Cronin

ARCHIBALD JOSEPH CRONIN (1896 - 1981)

Cronin, a Scot, appears to have served as medical officer of health for Northumberland in 1921, and certainly travelled the country a good deal at this period as a medical inspector of mines. He wrote two books on mining safety, and was in Newcastle in 1925 in connection with the Montagu pit disaster of 30 march. Here, water from the Tyne had broken into the workings near Scotswood - an idea Cronin was to utilise in his first real triumph as a novelist The Stars Look Down (1935). This is partly set in a mining community on the Northumberland coast ('Sleescale') and partly in Newcastle ('Tynecastle').

Cronin mentions a vast profusion of real Newcastle places - streets, shops, pubs, 'Esmond Dene' - and 117A Scotswood Road (spelt Scottswood, suggesting Cronin was going by memory, not just studying a map). The countless details of 1920s Geordie life, colours, sounds and all, fairly leap off the page. His portrait of Tyneside is unpatronisingly sympathetic and he even conveys the accent convincingly. Cronin mentions Whitley Bay, Cullercoats, 'Sluice Dene', Tynemouth and the River Wansbeck, and his description of Newcastle celebrates the city Geordies then knew:

'Tynecastle, that keen bustling city of the North, full of movement and clamour and brisk grey colour, echoing to the clang of trams, the clatter of feet, the beat of shipyard hammers, had engulfed Joe graciously... Joe had seen the gallery of the Empire, the inside of Lowe's bar... Down the Scottswood Road he went, past the wide iron pens of the cattle-market, past the Duke of Cumberland, past Plummer Street and Elswick East terrace... Joe felt a stimulating sense of life around him and within him, he felt the world like a great big football at his feet and lustily prepared to boot it.'

Cronin's novel The Northern Light (1958), in which the title refers to a newspaper, is set in various North East locations around Newcastle (Tynecastle again) though he is far less specific in his use of names than in The Stars Look Down.

Myers Literary Guide:	The North-East
ARCHIBALD JOSEPH CRONIN (1896 - 1981) Cronin, a Scot, appears to have served as medical officer of health for Northumberland in 1921, and certainly travelled the country a good deal at this period as a medical inspector of mines. He wrote two books on mining safety, and was in Newcastle in 1925 in connection with the Montagu pit disaster of 30 march. Here, water from the Tyne had broken into the workings near Scotswood - an idea Cronin was to utilise in his first real triumph as a novelist The Stars Look Down (1935). This is partly set in a mining community on the Northumberland coast ('Sleescale') and partly in Newcastle ('Tynecastle'). Cronin mentions a vast profusion of real Newcastle places - streets, shops, pubs, 'Esmond Dene' - and 117A Scotswood Road (spelt Scottswood, suggesting Cronin was going by memory, not just studying a map). The countless details of 1920s Geordie life, colours, sounds and all, fairly leap off the page. His portrait of Tyneside is unpatronisingly sympathetic and he even conveys the accent convincingly. Cronin mentions Whitley Bay, Cullercoats, 'Sluice Dene', Tynemouth and the River Wansbeck, and his description of Newcastle celebrates the city Geordies then knew: 'Tynecastle, that keen bustling city of the North, full of movement and clamour and brisk grey colour, echoing to the clang of trams, the clatter of feet, the beat of shipyard hammers, had engulfed Joe graciously... Joe had seen the gallery of the Empire, the inside of Lowe's bar... Down the Scottswood Road he went, past the wide iron pens of the cattle-market, past the Duke of Cumberland, past Plummer Street and Elswick East terrace... Joe felt a stimulating sense of life around him and within him, he felt the world like a great big football at his feet and lustily prepared to boot it.' Cronin's novel The Northern Light (1958), in which the title refers to a newspaper, is set in various North East locations around Newcastle (Tynecastle again) though he is far less specific in his use of names than in The Stars Look Down.
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