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Solomon in all his Glory

Nineteenth century social history is littered with local self-improvers or heroes – men who reached for the sky and manage to grab a handful of stardust. To the working man these exemplars opened a dimension of power and freedom by showing the potential to transform a life, to climb up to the crest of Olympus where all the fine ladies and harp music hang out. Of course, idolatry traditionally has a dark side – plenty of men literally worshipped Caligula – but, without the likes of Hercules or Alexander, how can we know what it means to be strong and brave?

This is the point D.M. Thomas underlines in Hellfire Corner. His central character is Bert Solomon, an outstanding rugby player of Edwardian Cornwall who, after performing brilliantly in the county team and securing a crucial try for England in the match against Wales, abruptly left the game and never returned. He created a legend, yet stayed so tight and close throughout his life that no one – least of all himself – understood the solitary satisfactions that supplied his need.

Hellfire Corner shows us Solomon, not only as a free-standing character, but as the symbol adopted by a group of miners whose lives he irradiates with his physical prowess. As they endure accident, epidemic and slump, his legend ripens and glows like a field of corn. A being of air and light, he is free of the diseases and crippling conditions that afflict them. While they destroy their lungs in contaminated pits, he braves the open space of the pitch. Until the end he is their breath of air, their flame of inspiration. Solomon even intrudes upon their sex lives, his safe-deposit hands protecting the sacred, procreative ball, the fertility symbol even those with no talent for the game will use.

However, although his dummy passes and swerves fool his opponents, Bert has no equivalent skill in conversation (he is, in fact, to conviviality what the San Francisco earthquake is to architecture!) Hence it falls to others to enweave him in legend and drama. And who better than D.M. Thomas, a former Redruth man, a rugby enthusiast, an acclaimed novelist, poet and translator who once glimpsed Bert as a boy and never forgot him? Backed by an animated, versatile cast, framed by sermon and song, using a varied, often witty flourish of metaphor, he recreates the drollery, passion and servitude of Edwardian Cornwall, exploring the enigma of Solomon, centre three-quarter extraordinary, diligent pigeon breeder and long-standing employee of the Cornish Meat and Provision Company. Bert spreads his glory into every corner of the Duchy – firing and inspiring sportsmen everywhere – and yet what we are essentially given is a self-absorbed loner only prepared to give when he is ready and reserving the right to withdraw his talent whenever he chooses. But gods have always tended to please themselves.