A-Level English Literature: Elements of crime writing

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

Personal Revision Booklet

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Personal summaries: When Will There Be Good News?

Chapter: Part 1, Chapter 1

Title: Harvest
News headline: “Devonshire family brutally killed; surviving daughter lives with the guilt”
Key quotation: “Their mother was cut down where she stood, the great silver knife carving through
her heart as if it was slicing butcher’s meat.” (pg. 27)

What is the main story? What is the chapter’s function?

Story: Family from Devon go for a dog walk, and a man approaches and murders all but one of them.
The survivor, Joanna, is left hiding (lost) in fields of wheat; having lost her whole family.

Function: Introduces original crime and main protagonist; introduces themes of family, survivors guilt, trauma

What type of crime text/sub-genre best describes the chapter?

Crime thriller, historical crime (crime based on Chillingden Murders)

What is the significance of each of the following aspects of crime in the chapter?

The crime and the criminal - how are they represented? What is their significance?
CRIME:
- Very brutal and sudden, disruption to the natural order
- “cut down”, the great silver knife carving through her heart”, “butcher’s meat”, “trail of blood”, “their
blood had mingled and soaked into the dry earth, feeding the grain, like a sacrifice to the harvest”

CRIMINAL:
- Serious sense of ambiguity surrounding him, no description given to his character or
his motives for such a horrendous crime - impersonal description (“the man”).

The setting - what is its significance? How does it create a backdrop for crime?
- Secluded, country lane - surrounded by fields of wheat etc.
- Sense of calm, yet vulnerability
- The tranquil nature of the setting emphasises the horror and brutality of such a crime
- The crime therefore seems like just not a brutal act, but also a disruption of natural
order.

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Detecting - who does it? Is it conventional? What is the significance?
- No real major detection in this chapter
- Reader is left pondering, with lots of ambiguity surrounding the events
• Lots of questions; no answers!
- No answers or backstory given to the crime with no immediate detection whatsoever

Victims - how are they represented? What is the significance?

JOANNA:
- Vulnerable, young character; crime results in major loss for her; she becomes defined
by the crime as the victim-survivor; has no control over the situation/crime;
overwhelmed by a following sense of guilt; left in an isolated state after the crime
and is enclosed by something bigger than her lost in the field.
FAMILY:
- Again vulnerable; no control over crime; brutally murdered for no clear reason
- Original exploration of the theme surrounding the importance of family, the crime is
amplified as a horrific act as all of this is lost in a heartbeat

Moral purpose/restoration of order - are they achieved/ambiguous? Why?

- No restoration of order; on the contrary there is disruption of natural order
- A major part of the ambiguity surrounding the brutal murders is the lack of motive for
the actions - therefore the reader is forced to build a clear moral boundary which
categorises this act as immoral and unjust.

Narrative style and structure (i.e. structural patterning of text though crises to order)
- Focalised through Joanna (innocent perspective on life, vulnerable character)
- Ends with a sudden narrative gap (30 yrs +)
- As ‘the man’ is introduced, the pace rapidly increases, with shorter, more interjectory
speech - matching the sudden pace change in the narrative.

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