The Good Lion

If there was any justice in this world, The Good Lion would be regarded as a classic of mid-century English Literature: one of the best coming of age novels, and Doherty would be held up as a remarkable working class writer, alongside, if not better than Sillitoe, Waterhouse, Barstow and Storey. The Good Lion is in fact a far more accomplished piece of writing than Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, a better study of coming-of-age masculinity and emotional conflict than This Sporting Life, and yet it has been forgotten.It follows the story of Walt Morris, setting out on a life of his own, with his looking-after-number-one outlook on life: he is a "good lion" a lion that kills a deer not being a "bad lion." Set against the backdrop of post-war Sheffield (although the city is never named), Walt tries to work out for himself the problems of living in the age of the hydrogen bomb, the cold war and satellites, and comes to realise that his good lion philosophy has flaws as life and relationships mould him into an adult.