A Feminist Anticipation of Nineteen Eighty-Four?

With the re-emergence of the feminist critique of Orwell in Wifedom, by Anna Funder – and in the forthcoming Julia, by Sandra Newman, and The Sisterhood by Katherine Bradley already published – it may be interesting to revisit Aelfrida Tillyard’s long-forgotten dystopian novel, Concrete (1930). It includes a head of a government ministry called ‘Big Brother’ no less – while many of its other elements anticipate those in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949).

Cambridge-born Aelfrida (1883-1959) was the daughter of nonconformists Alfred Tillyard, editor of the Cambridge Independent Press, and Catharine (née Wetenhall), a staunch advocate for women’s higher education. Heffers published seven of her titles between 1910 and 1926: To Malise and other poems (1910), Cambridge Poets 1900-1913: An Anthology: chosen by Aelfrida Tillyard (1913), Bammie’s Book (1915), The Garden and the Fire (1916), The Making of a Mystic (1917), Verses for Alethea (1920) and Agnes E. Slack: Two Hundred Thousand Miles Travel for Temperance in Four Continents (1926).

Aelfrida Tillyard in 1913

But Tillyard had a number of publishers over the years. It is interesting to note her title published in 1930, not by Heffers, but by Hutchinson, Concrete: A Story of Two Hundred Years Hence, is a novel that depicts a dystopian world following the collapse of civilisation in the twentieth century via various events. These include a revolution of the proletariat in the Western world, a plague that wipes out three-quarters of the human race and a repetition of the Dancing Mania of the Middle Ages. It is now 2126, the ‘Age of Reason’: religion is banned, kissing children is forbidden because it is regarded as unhygienic and the performance of any religious ceremony is punishable by death. Britain is governed by the Eugenist Party, with absolute power over human reproduction. The population is divided into eugenic groups, the lowest being forbidden to propagate. Males are not allowed to marry before thirty. Biologically unfit individuals are euthanised.

The president of the British Empire oversees a number of ministries such as the Ministry of Reason, headed by an official called ‘Big Brother’. There is also a Ministry of Aesthetics, responsible for propaganda. Described by American editor and scholar of science fiction Everett F. Bleiler as a ‘drab dictatorship’, the state in Tillyard’s future Britain is characterised by ubiquitous spying, ruthless thought control and a ready death penalty. In a contemporary review, the Western Morning News & Mercury (see cutting) declares that Concrete strikes a topical note as Tillyard pictures a world in which Sovietism is triumphant, religion abolished and the reign of reason inaugurated. This new world is comfortable enough materially, but its inhabitants are thoroughly bored with life. The paper asks: will religion return and help them find a meaning in existence? Tillyard’s protagonist, Alaric, works at the Ministry of Aesthetics while Orwell’s Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth. Both are subversives but only one, Alaric, finds redemption.

Originally submitted for a religious novel competition run by Hodder and Stoughton, Concrete did not sell well. Tillyard put this down to her publisher, Hutchinson, noting they were not being taken seriously as they were ‘known to be circulating library trash’. Her The Approaching Storm, also published by Hutchinson, which followed two years later, portrays another dystopian Britian, this time ruled by a left-wing dictatorship (see Andy Croft’s Red Letter Days: British Fiction in the 1930s, London: Lawrence and Wishart, 1990).

Neither Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World (1932) nor Orwell ever indicated they had read Concrete so it is difficult to assess what influence, if any, it had on them. But is it not significant that a pioneering dystopian novel (with a character called ‘Big Brother’ and a society dominated by state surveillance) by a woman writer is now largely forgotten while those by the male authors continue to enjoy world-wide sales?

• See https://openpublishing.psu.edu/utopia/content/concrete-story-two-hundred-years-hence; https://digital.library.upenn.edu/women/_collections/utopias/utopias.html and Sheila Mann’s biography: Aelfrida Tillyard: Hints of Perfect Splendour (Wayment Print and Publishing Solutions, 2013).
• The author would like to thank especially Julie Bounford who first covered Tillyard’s Concrete and its links to Nineteen Eighty-Four on her blog at https://jebounford.net/a-curious-publishing-cameo/. Thanks also to Les Hurst.