Our book group choice for October 2022 is The Offing by Benjamin Myers. One summer following the Second World War, Robert Appleyard sets out on foot from his Durham village. Sixteen and the son of a coal miner, he makes his way across the northern countryside until he reaches the former smuggling village of Robin Hood’s Bay.
The Offing is a novel by Benjamin Myers, set in the aftermath of the Second World War. The story follows 16-year-old Robert Appleyard, who leaves his home in a Durham colliery village in search of a new life. He travels to the east coast, where he meets Dulcie Piper, a woman three times his age who lives alone in a rambling cottage.
Dulcie is a lobster-eating, hard-drinking aesthete with a German shepherd called Butler. She is also a complex and contradictory character, by turns verbose, eloquent, motherly, and foul-mouthed. Robert is initially wary of Dulcie, but they soon form an unlikely but symbiotic relationship. He gardens while she provides food, shelter, and intellectual sustenance.
As the summer progresses, Robert and Dulcie come to know each other better. They share stories about their lives, and Robert begins to learn about Dulcie’s past as a dancer and a lover. He also begins to explore his own sexuality, and his relationship with Dulcie becomes increasingly intimate.
However, their relationship is not without its challenges. Dulcie is still grieving the loss of her lover, Romy, who died in the war. She is also struggling with her own sense of identity, as she feels that she no longer belongs in the world she once knew.
As the summer comes to an end, Robert and Dulcie must face the reality that their time together is coming to an end. Robert must decide whether to return to his old life, or to strike out on a new path. Dulcie must decide whether to let go of the past, or to try to find a new way forward.
Some additional details about the book:
- The setting of the novel is the east coast of England, specifically the former smuggling village of Robin Hood’s Bay. The landscape plays an important role in the story, as it provides a backdrop for the characters’ emotional journey.
- The novel is told from Robert’s perspective, and his voice is one of the book’s strengths. He is a complex and sympathetic character, and his journey of self-discovery is both believable and engaging.
- The novel also features a strong supporting cast of characters, including Robert’s parents, his friends, and Dulcie’s neighbors. These characters help to flesh out the world of the novel and provide insights into Robert’s life.
Discussion Questions
- ‘But I was a young man once, so young and green, and that can never change. Memory allows me to be so again.’ The novel both begins and ends with narration from Robert as an old man. How did this shape your reading of the story?
- At the beginning of the novel, Robert talks about his desire to leave Durham for a great adventure, and yet he does not travel further than Yorkshire. Can his story still be described as an adventure? What makes an adventure an adventure?
- Dulcie takes Robert in as a stranger, feeds him, gives him a place to stay, and ignites his interest in poetry. Why do you think she invests so much in him at the beginning of their friendship?
- ‘Wars continue long after the fighting has stopped, and the world felt then as if it were full of holes’. What holes has the war left in Dulcie’s life, and in Robert’s?
- Discuss the role of social class in the novel. How does it shape Robert’s relationship with Dulcie? Do the characters’ attitudes to their own social class change as the novel progresses?
- The natural world is a powerful figure in the novel, as well as in Romy’s poetry. Consider the implications of nature’s power in the novel. How does it affect each character?
- How do you interpret the relationship between Dulcie and Romy? How does Dulcie navigate discussing homosexuality at a time when it was so taboo?
8. The Offing is written by a northern author, and is set in the north of England. How prominent is the sense of national identity in the novel, and how does it manifest itself? - Poets throughout the ages have used poetry as a tool for thinking about death. What role do you think poetry played in Romy’s decision to take her own life? Do you think she understood the effect her words would have on Dulcie after her death?
- Robert and Dulcie develop a close, intimate friendship, despite their age gap. What do they have in common? What holds them apart?
- The Offing takes place at the very end of an old world, and the beginning of a new, modern one. Which influences of the old world are still present, and which elements of modernity have already emerged? How does this particular temporal setting affect the characters and their actions?
- Language, and in particular, poetry, have a particularly powerful hold over Robert, Dulcie, and Romy. How does this power manifest itself? Does it affect each character in the same way?
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