30. “Getting it all Together at Sheppey School”, Sheerness Times Guardian, 24 December 1974, p. 40
31. “Sheppey School Head is Named” Sheerness Times Guardian, 17 December 1976, p. 1
32. Ray Pahl, “Living Without a Job: How School Leavers See the Future”, New Society, 2 November 1978, p. 259
33. Ibid., p. 262
34. Ibid., p. 261
35. Ibid., p. 262
36. Ibid., p. 261
37. Ibid., p. 262
38. See R. E. Pahl’s review of Mike Savage, Identities and Social Class Since 1940: the Politics of Method, Sociological Review, 59/1 February 2011, pp. 176–181
39. Inselgeschichten, pp. 92–3.
40. Wallace, For Richer For Poorer: Growing Up In and Out of Work, p. 4
41. R.E. Pahl, “Patterns of Urban Life in the Next Fifteen Years”, New Universities Quarterly, 30 (4), 1976, p. 416
42. “Living Without a Job: How School Leavers See the Future”, p. 262. Pahl makes the same point in “Employment, Work and the Domestic Division of Labour”, p 5
43. “Work Outside Employment: Some Preliminary Speculations”, p. 127
44. Inselgeschichten, p. 104
45. “Employment, Work and the Domestic Division of Labour”, p. 16
46. Ibid., p. 10
47. Ibid., p. 14
48. Ibid., pp. 16 & 17
49. “Work Outside Employment: Some Preliminary Speculations”, 132
50. Ibid., p. 130
51. Ian Bradley, “Discussing the Culture of Unemployment: An Overview of the Conference”, New Universities Quarterly, 34: 1, Winter 1979/80, p. 139
52. Ibid.
53. Divisions of Labour, p. 10
54. Ibid., p. 11
55. Ibid., p. 319
56. In the later stages of his research, Pahl would also come to be concerned about the consequences of his advice for people he got to know on Sheppey. See Jane Elliott and Jon Lawrence, “Narrative, Time and Intimacy in Social Research: Linda and Jim Revisited”, in Graham Crow & Jamie Ellis (eds.), Revisiting Divisions of Labour: The Impacts and Legacies of a Modern Sociological Classic, Manchester University Press, 2017, pp. 189–204
57. Divisions of Labour, p. 198
58. Ibid. p. 213
59. Ibid., p. 201
60. On Sheppey as elsewhere, the new “Right to Buy” policy may have been deplored by some, including those who followed Tony Benn in warning that a newly-painted front door on a newly-purchased council house was no alternative to a working welfare state. However, it is also remembered as an unexpected opportunity by others. Andre Whelan, the proprietor of the garden ornaments factory in Blue Town, remembers the sudden boom in cement lions (rampant), which his father, who was then building the company, made from moulds he had acquired from a seller advertising in Exchange and Mart, and which he sold to proud new homeowners interested in placing them either side of the gates leading to the front doors they could now call their own.
61. Divisions of Labour, p. 183.
62. Ibid., p. 241
63. Ibid., p. 313
64. Ibid., p. 319
65. Ibid., p. 253
66. Ibid., p. 320
67. Ibid., p. 324
68. Ibid., p. 195
69. “Employment, Work and the Domestic Division of Labour”, p. 7
70. Divisions of Labour, pp. 196–7
71. Ibid., p. 154
72. Uwe Johnson, letter to Helen Wolff, 6 March, 1979, Inselgeschichten, p. 142.
73. Tilman Jens “Der Unbekannte von der Themse: Auf den Spuren des toten Dichters Uwe Johnson”, Stern, No. 22, 24 May 1984, pp. 132 & 133. For the howitzer, see Martin Walser, Breakers, London: Deutsch, 1987, p. 25.
74. Divisions of Labour, p. 175
75. Ibid, p. 322
76. Ibid., p. 193
77. Ibid., p. 153
78. Wilko Johnson, Speaking on “The River”, episode 1, BBC 2 30 October 1999. See also Patrick Wright, The River, London: BBC Worldwide, 1999, pp. 68–76
79. Divisions of Labour, p. 186
80. Ibid., p. 188
81. Ibid., p. 323
82. Ibid., p. 191
83. Ibid., p. 189
84. Ibid., pp. 324 & 325
85. Ibid., p. 326
86. Uwe Johnson, letter to Helen Wolff, 6 March, 1979, Inselgeschichten, p. 142.
87. Robert Ford and Matthew Goodwin, Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the “Radical” Right in Britain, London: Routledge, 2014
88. Uwe Johnson, letter to Erika Klemm, 3 November 1975, Inselgeschichten, pp. 98–99
25. “It’s Your Opinion”: A Postcard for the Kent Evening Post
1. Anniversaries I, p. 502
2. Editorial, Kent Evening Post, 12 May 1975
3. “Benn Starts Oil Gushing”, Aberdeen Evening Express, 18 June 1975, p. 1
4. “Britain on the Brink”, Birmingham Daily Post, 18 June 1975, p. 33
5. Sidney Hooper, “Is it Against the Law to be British?”, 22 January 1981
6. John Baker White, “Inshore Fishing Industry Bill”, HC Deb 18 October 1945, vol. 414 cc1441–4
7. John Baker White, “A Welcome — But Concern from Europe”, Sheerness Times Guardian, 19 November 1971, p. 3
8. Uwe Johnson, letter to Christa Wolf, 16 June 1981, Inselgeschichten, p. 155.
9. “Young Hippies Invade Commuter Trains, says County Councillor”, Sheerness Times Guardian, 11 July 1975, p. 8
26. Implosion: Two Stories from the Site
1. The phrase “necklace of poverty” was used repeatedly by Derek Wyatt, when he was Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey arguing that Kent and the Medway towns would fall behind despite recent investment under the “Thames Gateway” scheme if the British government failed to emulate the nations of the North Baltic in prioritising investment in high quality broadband. (See his contribution to the Westminster Hall debate on the Structure Plan for Kent and Medway, HC Deb 2 February 2005 c267WH). Wyatt had first located this “necklace” in “the North and East Kent. Area” (HC Deb 23 June 1999 vol 333 c1145). He later enlarged it, claiming that it ran from Woolwich all the way to Southampton, including Sheerness, which had “lived with poverty for most of the twentieth century” (HC Deb 2 March 2004 vol 418 c819)
2. Uwe Johnson, Letter to Max Frisch, 21 March 1976, Max Frisch — Der Briefwechsel 1964–1983, p. 159
3. Bernd W. Seiler, “Johnsons Prager Geheimagent: Schluss-Strich unter eine Legende” [“Johnson’s Prague Secret Agent: Final Stroke under a Legend”], first published in Internationales Uwe-Johnson-Forum 10/2006, pp. 25–54, and reprinted in another version at https://www.uni-bielefeld.de/lili/personen/seiler/drucke/geheimagent/uebersicht.html
4. Uwe Johnson, “Statement to my Executors”, 21 February 1983, quoted in Heinrich Lübbert, Der Streit um das Erbe des Schriftstellers Uwe Johnson, Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1998, p. 29
5. Uwe Johnson, Letter to Hannah Arendt, 3 August 1975, Inselgeschichten, p. 78
6. Uwe Johnson, Letter to Helen Wolff, 1 June 1977, Inselgeschichten, pp. 148–9
7. Bernd Seiler, email to the author, 7 January 2020
8. Jeffrey Schneider, “Masculinity, Male Friendship, and the Paranoid Logic of Honor in Theodore Fontane’s Effi Briest”, German Quarterly, vol. 75, No. 3 (Summer, 2002), pp. 265-281.
9. D. G. Bond, German History and German Identity, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1993, pp. 189-90
10. “‘Der vierte Band ist entweder ein Selbstmordversuch oder es ist der Versuch, eine Tür aufzustoßen.’ Ein Gespräch mit Thomas Brasch über Uwe Johnson, geführt von Thomas Wild” in R. Berbig (ed.) Uwe Johnson: Befreundungen: Gespräche, Dokumente, Essays, Berlin: Kontext, 2002, pp. 518-19.
11. “Uwe Johnson: A Friendship”, p. 120
12. Uwe Johnson, Begleitumstände: Franfurter Vorlesungen, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1980, p. 452
13. Seiler, quoting from Günter Grass, “Distanz, heftige Nähe, Fremdwerden und Fremdbleiben. Ein Gespräch mit Roland Berbig”, in
Günter Grass, Die Deutschen und ihre Dichter. München 1995, p. 299
14. “‘Der vierte Band ist…“, p. 519
15. Heinz Ludwig Arnold, “ Zu Thomas Braschs Gedicht ‘Halb Schlaff’”, Planet Lyrik, posted 27 September 2019, http://www.planetlyrik.de/heinz-ludwig-arnold-zu-thomas-braschs-gedicht-halb-schlaf/2019/09/
16. Gerhard Zwerenz, Die Vertiedigung Sachsens und warum Karl May die Indianer liebte, chapters 25 & 26. http://www.poetenladen.de/zwerenz-gerhard-sachsen.htm
17. Uwe Johnson, Skizze eines Verunglückten, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1982, pp. 7–9
18. Uwe Johnson, “‘Mir bleibt nur, ihr zu danken’: Zum Tod von Hannah Arendt” (first published in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 8 December 1975), in Eberhard Fahlke (ed.), Uwe Johnson, Porträts und Erinnerungen, Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1988, pp. 76–7
19. Skizze eines Verunglückten, pp. 22–3
20. Ibid., p. 35
21. Ibid., p. 48
22. Skizze eines Verunglückten, p. 49
23. Ibid., p. 66
24. Ibid., p. 62
25. Ibid., p. 63
26. Max Frisch’s text was published as “Study of a Disaster” in an English translation by Jessica Wolff and Lore Segal, New Yorker, 22 July 1972, pp. 28–32
27. Kurt Fickert, “Three Witnesses: Narration in Johnson’s Skizze eines Verunglückten”, Colloquia Germanica, vol. 28, No. 2 (1995) p. 155. “Autobiography as Fiction: Uwe Johnson’s Skizze eines Verunglückten”, International Fiction Review, 14, no.2, 1987, pp. 63–7
28. Ibid.
29. D.G. Bond, German History and German Identity: Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1993, p. 188
30. Skizze eines Verunglückten, p. 48
31. Fritz J. Raddatz, “Das verratene Herz: Uwe Johnson: Skizze eines Verunglückten”, Zeit, 12 November 1982
32. Heinrich Blücher, “III. Homer (1954)”, transcript available online at the Blücher Archive, Stevenson Library, Bard College. http://www.bard.edu/bluecher/lectures/homer_54/homer_1954.php
Part VI. The Storm of Memory: A New Use for the Sash Windows of North Kent
27. Unsticking Marcel Duchamp’s Large Glass
1. Brian Dillon, “In Herne Bay”, London Review of Books, Vol. 35 No. 16, 16–29 August 2013, p. 10. See also Brian Dillon, The Great Explosion, London: Penguin, 2015, pp. 18-19.
2. Jeremy Millar, “Looking through the Large Glass: Marcel Duchamp in England”, Tate, Issue 7, Summer 2006
3. Jeremy Millar, “Marcel Duchamp in England”, note on Marcel Duchamp’s “The Large Glass” or “The Bride Stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even”, Tate, Issue 7, Summer 2006
4. Inselgeshichten, p. 95.
5. Thomas Herold, “Through the Window: City, Imagination, and the Framed Gaze in Uwe Johnson’s Jahrestage”, The German Review: Literature, Culture, Theory, Vol. 98, 2018, Issue 2, pp. 96–108
6. Anniversaries I, p. 152
7. Uwe Johnson, “A Part of New York”, Dimension: Contemporary Arts and Letters, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1968, p. 335
8. Uwe Johnson, “How Anniversaries Came to be Written”, a lecture given in Munich on 18 July 1974 and published in Uwe Johnson, Speculations about Jakob and other Writings (ed. Alexander Stephan), New York & London: Continuum, 2000, p. 231. Johnson describes the view from his apartment in some detail in “A Part of New York”, pp. 333–337
9. Henri Bergson, Matter and Memory [1896], New York: Zone Books, 1991, p. 33
10. “About Myself”
28. Sea Defences: From God’s Will to “Puddicombe’s Folly”
1. Inselgeschichten, pp. 78–9
2. Contemporary German Arts and Letters, Vol. 15/3, 1982, p. 401
3. Anniversaries I, p. 35, See also A Leslie Willson, “‘An unacknowledged humorist’: Interview with Uwe Johnson, Sheerness-in-Kent, 20 April 1982”, Dimension: Contemporary German Arts and Letters, Vol 15/3, 1982
4. “Sheerness”, Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 7 November 1875, p. 3
5. Joseph Conrad, The Mirror of the Sea [1906], reprinted in A Personal Record and the Mirror of the Sea, ed. Mara Kalnins, London: Penguin, 1998, p. 221
6. Daniel Defoe, “The Storm. An Essay”, in The Storm, ed. Richard Hamblyn, London: Penguin, 2005, p. 208
7. Daniel Defoe, “The Layman’s Sermon upon the Late Storm”, Ibid., p. 187
8. Richard Hamblyn, “Introduction”, Ibid., p. x
9. “The Layman’s Sermon upon the Late Storm”, p. 186
10. William Shrubsole, Sheshbazzar, and his sons. Being the substance of a discourse delivered at the Bethel Chapel, Sheerness, at the request of the Master and lodge of the ancient and honourable Society of Free and Accepted Masons on Sunday, the 24th of June 1787. And published at their request. Rochester: Printed by W. Gillman, for J. Edmonds, Sheerness, 1787, pp. 31–2
11. “Dangerous Condition of Sheerness”, United Services Gazette, reprinted in West Kent Guardian, 28 February 1852, p. 4
12. Roy Spencer, D.H. Lawrence Country: A Portrait of his Early Life and Background with Illustrations, Maps and Guides, London: Cecil Woolf, 1979, pp. 64–81
13. Quoted from Lawrence’s poem “Red-Herring” (Pansies, 1929), Spencer, p. 64
14. D.H. Lawrence, Sons and Lovers [1913], Oxford World’s Classics, 1995, pp. 10–11
15. “The Council’s £25,000 Scheme” Sheerness Times, 6 Feb 1930, p. 2
16. “Sheerness in the ‘Sixties’”, Sheerness Times, 30 April 1931
17. “Sheerness”, Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 7 November 1875, p. 3
18. Mr John Taylor’s visit to Sheerness to conduct his enquiry into the matter is reported in “Sheerness. The Marine Town Esplanade”, Whitstable Times & Herne Bay Herald, 11 December 1875
19. “The Council’s £25,000 Scheme”
20. “The Great Snowstorm”, Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 22 January 1881, p. 3
21. “Sheerness”, Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 27 November 1880, p. 3
22. “The Thaw in London”, Yorkshire Post & Leeds Intelligencer, 28 January 1881, p. 8
23. Ibid.
24. “Gales, Snowstorms, and Floods”, Bury Evening Post, 25 January 1881, p. 3
25. “Notes by the Way”, Sheerness Times, 5 February 1881
26. “Sheerness-on-Sea”, Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Guardian, 26 February 1881, p. 3.
27. “Sheerness”, Whitstable Times and Herne Bay Herald, 18 September 1881. See also “The Sea Defences at Sheerness”, Tamworth Herald, 10 September 1881, p. 3, which reports this work near the garrison and dockyard, but also that the Board of Health was refusing other measures to “prevent inundations” on the grounds that the sea defences were “Government property”.
28. “The Floods”, London Daily News, 31 October 1882, p. 6
29. “The Prevention of Thames Flooding”, article from the Builder, reprinted in Jersey Independent and Daily Telegraph, 5 February 1881, p. 1
30. On this occasion, Mr Brice at Elmley lost his sheep, cattle and almost his own life; his less fortunate neighbour, Mr W. Sage, drowned when he stepped into the water from a flat-bottomed boat in order to round up some cattle, and sank into a submerged ditch. “Great Disaster”, Sheerness Times and General Advertiser, 4 December 1897. Also available on Kent History Forum.
31. “High Tide on the Thames”, Morning Post, 30 November 1897, p. 3
32. “Great Disaster”, Sheerness Times and General Advertiser, 4 December 1897
33. “Damage in the Coast Towns”, South Wales Daily News, 30 November 1897, p. 5
34. “Great Disaster”
35. Anniversaries I, p. 12
36. Ibid., p. 81
37. Ibid, p. 87
38. Hilda Grieve, The Great Tide: The story of the 1953 Flood Disaster in Essex, Chelmsford: County Council of Essex, 1959, p. 52
39. Ibid., pp. 53–4
40. “Abnormal Tide”, Sheerness Guardian and East Kent Advertiser, 6 November 1921
41. Grieve,
p. 52. See also “London Floods”, Western Gazette, 13 January 1928, p. 15
42. “Highest Tide since 1897”, Sheerness Times, 12 January 1928, p. 5
43. “How Sheppey was Saved”, Sheerness Times, 12 January 1928
44. “Urban District Council: The Sea Defences: Coun. Carpenter Complains of Lack of Money Spent”, Sheerness Guardian, 9 March 1929
45. “Council and the Sea Defences”, Sheerness Times, 18 April 1929
46. “The Sea Defences”, Sheerness Times, 21 March 1929
47. “Council and the Sea Defences” Sheerness Times, 18 April 1929
48. “Urban District Council”, Sheerness Times, 23 March 1929
49. “A Scandalous Scare Exploded”, Sheerness Guardian, 1 October 1931
50. “Freedom is Ours”, Sheppey Guardian, 6 July 1929
51. “Well-Known Artist in Sheppey”, Sheerness Guardian, 21 September 1929
52. “Gardens Along Marine Parade”, Sheerness Times, 20 February 1930
53. “Urban District Council” Sheerness Guardian, 17 May 1930
54. Anniversaries I, pp. 120 & 122
55. “The Promenade Scheme”, Sheerness Guardian, 28 June 1930, p. 4
56. Sheerness Guardian, 2 January 1932
57. “Council Tenders. Sea-wall Expenditure”, Sheerness Times 14 January 1932
58. “Marine Parade Improvements”, Sheerness Times, 21 January 1932
59. “Around the Clock. A Ruling Passion”, Sheerness Times, August 18 1932
60. “£25,000 Loan Expended”, Sheerness Times, 17 November, 1932
61. “Marine Parade Improvement Scheme”, Sheerness Times, 1 December 1932
62. “Around the Clock: The Parade Controversy”, Sheerness Times, 8 December 1932
63. “Around the Clock”, Sheerness Times, 4 December 1932
64. “Labour’s New HQ”, Sheerness Times, 8 December 1932, p. 1
65. Uwe Johnson, Letter to Hans Joachim Schädlich, 7 July 1978, Inselgeschichten, p. 85
29. Beach, Sea and “The View of a Memory”
1. Uwe Johnson, Letter to Antonia and Felix Landgraf, 7 June 1977, Inselgeschichten, p. 172
2. Uwe Johnson, Letter to Antonia and Felix Landgraf, Inselgeschichten, p. 160
3. Anniversaries I, p. 53
4. Anniversaries II, p. 446
5. Anniversaries I, p. 53
6. Anniversaries III, p. 874
7. Anniversaries II, p. 442
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