim judgment of the Puritan mind.’
A green Jerusalem
As the events unfold it is the Anglican-raised Gideon who changes to the Parliamentary side. He is loathed by his father for doing so and shunned by the community he grew up in. Such can often be the case for switching allegiances. But Gideon is not just a believer in the writ of Parliament, he has immersed himself in the tracts and pamphlets of the Levellers and in the writings of the Digger Gerard Winstanley. He is for the greatest possible process of democratisation within society.
Jared hears that Gideon, many years after the childhood times they shared, has become a captain in the Parliamentarian army and he is based at Alderbank, the Royalist stronghold he and his Roundhead troops captured after a siege. Gideon has also been involved in desecrating Anglican churches, something that Jared seems uneasy about. His time at Alderbank, however, seems to be creating not merely ‘a democracy of souls’ but ‘a ripening republic of souls’, ‘an earthly paradise in Hampshire’ and ‘a green Jerusalem’ where Gideon and his Diggers are ‘attempting to live in common & without property & possession, like the early Christians.’
While those lower down the class chain forged this ideal with Gideon at Alderbank, those higher up were not seeking to extend the process of democracy any further than themselves. Jared becomes Gideon’s secretary, but soon there are ‘reports of Cromwell’s suppression & purges of numerous Leveller agitators & their followers.’ Cromwell is derided as a ‘rustic bumpkin-king, but as powerful as any monarch.’ We are told that most of the time people lived ‘under Martial law, & Puritan dogma.’
And so the revolutionary ideals generated by the desire for greater democracy are crushed. The revolution is to be no more than a bourgeois one, a ‘Republic of the Propertied.’ History has taken us here before and Morrison gives us a fascinating insight into this historical period. He takes us back in time to a period when religion and politics collided and his insight around an area of Hampshire is inspired. It shows how little communities came together to try and build a better and fairer world for themselves. By confining his action to this specific locality, he shows how other similar areas may have faced similar challenges of attempting to build dreams only for them to be shattered; for the revolution they wholeheartedly supported to betray them.
The Alderbank Wade deserves its place in the canon of texts on this period. Morrison’s text confines itself to a specific area and in that way, it is a huge success. But the Cromwellian campaign also came to Scotland and stayed there for nearly 10 years as an army of occupation overseeing a forced union. There were military bases in Leith, Ayr, Perth and Inverness and those who resisted were often sent to the West Indies to work as indentured slaves. And the lot of the Irish was even worse. In 1641 the Irish population was 1.5 million. By 1651 it was 750,000 with 100,000 transportations to the colonies and a further 1,000 Irish women forcibly removed to the colonies as well.
A republic of equals
In a similar way the French Revolution had its Cromwellian turn, as Napoleon crowned himself Emperor and invaded other nations. The great Spanish artist Francisco Goya in his prints The Disasters of War seemed to sum up exactly what the ideals of the French Revolution had become, though undoubtedly this turn had taken place long before the invasion of Spain. Revolutions, if not fully powered from below, become merely the exchange of one crown for another. The point is to remove all crowns and create a republic of equals.
There is also much implied by The Alderbank Wade. The Puritans, as we know, sailed to America in 1620. They had gone initially to Holland to escape persecution and while in Holland, although given sanctuary and freedom to practise their religion, they were given menial jobs by the Dutch, and dissatisfied with their lot they sailed to America as Pilgrims, declaring a promised land.
When Netanyahu spoke at the Knesset in honour of Trump, he spoke of ‘our two Promised Lands.’ That is the problem with promised lands when you have to exterminate the indigenous people who already live in these promised lands. It was the same in Australia and in South Africa, of course.
This binary belief system seemingly given divine sanction will always find itself in conflict with those who share other systems of belief. Today’s America is a deeply intolerant state and at its heart is a bizarre Christian nationalism, full of hate. The Puritans who landed in America have much to answer for – as do many other denominations that have co-opted themselves into this menacing theocratic gloss designed to act as a cover for hatred of Muslims, migrants, radical leftists and anyone else who challenges their obscene view of the world.
And this fusion of politics with religion today has certain features with the events explored in The Alderbank Wade. We have seen Tommy Robinson’s supporters carrying crosses and singing carols to ‘put Christ back into Christmas.’ Farage has talked of our Judaeo-Christian heritage and his ‘revolutionary’ turn has shown us since the inception of UKIP, forward to the Brexit Party and Brexit, and now with Reform since the economic calamity of Brexit, how we in the 21st century are no more immune to following false prophets than people were in the 17th century.
Cromwell beheaded a King not to create a Commonwealth but to aggrandise for his emerging class interests. It is the same with Trump, Farage and all the other far-right figures. They all seek to prop up capital at the expense of the masses and in favour of the few. They have been aided and abetted by so called centre -right and centre-left politicians like Starmer. Those below, as always, will determine the outcome.
In this regard, just as Cromwell invaded Scotland and Ireland, today it is the SNP who lead the polls in Scotland and Plaid Cymru who lead in Wales. Northern Ireland has already established a Sinn Fein leadership role in Stormont. The failure to consult the Celtic fringes – let alone attempt to understand them – could result in the break-up of Britain. The old adage of ‘be careful what you wish for’ has never been more apt. It is obvious what Farage wishes. It is to be hoped his wishes are dashed either to facilitate a break-up of Britain and inadvertently trigger another English civil war, this time along class lines, or for him to win and create a society along the lines of his friend in Washington.
Such questions and comparisons could not have been raised without reading The Alderbank Wade. In this Morrison has done all his readers a great service, to be able to discuss some of the implications of his fine novel in verse.
