Clash [MERLIN]

Clash is set against the backdrop of the 1926 general strike. It describes political and personal issues as Joan Craig, an activist in the trade union movement and Labour Party, lives through the excitement of mass protest and individual turmoil in her relations with two men friends. It draws on experience: the author toured the UK and spoke at a series of public meetings. Clash was first published in 1929. The author writes: The unblushing lying to preserve a competitive system that the really intelligent among them knew was breaking down, the refusal to organise or to allow resources to be organised except on the basis that would yield excess profits to some one! They wanted inequality. “There are two distinct conflicts in this very clever and successful first novel. There is, to begin with, political warfare. Joan Craig, the attractive daughter of a Northern factory operative, becomes a Trade Union organizer, and Miss Wilkinson, in describing her heroine's experiences, takes us behind the scenes and shows us the General Strike of 1926 as she herself probably saw it. Then there is the rivalry between Joan's two suitors…” THE SPECTATOR About the author: Ellen Wilkinson (1891-1947) was a key figure in the socialist and feminist movement. She was born in Manchester and became the first woman on the city council, she supported women’s suffrage, became Labour MP for Jarrow and helped lead the Jarrow Crusade. She was the first female Minister of Education, in 1945 government.