The Gallows Pole
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By Benjamin Myers
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1 review
An England divided. From his remote moorland home, David Hartley assembles a gang of weavers and land-workers to embark upon a criminal enterprise that will capsize the economy and become the biggest fraud in British history. They are the Cragg Vale Coiners and their business is ‘clipping’ – the forging of coins, a treasonous offence punishable by death. A charismatic leader, Hartley cares for the poor and uses violence and intimidation against his opponents. He is also prone to self-delusion and strange visions of mythical creatures. When excise officer William Deighton vows to bring down the Coiners and one of their own becomes turncoat, Hartley’s empire begins to crumble. With the industrial age set to change the face of England forever, the fate of his empire is under threat. Forensically assembled from historical accounts and legal documents, The Gallows Pole is a true story of resistance that combines poetry, landscape, crime and historical fiction, whose themes continue to resonate. Here is a rarely-told alternative history of the North.
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This is such a good book, vividly told in beautiful language but with disturbing scenes of torture and humiliation of men, by men, who are painted as dark as the moors. It's a fictionalised version of the true story of the poverty stricken Yorkshire community who clipped coins to make new ones in the 1760's. If I have a criticism it's that there are no women in the book, apart from the head honcho's wife who is there mainly to serve, yet there were, apparently, women coiners in the community at that time. That aside it's an absolutely brilliant story and I recommend it highly.
