A Petrol Scented Spring
The subject of this short and zesty novel is the women’s fight for the right to vote in the first two decades of the 20th century. It is narrated by Donella Atkins, who starts by describing her own initiative into the suffragette movement when she and a friend witness a co-ordinated action of shop-window smashing in London. A major part of the story concerns the odd relationship between the militant suffragette Arabella Scott and the Perth Gaol physician, Dr Hugh Ferguson Watson. Arabella is serving a prison sentence for her suffragette activities, and when she goes on hunger strike, Watson is responsible for ensuring her health, which ultimately ends in the deeply unpleasant process of force-feeding. Despite the battles between the two antagonists, a bizarre bond develops between them, intensified as their social origins are very different. This story is narrated by Donella, whom, it is revealed in a series of almost throwaway asides, later marries this Dr Watson, and thus Donella’s account is mostly an imaginative reconstruction of events, seen from the wreckage of her own disappointing marriage when we learn much more about the character of Hugh Watson.
The book is a fictional imagining of real people and events. Ajay Close’s writing style is singular – direct, intelligent and entertaining. It has a depth, despite a superficial raciness, and with the narrative zipping around, it demands some attention from the reader to understand precisely what is going on. It is undoubtedly worth it, though, and the novel is an absorbing read.
