Redheap
{{Short description|1930 novel by Norman Lindsay}}
{{Infobox book
| name = Redheap
| title_orig =
| translator =
| image = File:Redheap.jpg
| caption = 1934 edition
| author = Norman Lindsay
| illustrator =
| cover_artist =
| country = Australia
| language = English
| series =
| genre =
| publisher = Faber and Faber{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article223701409 |title=Lindsay Writes of Amours and, Small-Town Life |newspaper=The Sun |issue=6033 |location=Sydney |date=12 March 1930 |accessdate=26 July 2017 |page=1|edition=LAST RACE |via=National Library of Australia}}
| release_date = 1930
| english_release_date =
| media_type =
| pages = 317 pp.
| isbn =
| preceded_by = A Curate in Bohemia
| followed_by = Miracles by Arrangement
}}
Redheap, also published as Every Mother's Son, is a 1930 novel by Norman Lindsay.{{cn|date=August 2023}} It is a story of life in a country town in Victoria, Australia in the 1890s. Lindsay portrays real characters struggling with the social restrictions of the day. Snobbery and wowserism are dominant themes. In 1930 it became the first Australian novel to be banned in Australia.{{Cite news|url=http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/inquirer/norman-lindsay-film-fell-in-a-redheap/news-story/bddd22a072d9e2d6f3ce71b3b32eb319|first=Tom |last=Gilling|title=Lindsay film fell in a Redheap|newspaper=Weekend Australian|date=16–17 April 2016|page=Inquirer, p. 19}} The novel forms the first part of a trilogy, together with Saturdee and Halfway to Anywhere.
The novel was adapted for television in 1972.
Plot
The central character is Robert Piper, a nineteen-year-old man engaging in love affairs with the publican's daughter and the parson's daughter next door. In an attempt to prevent him falling into immorality and dragging the family along with him, Piper's mother arranges for him to be tutored by Mr Bandparts, a recovering alcoholic school teacher. The arrangement soon backfires and Mr Bandparts is soon drinking beer with his young pupil and chasing the corpulent barmaid at the Royal Hotel.
The reader is introduced to the rest of the Piper family. Mr Piper is a draper who continuously measures objects to calm his mind. His eldest son Henry has high hopes of taking over the business one day. Hetty is a domineering oldest daughter, who attempts to control the family morals and standing.
Ethel is a quiet younger daughter, who uses her shyness to cover her various seductions of young men around town. Grandpa Piper made the family fortune, only to be treated with contempt by the rest of the family. His small acts of revenge make some of the most comic moments of the book.
Banning
The book was banned in Australia for 28 years, until 1958, after it was first published in 1930.{{cite journal|last=Darby|first=Robert|title=The Banning of Sober Facts about an Inflammatory Fiction|journal=Labour History|date=November 2013|issue=105|pages=171–185|doi=10.5263/labourhistory.105.0171}}{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article4088880 |title="REDHEAP" BANNED. |newspaper=The Argus |issue=26,137 |location=Melbourne|date=22 May 1930 |accessdate=26 July 2017 |page=7 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Proposed film
The novel was optioned for the movies in the 1930s for £1,000, but no movie was made.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article128482273 |title=Film Industry In Australia. |newspaper=The News |location=Adelaide |date=11 June 1935 |accessdate=17 March 2015 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}
Television adaptation
{{Infobox television
| image =
| image_size =
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| caption =
| genre =
| creator =
| based_on = {{Based on|Redheap|Norman Lindsay}}
| writer = Eleanor Witcombe
| screenplay =
| story =
| director = Brian Bell
| starring = Peter Flett
Michael Boddy
Pamela Stephenson
Norman Yemm
June Salter
Kate Fitzpatrick
| narrated =
| theme_music_composer =
| country = Australia
| language = English
| num_episodes = 3
| producer = Alan Burke
| editor =
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| runtime =
| company =
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| network = ABC
| first_aired = {{Start date|1972|10|27|df=y}}
| last_aired = {{End date|1972|11|10|df=y}}
}}
The novel was adapted into a three-part mini series by the ABC in 1972.Ed. Scott Murray, Australia on the Small Screen 1970–1995, Oxford University Press, 1996 p225{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article47808854 |title=CLEVER CASTING. |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly | date=18 October 1972 |accessdate=29 July 2013 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}} It screened as part of Norman Lindsay Theatre on the ABC, where works for Lindsay were screened over nine weeks. Three of the weeks were devoted to Redheap.{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43600396 |title="LANE END" should please "Bellbird" fans |newspaper=The Australian Women's Weekly |volume=39 |issue=28 |date=8 December 1971 |accessdate=9 February 2017 |page=10 |via=National Library of Australia}}
=Cast=
- Kate Fitzpatrick as Hetty
- Peter Flett as Robert Piper
- Michael Boddy
- Pamela Stephenson
- Norman Yemm
- June Salter
- Alexander Archdale
- John Morris
- John Wood
- John Waters as Jerry Arnold
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{IMDb title|0285398}}
- [http://www.austlit.edu.au/austlit/page/C402681 Redheap TV adaptation] at AustLit
- [http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=12822664&S=1 Complete copy of script] at National Archives of Australia
{{Alan Burke}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
Category:1930 Australian novels
Category:Australian Broadcasting Corporation original programming
Category:1970s Australian television miniseries
Category:1972 Australian television series debuts
Category:1972 Australian television series endings