My Son, My Son
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Reviews
St Just Monday Morning Reading Group 26th January 2026.
My son, my son. Howard Spring.
This was a book which the reading group all enjoyed, with very few reservations. It was highly readable, we thought, with good, well-drawn characters, and a very involving story.
We discussed the characters: William Essex, the narrator, did not come across as a nice person, but rather unsympathetic and somewhat self-centred, interested only in his own writing. Livia was also unlikeable, though she was also an example of an independent-minded woman trying to make her way. The female characters in particular we found very well portrayed, each as a very individual person.
The only negative criticism of this book was that it slowed down somewhat in the middle, when the matter of Rory being sent to live in Ireland was introduced and then not further commented upon.
We talked about William and Nelly’s marriage, and decided that though it was a marriage of convenience – William wanted Nelly’s family money, and Nelly was pleased to get a personable husband – Nelly was actually in love with William, though not he with her. Moreover Nelly, with her strict Methodist values, would not have spoiled their son Oliver the way William did, and therefore the plot demanded that she be eliminated – which we thought was rather a shame.
We also talked about the construction of William’s and Dermot’s sons in their own images, Oliver as a boy who could have all the advantages that William missed out on, and Rory as the Irishman that Dermot wanted to be. Comparisons were made with Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin, as William in some senses created a monster in Oliver, though with the best of intentions. One reader commented that William was well on the way to having made a monster of himself by his actions. Rory and the Irish facets of the story were highly tragic, particularly with regard to bringing up a child subject to such an overwhelming historical obligation.
We all liked the depiction of Dermot’s design business in the vein of William Morris. And the descriptions of Manchester were highly accurate and rang completely true, it was said.
An unexpectedly interesting book, was the general opinion.
