‘Half of the Human Race’ by Anthony Quinn is a gem of a novel, one to keep and re-read. The front cover illustration suggests it is another Great War love story, but it is so much more than that. In fact the warfare occupies only a hundred or so pages. Rather, it is a character study of England before the war, of suffragettes and cricketers, of a different time, when the demands put on love were extreme.
A new king is being crowned and the protestations of votes for women are taking a violent turn. Set against this background in 1911, we meet the key characters at a cricket match. Connie Calloway is a former medical student who now works in a bookshop after her father’s suicide left her family poorer than they expected to be. Will Maitland is a young county cricketer rubbing shoulders with the great ‘Tam’, AE Tamburlain, as popular as WG Grace. A flicker of attraction carries the pair throughout this story as both consider questions of loyalty and belief and where love fits into the mix. When the ageing Tam’s place in the M−Shire team is threatened, Will must consider whether to support his friend or risk losing his captaincy of the team. Connie, at once thrilled and intimidated as her friend Lily is imprisoned in Holloway for a suffragette demonstration, considers the strength of her belief in votes for women and how far she is prepared to go. When she meets an old school friend, she also must make a decision. The decisions they take govern the direction of their lives as times change and the country edges towards war. Will their attraction burgeon into romance and love? Connie is hardly Will’s mother’s idea of the girl he should marry. She is outspoken and independent, perhaps too much so for Will? Connie’s personality is juxtaposed with her older sister Olivia who, Connie fears, is trading her independence for a rich husband.
Quinn creates two characters of their time and beyond it, that are totally believable, with a surrounding cast of characters including the fascinating Tam, artist Denton Brigstock, cousin Louis and friend Lily. Quinn, obviously a cricket fan, writes with a light hand about the sport and this should not be off-putting for any readers who do not like cricket. It is a key part of the plot and offers a view of a gentleman’s world where codes of behavior and manners are assumed, where tradition rules; similar values are on show later in the book when Will, now Captain Maitland, is waiting for the next big push. When he confronts his commanding officer to query a battle plan, he is more like Connie than he would ever realize.
Read more of my book reviews at http://www.sandradanby.com/book-reviews-a-z/ ( )

If I was ever tempted to see the suffragette movement as a small group of women who chained themselves to railings and immediately forced the government to capitulate to their demands, I’m not tempted to do so after reading this. It brings to life the injustices suffered by women at that time, the scale of the struggle, and the contempt with which suffragists were held at the time – even by other women. It conveys the sense of frustration felt by the oppressed in the face of the complacent I’m-alright-Jack attitude of those who are not. For a white male author (not traditionally a disadvantaged demographic) to have brought this to life made it even more of a triumph in my eyes. ( )

A modern Jane Austen or like a cricket match, lots of hanging around with not much action, maidens and dot balls, then a flurry of action, the ring of willow as the ball races to the boundary?

This book is set in and around London in the 1910s. A time of great change in the city and the country as Queen Victoria dies and women's rights come to the fore with the suffragette movement. The two main characters are Will Maitland, an ex-lawyer turned professional cricket player from an upper class family who believes in nothing other than scoring runs for his county and Constance (Connie) Callaway, a independently minded woman from a middle class family who has seen her ambitions of becoming a surgeon thwarted when her family's circumstances changes after the death of her family and the intransigence of a male dominated society. Connie believes in women's suffrage and is gradually drawn into the more violent elements of the struggle. Will wants to marry Connie but she is unwilling to give up her independence fearing that she will regret it in later life and questions Will's motives in asking her. Then Will, like so many of his generation, goes to fight in the trenches of WWI and begins to question his own earlier beliefs. This becomes a 'will (forgive the pun) they won't they' kind of tale.

The two main characters for me are well drawn but in many ways it is the supporting cast which are the ones of real interest. We have Tam, Wills best friend, an aging cricket star of some renown who despite being regaled wherever he goes is broody but basically decent and desperately lonely. Then there is Connie's friend Brigstock, an aging male painter who gives another differing view of female suffrage. Then in counterpoint we have Connie's own family, and in particular her sister Olivia, who gives again another view of female emancipation but this time from a female viewpoint.

Quinn paints a reasonable scene of London life and of the fight for female suffrage and the cricketing scenes are not overly taxing or technical for the non-fan. Plus you would have to be pretty stone hearted not to be moved by the scenes of the wasted lives at the battle of the Somme. However, and perhaps it is merely the fault with the cover picture depicting as it does an officer in uniform, the novel just takes too long to get this point with some ambiguous gaps in continuity IMHO.

Overall this is not a bad read in that I at no stage felt like throwing in the towel but like a long drawn cricket match not one that will live in the memory for any great length of time. ( )

This is one of those books that, in spite of lots of what I perceived to be writing flaws (far too much telling not showing, 'head popping' between the two main characters, even mid-paragraph), I nonethless enjoyed thoroughly. Charming characters, interesting story combining the world of professional cricket, the suffragette movement and the First World War. Yes, it was never that convincing why the two main characters were in love with one another (or even right for one another) or why our female protagonist Connie acted as she did (her commitment to the suffragette movement was never really convincing). Yes, it seemed a somewhat wasted opportunity to really get the reader to understand the suffragette movement; we only had a small (and not compelling) glimpse of it from one character despite it apparently being a key theme of the book. Yet, for me at least, it was still a sweet romantic story, told with affection and interest. ( )

This was a beautifully written story, set in London, and the author is meticulous in his research about it, so much so, that I could picture the scenes.
Connie and William were very well written characters, and William's cricketing hero Tam cut a very sad figure in this story. The battle piece, where William was leading his troop on a suicidal mission in France, in WW1 was truly heartbreaking, but that was brief in its passage, where in the next chapter, time had moved on a few years.
( )