Woman Alive by Susan Ertz (book review)

In ‘Woman Alive’, Doctor Selwyn, a man, is mentally transported from 1935 to 1985, where he inhabits his own consciousness and sees things from the future Doctor Selwyn’s point of view, but has no control. The good doctor performs this feat with the help of an Italian mystic called Ugolino Spero but, frankly, the means is unimportant, ‘so much hugger mugger’ as Stevenson said of Dr. Jekyll’s formula and what counts is the story.

A grey mist descends over 1935 Selwyn and he awakes in the mind of 1985 Selwyn, who is walking down Whitehall, London, when a five year-old girl falls dead in the street next to him. He covers her face with a handkerchief and walks on, knowing that one of the death cars will soon pick her up. They roam the streets silently and the crews clear away victims who are all buried at sea, the only practical way because there are so many and they are all female.

The United States of Europe split into two great factions and one attacked the other with fast planes carrying gas bombs. Those killed generated a disease fatal to women, which quickly spread worldwide. The women died and many men committed suicide at the prospective death of the human race. Everyone is in despair.

Fortunately, there’s one woman left. Selwyn finds Stella Morrow, a farmer’s daughter from Gloucestershire, sleeping peacefully in a flat. She had undergone an experimental treatment supposed to immunise her against all disease and it worked! Now she’s the only woman left alive in the world. Selwyn, who must be from the upper echelons of British society, contacts the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, who will do anything for Stella. Unfortunately, Stella was dumped by her true love for a pretty actress and doesn’t want a husband or children. She doesn’t like men at all, as they are all brutes who have made a mess of the world with their greed and folly and war. If only women were in charge! Can the British government change her mind and give humanity a future? I liked Stella and, as one of my best friends is a farmer’s daughter from Gloucestershire, I can vouch for the sturdy commonsense and honesty of the breed.

‘Woman Alive’ is a quiet, thoughtful and interesting novel which pits nationalism against pacifism and shows which is the wiser course for humanity. It is also that rarest of things nowadays, a quick read. What it lacks in excitement and plot twists, it makes up for with decent characters and some interesting technological and social developments by 1985, most of which, unfortunately, we don’t have. Everything runs off plentiful power transmitted through the air and the buildings are made of beautiful, malleable glass. The unskilled, made unemployed by new technology, work to keep the parks and gardens beautiful so flowers bloom everywhere. Developments in biology mean mothers can choose the sex of their babies, so it’s possible for Stella to have only the necessary daughters, there being plenty of males already. All wonderful, but we still have the same politics in 1985 as in 1935, with nationalism rampant and the super-powers using new technology to wage war. The flaw in the novel and, you can only see this with hindsight, is that women have gained some political power since 1935 and it hasn’t made much difference to the world. Perhaps they don’t yet have enough. More likely, it’s because the kind of women who succeed in politics don’t have the morals of nice Gloucestershire farm girls.

It’s mildly amusing to compare this 1935 Science Fiction novel to the SF that was being published in the American pulp magazines at the time. Susan Ertz, a literary lady who had some success in her day, probably took the likes of Aldous Huxley as her model for the genre. The pulp writers stateside went with Edgar Rice Burroughs, mad professors, evil aliens, space pirates and robots. It’s also funny that the author of this pacifist novel was married to British army soldier Major John Ronald McCrindle. Maybe he was the one who put her off war. People who have actually fought in one are often disillusioned. It’s the draft dodgers with bone spurs that are mad keen.

The credits say illustrated by Tom Gauld, which is slightly misleading because the only illustration is the cover. At first, I thought it might be a graphic novel adaptation of the book. There’s a pleasant introduction by Graham Norton, who is pretty smart behind his chat show persona. Well done to Manderley Press for reviving this forgotten work and I hope it does well. Definitely worth a look and a must-read for Gloucestershire farmers’ daughters.

Eamonn Murphy

May 2029

(pub: Manderley Press, 2026. 145 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £19.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-0686613-6-5)

check out website: www.manderleypress.com