Читать книгу Land Of The Leal - James Barke - Страница 5

The chronological limits of this tale may be taken from the birth of the hero’s father in 1820, to the point where we bid farewell to the heroine in 1938. Between this rough dating a strict chronology is a matter of no particular import to the reader.

As with time so with speech. The Scottish dialects are of great variety and beauty. But it is outwith the author’s purpose to record them phonetically. And so the broad strong vowels of Galloway, the burr of the Borders, the lilt of the Fifers and the peculiar recitative of the Glaswegians has been no more than indicated.

The basic material of imaginative literature is the product of experience; and since this is a novel, the characters, both in regard to time and place, are wholly fictitious and imaginative. The spiritual validity alone remains historically accurate.

The world moves relentlessly towards the resolving of its historic discords. But the events of our generation are on too vast a scale to come within the organisational scope of our literary artists. Nevertheless we cannot throw down our pens in despair and endeavour to console ourselves with the knowledge that, in a more leisured age, when the historic discords have been resolved, the future Tolstoy will then (and only then) be in a position to complete the sequel to War and Peace.

In the meantime we must do our work as best we may. In relation to imaginative literature, as in relation to any other work, we can only justify ourselves by our ability and our honesty. And if honesty compels us to face the major political and economic issues of our generation then we confront an obligation which we must discharge, not as politicians or economists (far less as propagandists of a political party), but as artists, conscious of our traditions, grateful for our heritage and imbued with a deep sense of the responsibility we share for that grand total of all art and human endeavour – civilisation.

J.B., Bearsden, 19 December 1938