The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine – Galley Beggar Critical Reading Class #1

Last week was the first session of the Galley Beggar Press Critical Reading class I signed up to in the summer, discussing The Benefactors by Wendy Erskine. Chief Galley Beggar Sam Jordison led and moderated the discussion. It was an interesting evening and the two hours sped by, probably the first time I’ve spent that long participating in a discussion about a single book, with around 30 others.

After welcoming us all and going through putting hands up to speak and the chat, Sam got the ball rolling by giving us some background to the author. Erskine is from Belfast, and is Head of English at a secondary school there (she taught author Lucy Caldwell). She’s had two books of short stories published and The Benefactors is her first novel. She describes her writing as rooted in East Belfast, and Sam gave a quote from her along the lines of ‘at one end of the road are the yellow Harland & Wolf cranes, the other a Co-op’ – that sounds like the Newtownards Road where my late mum grew up – I added that to the chat.

Before going into the discussion about the book, we need a few details about the story…

Frankie, Miriam and Bronagh are three very different women, but have an eighteen-year-old son in common. Frankie married rich but grew up in care, Chris is her step-son. Miriam is mourning her husband Kalil, and the sensitive Rami is her son. Bronagh is the CEO of a children’s services charity, used to moving in philanthropic circles; her son Lyness is very judgemental.

Boogie is a taxi driver, and father to Misty and Geneva – Gen. He’s Misty’s step-dad actually and there’s five years between the girls’ ages. The girls’ mother, Leigh, from Glasgow had dumped the kids on him wen Gen was still a baby, and he’s done his best to bring them up, with the help of his mother, Nan D. He’s a good dad, and treats both girls the same, even though Misty isn’t his. Misty is eighteen, and has a part time job at a hotel, plus a ‘Bennyz‘ account, which Boogie doesn’t know about. Benefactors – Bennyz – is like Only Fans. She styles herself as pimped up Elizabeth Barrett Browning, in a lacey-collared blouse, to stand out from the other girls ‘who are in booty shorts and bra tops’.

The three boys, Chris, Rami and Lyness aka ‘Line-up’ and Misty are all at a house party. Chris is the one all the girls fancy, but all three take Misty upstairs and sexually assault her without consent. Misty escapes and creeps home, waking Gen, who persuades her to go to the police. Boogie had been on a late shift and slept on a friend’s sofa. When he saw all the messages the next morning, he was really shocked, but goes into protective dad mode. There’s a sweet scene where he goes to the supermarket to buy cleaning products and comfort food, and velour dressing gowns for the girls, for when they get back from the police station. The boys are arrested, and I shan’t say here how it pans out, however, there may be slight spoilers below.

The basic plot above may be straight-forward, with each of the main chapters told in one character’s voice, however, in between these chapters are short pieces, many just a single paragraph that form a polyphonic backdrop to the story, with an inset text to make it obvious. There are maybe fifty voices – none identified, although it’s obvious that some of them know one or more of those involved; others are more of a vox pop judgement or comment like the one that starts the whole novel off,

…When I heard them talking the other week in the shop, about that girl Misty and those three rich guys, to be fair I didn’t know what to think, I mean, Bennyz and all that, but when I checked her out online she was nowhere near as slutty looking as I thought she’d be. Like, nowhere fucking near. She actually looked friendly and somebody that wouldn’t be a real bitch, so that made me think that there was no way she could be lying or have wanted that to happen. …

Some of these pieces in this chorus are like micro short stories in themselves, but they certainly give a flavour of the community. But there are, tellingly, two that are obviously from the young men involved that show their different attitudes towards what happened, and there was much discussion about one of the three in particular, who although complicit, hadn’t wanted to take part.

*Spoiler alert* – One particular scene that we discussed was the pay-off scene. Sam told us how Erskine planned it as a spaghetti western stand-off, but with women protagonists – three on each side. Frankie, Bronagh and Miriam facing off the formidable Nan D, Misty and Leigh, in front of a church! This is about the only time that religion puts in an appearance, but it helps make the scene even more powerful, also funny! *End of Spoiler Alert*

There is a wry sense of Northern Irish humour that runs throughout the novel, it comes and goes. I think I found it less funny than others, but I certainly appreciated the way Erskine captured all the voices. It’s told in the first person, present tense all the way through with a great sense of immediacy, and that drives the dialogue, and the monologues in the multitude of voices in between chapters. (Someone compared them with Alan Bennett’s Talking Heads).

As for the experience of discussing the book in the group, I just stayed in the chat this time, feeling slightly overwhelmed by some of those who had weighty things to say. I loved all the homework that Sam had done around the book to give us the author’s background, and quotes about and from the book. I did really enjoy The Benefactors, I liked the structure, which did take a little while to get into fully – and this experience shows it’d be a great book for book groups.

I hope I’ll feel more confident to speak up next month when we’ll be discussing Kindred by Octavia Butler – a book I’ve wanted to read for so long…

Source: Own copy. Sceptre, 2025 hardback, 328 pages. BUY at Blackwell’s via my affiliate link (free UK+ P&P)