“Where is Chandernagore” - A Short Story by Janet H Swinney - 2018

You can read “Where is Chandernagore” here

Janet H Swinney on The Reading Life

Website of Janet H Swinney

“Where is Chandernagore” is the fifth story by Janet H Swinney to be featured on The Reading Life.  I find her stories a consistent delight, elegantly developed with very credible characters in interesting situations.  She skillfully makes use of small details to draw us into her stories.  Following a contemporary short story writers work closely is my strongest form of endorsement, which I give to Janet H  Swinney without the slightest qualification.

The four prior featured by Swinney stories were all set on The Indian Subcontinent.  “Where is Chandernagore” is set in London.  The locale is a newspaper editorial office.  Here is how Mr Peabody, the paper’s owner and editor describes it:

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“There were other publications with far larger circulations in the city. They had reporters to send hither and yon. ‘Let them focus on the big news,’ Mr. Peabody said. ‘At the Examiner, we deal with the significant detail, the family, the community.’ “

There are two women employed in the editorial office.  One is given assignments to cover murder trials and such, the other does recipes and housekeeping articles.  The women want to cover a big rally where Churchill will be confronting advocates for the vote for women. The time is not spelled out but from the details involving Churchill’s opposition to giving women the right to vote (which occured in 1918) I am guessing 1910 or so.  The editor of paper, a lower circulation publication which prides itself on quality journalism and supports The Conservative Party overall, wants an article written on a community in India, Chandernagore, near Calcutta.  Here is how the trouble starts:

“The following morning, Mr. Peabody allocated Enid the task of drafting something about an impending spat between the French and the British somewhere west of Calcutta. ‘Come on strong about the Empire quashing any interference from Johnny Foreigner,’ he said. ‘We can’t have these Frenchies getting above themselves.’ To Hattie, he allocated a feature about the history of milk puddings. ‘You can link it nicely to Enid’s piece about the Empire,’ he said. ‘There’s nothing like a good rice pudding with the skin on, topped with a sprinkle of nutmeg.’ George, on the other hand, was given the job of covering the two-day visit of the President of the Board of Trade, Mr. Winston Churchill, who would be speaking at the Assembly Rooms that very evening”

Enid is infuriated, she tries to talk Hattie into jointly demanding Mr. Peabody allow them to jointly cover the rally.  Swinney does a marvelous job showing us what happens at the rally.  

The story takes a very interesting direction.  I will not say more of the plot so you can enjoy it, as did I.

Swinney brought Mr. Peabody, Edith, Hattie as well as the rally and news paper office very much to life.  For me, this story was a mini-history lesson!

I look forward to reading more stories by Janet H Swinney, especially her first collection.

Below is a good balanced article on Churchill’s evolving views on Women’s Suffrage

https://richardlangworth.com/nashville-3-rights-women

From the author’s website 

Janet was born and grew up in the North East of England in a time of soot, formica, and winkle pickers; when it was actually compulsory to smoke on buses and packets of crsips used to have blue twists of salt inside them.

Her education was something she can’t talk about without getting variously annoyed, upset and outraged.

She spent many years oscillating between Scotland, where she felt more comfortable culturally and politically, and the South East of England where there were better employment opportunities. She now lives in London.

She worked for many years in post-16 education as a practitioner, manager, trainer, inspector and consultant, but has always felt compelled to write. Now, writing is her top priority, and she has just completed her first anthology of short fiction.

She has travelled widely in India, and is a long-standing practitioner of yoga. She advocates on behalf of women’s rights worldwide via the international development organisation ‘Womankind Worldwide

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