Lizzy May – Chapter 13

Crash

‘October 1929’ by Steve Fendt

Autumn 1977

Pauly, did I ever tell you about how I lost my job at the Daily News? You don’t think so?

Ah, well, let’s see. Yes, it would have been 1930. I’d been living with the Lennoxes for two years or so.

In the meantime, we’d had the Wall Street Crash, in October 1929, which reverberated around the world, including the City of London.

What caused the Crash?

That’s a short question with a long and complicated answer. I’ll try to give you the simple version.

You remember we talked about the Roaring Twenties a while back?

Yes, well, that wasn’t just a matter of people going out to parties and having a fine old time. The partying was enabled by economics. People having jobs, and money to spend.

You see, there was a great wave of rebuilding after World War One, and it created jobs and wealth. People soon became confident that this prosperity was the normal state of affairs – that it was going to go on and on. They lent and borrowed freely, and they spent and spent.

But life isn’t like that, and the economy isn’t like that. It goes in cycles.

Too much money was invested in schemes that turned out unprofitable. A small number of people became very rich, while producing little or nothing of substance. Debt grew to the point where it couldn’t be repaid.

The crisis took several years to build. When it broke, it was like falling off a cliff.

Investors suddenly lost confidence in the value of their investments – and the more they tried to sell, the lower the shares sank. It became a global panic. Companies became worthless overnight, and millions of people lost their life savings.

If people are worried about money, they spend less, even the ones who are still comfortable. That makes it more and more difficult for producers to sell their goods. That means fewer jobs, less money in circulation. It’s what’s called a vicious circle.

It’s a tricky situation to get out of, and so the Great Depression, as it became called, continued throughout the 1930s. What got us out of it, in the end, was World War Two. Boom – then bust – then war. It’s a pattern that has repeated throughout history, Pauly, and maybe it always will.

So much for the global situation. My own outlook wasn’t rosy, either.

In bad times, when people are out of work and businesses struggle because consumers are spending less, advertising is one of the first expenses that are cut. That’s bad for newspapers. They depend on advertisements for a large part of their income, you see. The price that readers pay for the newspaper only goes part of the way towards covering all the costs of producing it.

So, when the stock markets crashed, and millions were put out of work, newspapers found themselves in trouble too. The Daily News and another long-established left-wing paper, the Daily Chronicle, survived by amalgamating. Yes, that’s right: they became one newspaper. The News Chronicle, it was called.

Now, each of these newspapers had its own staff: its own editors and sub-editors, its own reporters, photographers, typesetters, printers and so on. Suddenly, half of those workers weren’t needed. That included my boss, the Entertainments Editor on the Daily News – and it included me.

So many of my friends had already lost their jobs, and I was dreading it happening to me. When it did, it was almost a relief, after the months of rumours.

You see, when the worst has finally happened, you stop worrying about it and you pick yourself up. You think ‘Well, that actually wasn’t as bad I imagined, was it?’ and you get on with life as best you can.

What choice do you have?

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I was very fortunate in my friends, of course.

The Lennoxes were affected by the Crash, but they had enough family wealth to weather the storm. They also needed a tutor for Charmian, who was ten now and preparing to go to secondary school. She was to be a day girl at an exclusive private school.

My French was competent in those days, and English composition had always been my forte. I wasn’t bad at maths either. I was well-read, and had a wide knowledge of classical music and the arts generally. Charmian already knew me well, and we got on like sisters.

So, Robert and Esther felt I would be an ideal tutor for their daughter. They broached the idea on the same evening I gave them the bad news about my job. I’d have free board and lodging and enough spending money to cover my needs.

I didn’t have a lot of choice, really. I could make a few pounds here and there from freelance writing, reviews and the occasional article, but that certainly wouldn’t be enough to live on.

It’s rarely a good idea to work for your friends, Pauly.

I was the Lennoxes’ companion, their lodger and now their employee, so things could have become awkward for all of us, particularly for me. One serious disagreement and I could have found myself unemployed and homeless over night.

Percy let it be known that he would always look after me, but he was a married man with a family of his own. If a scandal blew up, I was under no illusion that he’d be able to protect me from the consequences. There was no guarantee that he’d even choose me over Charlie, Daphne and George, if it came to it.

So, all in all, my years in Hampstead were a mixed bag.

On the one hand, it was a beautiful place, and I was surrounded by lovely, intelligent, educated people. I was living a privileged life. On the other, I was very vulnerable.

To be honest, I felt guilty too.

Society had a low opinion of women in my position. ‘Home-wrecker’ was probably the kindest name I could expect, if our affair came to light. It was very unfair, but people in those days half-expected married men to ‘play around’ if they got the chance. The real condemnation was reserved for the women they played around with.

My family eventually got wind of the dangerous game I was playing. It didn’t go down well, and the rift between us widened.

Father was still in touch with me. He’d take me out for tea once a month, and we’d talk. Catch up on the family gossip and my news. Of course I didn’t tell him the half of it, but he was nobody’s fool. No matter what happened, I would always be his little Lizzy May, he said. But please be careful.

My brother Ernie, on the other hand, made it very clear he didn’t approve of my ‘situation’, as he called it, and I wasn’t allowed to see my sister-in-law or my niece any more. That hurt me quite a lot, as he’d always been the big brother I’d looked up to, and I was fond of ‘the Elsies’ – Elsie Ruth and Elsie Ivy.

I remained estranged from Mother, of course.

All this worry eventually took a toll on my health. I didn’t have anyone I could be completely open with, or who could help me keep things in perspective. So I got ill.

Keeping things bottled up is never good for us, Pauly. That’s why I sometimes worry about you, young man.

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Coming up:

This Friday in Tales from the Wood: Pauly starts at Christopher Wren, has a nasty surprise and discovers a new talent. (Paid subscriptions.)

Next Tuesday in Lizzy May: Percy’s professional rooms in the City become a venue for after-hours ‘consultations’.