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Kif
Tey's first book; the sad story of a young man's downward path in the difficult post-WWI years in England.
328 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1929
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About the author
Gordon Daviot
41Ìýbooks18ÌýfollowersGordon Daviot is a pseudonym of Elizabeth Mackintosh, better known by the pseudonym .
Works originally published under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot still use that name as primary work, even though republished as Josephine Tey or Elizabeth Mackintosh.
Works originally published under the pseudonym Gordon Daviot still use that name as primary work, even though republished as Josephine Tey or Elizabeth Mackintosh.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
November 14, 2017
In my attempt to get to know the works of Josephine Tey a bit better, I came across the following description of Kif in Jennifer Morag Henderson's excellent biography :
In the Highlands, as elsewhere, the whole way of life was changed by the war: from being a relatively stable, hierarchical society, the idea of change and the progress of technology was pervasive, even if the reality of change and progress took longer to arrive. Beth was to become very aware of how Britain was not the ‘home for heroes� that the returning troops and their families wanted it to be, and her first full-length novel, Kif, was to deal particularly with the effects of economic depression and the difficulties that people, especially returning soldiers, faced after the end of the First World War.
I was really intrigued how Tey (then still writing as Gordon Daviot) would handle this. It was a contemporary issue and surely could have been a somewhat controversial issue (at the time of publication), but while Tey/Daviot showed some of the difficulties that veterans faced when returning to civic life - such as not finding employment - this book was not even scratching the surface of what she could have shown.
Instead, we get an account advertised as "An Unvarnished Story" which reads like a sanitised story for children, telling of a boy's own adventure in the trenches, which are full "old sports". None or the realism of trench warfare that we know of from other accounts is present in Kif.
As for the miserable treatment of veterans back home, this is there to some extent, where Kif cannot find long-term employment and survives on short-term jobs and some winnings at the race grounds. Now, this may have been the most realistic part, but the Tey/Daviot spoils it by Kif - who has evidently no skills in the field - joining a gang of burglars. He's caught, he's sent down. Upon his release, he is unemployable. Then tragedy strikes again.
The problem I have with this part is that Kif knowingly turns to crime. He is not forced into it. There is no compulsion for him to join the burglars, but it is portrayed as a splendid whim that lets him join up. In turn, how does this then portray issues that ordinary men faced who did not turn to crime?
This book was interesting from the point of seeing Tey/Daviot develop as a writer, but it did not work for me as a worthwhile book.
In the Highlands, as elsewhere, the whole way of life was changed by the war: from being a relatively stable, hierarchical society, the idea of change and the progress of technology was pervasive, even if the reality of change and progress took longer to arrive. Beth was to become very aware of how Britain was not the ‘home for heroes� that the returning troops and their families wanted it to be, and her first full-length novel, Kif, was to deal particularly with the effects of economic depression and the difficulties that people, especially returning soldiers, faced after the end of the First World War.
I was really intrigued how Tey (then still writing as Gordon Daviot) would handle this. It was a contemporary issue and surely could have been a somewhat controversial issue (at the time of publication), but while Tey/Daviot showed some of the difficulties that veterans faced when returning to civic life - such as not finding employment - this book was not even scratching the surface of what she could have shown.
Instead, we get an account advertised as "An Unvarnished Story" which reads like a sanitised story for children, telling of a boy's own adventure in the trenches, which are full "old sports". None or the realism of trench warfare that we know of from other accounts is present in Kif.
As for the miserable treatment of veterans back home, this is there to some extent, where Kif cannot find long-term employment and survives on short-term jobs and some winnings at the race grounds. Now, this may have been the most realistic part, but the Tey/Daviot spoils it by Kif - who has evidently no skills in the field - joining a gang of burglars. He's caught, he's sent down. Upon his release, he is unemployable. Then tragedy strikes again.
The problem I have with this part is that Kif knowingly turns to crime. He is not forced into it. There is no compulsion for him to join the burglars, but it is portrayed as a splendid whim that lets him join up. In turn, how does this then portray issues that ordinary men faced who did not turn to crime?
This book was interesting from the point of seeing Tey/Daviot develop as a writer, but it did not work for me as a worthwhile book.
September 10, 2017
This is one of Josephine Tey's lesser know early novels. I wrote a longer review about it on my book blog:
I have three more Daviot works that I hope to finish before the year is out.
I have three more Daviot works that I hope to finish before the year is out.
June 20, 2014
This is the story of Kif. It's a story about his journey through the first World War and the effect it has on his life after it.
I read this due to my appreciation of Josephine Tey, writer of books such as The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar, to name but two of her classic mysteries.
This is an altogether different book. This isn't a mystery, it's a tragedy that looks at the war through the eyes of a young boy who went from having a career and fighting for his country to being left out in the cold when they had no more need of him.
In many ways it is a great story, but in others it disappoints.
What disappoints most is the lack of sympathy I had with the main character through most of the book as he was a very unemotional individual with very few connections, but eventually that is how you do come to sympathize with him - an outsider trying to fit in.
The war itself is mentioned very little, it is told through incidents taking place around the war, while Kif is on leave or in confrontations with fellow soldiers. The first two acts drag on a little.
The third act is where things do get interesting.
Kif is left to fend for himself, manages to find work but it sadly comes undone in the end and he is forced into a life of crime as a means to survive. It is through this transition from naive boy to competent thief that we see the most change. It is through his treatment after the war, as a result of being turned down for employment due to a criminal record, of being stripped of hope for the future that Kif finally sets out on a criminal job that leads to his downfall.
It is the tragedy of Kif's story that is left with you at the end. A boy who fought for his country was left to fend for himself afterwards with no support from the Government in who's name he went to war for.Tey looks to get across to the reader that war was not glorious. It was harrowing and despairing; and for those who came home it was only part of the battle for survival.
I read this due to my appreciation of Josephine Tey, writer of books such as The Daughter of Time and Brat Farrar, to name but two of her classic mysteries.
This is an altogether different book. This isn't a mystery, it's a tragedy that looks at the war through the eyes of a young boy who went from having a career and fighting for his country to being left out in the cold when they had no more need of him.
In many ways it is a great story, but in others it disappoints.
What disappoints most is the lack of sympathy I had with the main character through most of the book as he was a very unemotional individual with very few connections, but eventually that is how you do come to sympathize with him - an outsider trying to fit in.
The war itself is mentioned very little, it is told through incidents taking place around the war, while Kif is on leave or in confrontations with fellow soldiers. The first two acts drag on a little.
The third act is where things do get interesting.
Kif is left to fend for himself, manages to find work but it sadly comes undone in the end and he is forced into a life of crime as a means to survive. It is through this transition from naive boy to competent thief that we see the most change. It is through his treatment after the war, as a result of being turned down for employment due to a criminal record, of being stripped of hope for the future that Kif finally sets out on a criminal job that leads to his downfall.
It is the tragedy of Kif's story that is left with you at the end. A boy who fought for his country was left to fend for himself afterwards with no support from the Government in who's name he went to war for.Tey looks to get across to the reader that war was not glorious. It was harrowing and despairing; and for those who came home it was only part of the battle for survival.
April 29, 2013
Some authors have fantastic first novels. Others work their way up from plodding to gripping. Unfortunately Josephine Tey is in the second category.
Several of her books are on my perennial re-read list (The Franchise Affair, Brat Farrar, The Daughter of Time). So when I saw that there was a Josephine Tey book that I hadn't read, I jumped on it. Now I know why I hadn't heard of it before.
The first half of the book tells of Kif's experiences in WWI. He enlists in the army as a way to get away from his boring existence as a farm laborer, makes a few friends, and has a few story lines that ultimately don't go anywhere. The second half is Oliver Twist with a slightly older character and without the redeeming ending.
(I read this as an ebook from Mobileread.com but am reviewing on the default listing rather than setting up a new edition.)
Several of her books are on my perennial re-read list (The Franchise Affair, Brat Farrar, The Daughter of Time). So when I saw that there was a Josephine Tey book that I hadn't read, I jumped on it. Now I know why I hadn't heard of it before.
The first half of the book tells of Kif's experiences in WWI. He enlists in the army as a way to get away from his boring existence as a farm laborer, makes a few friends, and has a few story lines that ultimately don't go anywhere. The second half is Oliver Twist with a slightly older character and without the redeeming ending.
(I read this as an ebook from Mobileread.com but am reviewing on the default listing rather than setting up a new edition.)
May 4, 2021
KIF, by Gordon Daviot, the psudonym of the author Josephine Tey, is the author's first novel. It is the sad story of an innocent young man's downward spiral into crime and his eventual end during the trying years of England after the First World War. Kif, a country orphan boy, longs for a life beyond the fields and cowsheds. He joins the army, where he experiences the mud and pains of Flanders. While in the Army, he meets and makes friends with a wide variety of people, including Angel Carroll, a Cockney man destined to have a critical impact on Kif's life. We would recommend this simple novel to those who appreciate the art of British literature, and for anyone who has read any of Josephine Tey's other novels. This book was from a genre that is different than what we normally choose to read.
September 27, 2013
An odd book, that leaves you with the sense of waste and desperation of the post World War generation. The writing is excellent, the characterisation superb and some of the description wonderful.
However the lack of proper narrative leaves you with a sense of it being incomplete: it's a story of an ordinary life lived in extra-ordinary circumstances, but there is no sense in the building up of the book's characters. the bleak ending that brings it all to a stop.
Tey would have been better taking Kif abroad when he had the chance, and perhaps there would have been more sense to his ending as he did. But difficult to pull it away from the point of the desperation of the times and the very lack of place for all those men who survived the mud and blood.
Worth reading, if you keep in mind there is no great over plan to the events as they unfold. Like all Tey's work, a glorious shining glimpse of the day to day life of a world now gone.
However the lack of proper narrative leaves you with a sense of it being incomplete: it's a story of an ordinary life lived in extra-ordinary circumstances, but there is no sense in the building up of the book's characters. the bleak ending that brings it all to a stop.
Tey would have been better taking Kif abroad when he had the chance, and perhaps there would have been more sense to his ending as he did. But difficult to pull it away from the point of the desperation of the times and the very lack of place for all those men who survived the mud and blood.
Worth reading, if you keep in mind there is no great over plan to the events as they unfold. Like all Tey's work, a glorious shining glimpse of the day to day life of a world now gone.
March 25, 2016
Very clearly a response to Kipling's Kim. What would happen to a boy like Kim, clever, competent, good-hearted, and always longing for adventure, if he were born poor in the class system of pre-WWI England, served in the war, and came home in one piece?
February 9, 2023
Three and a half stars, really. I rounded UP, not down, for even though this story broke my heart... the writing itself is so lyrical and beautiful.
The helpless restlessness which had characterised his existence at the farm had left him when his life leaped from stagnation to movement. That he had by his own doing become a pawn of unseen forces did not worry him. He had taken the stone away, and life moved, and that was all he ever asked of it. Being master of his fate was no ambition of Kif's.
"Kif" is one of the first two books by the redoubtable Josephine Tey. (She published two books in 1929, and I don't know which was written first... The other book was the first of her Inspector Grant mysteries, The Man in the Queue.)
The story of "Kif"is a heavy ride. It's about the brief near-rise and gradual tragic decline of the life of an unanchored orphan named Kif, initially indentured as a farmer's work-boy. The boy, an avid reader, longs for adventure and variety in his everyday life - two things he realizes he'll never get from farm life. This is the story of Kif's path to adventure - and how it comes to misadventure - beginning with his escape from the monotony of farm llfe into the subsequent excitement, hardship, and challenges of a new life as an enlisted man in the British army. The book begins just prior to Britain's entry into The (first) Great War, when Kif, who at 15 is big for his age, passes for 18 and successfully enlists.
Kif finds a place for himself in the army. He learns about himself and begins to learn how to differentiate between himself and others. (Yes, his need for self-knowledge is just that basic.) He discovers aptitudes and strengths, makes friends (and enemies), learns a bit about love and what he values most, and also discovers a surprise willingness to stand up for what he values. He moves through his life with a naivete and innocence which, taken together in Kif, border on a kind of blindness in the face of the world. We see Kif, wide-eyed and open to life, struggle through every imaginable kind of misstep as he moves through his sadly difficult, ungrounded, and wholly unsupported life's journey from his late childhood through his young manhood.
The writing is beautiful and engaging; the dialogue is fresh, natural and eminently present. My unending lament about the story is that Kif deserved far better than what the world served up to him...
The helpless restlessness which had characterised his existence at the farm had left him when his life leaped from stagnation to movement. That he had by his own doing become a pawn of unseen forces did not worry him. He had taken the stone away, and life moved, and that was all he ever asked of it. Being master of his fate was no ambition of Kif's.
"Kif" is one of the first two books by the redoubtable Josephine Tey. (She published two books in 1929, and I don't know which was written first... The other book was the first of her Inspector Grant mysteries, The Man in the Queue.)
The story of "Kif"is a heavy ride. It's about the brief near-rise and gradual tragic decline of the life of an unanchored orphan named Kif, initially indentured as a farmer's work-boy. The boy, an avid reader, longs for adventure and variety in his everyday life - two things he realizes he'll never get from farm life. This is the story of Kif's path to adventure - and how it comes to misadventure - beginning with his escape from the monotony of farm llfe into the subsequent excitement, hardship, and challenges of a new life as an enlisted man in the British army. The book begins just prior to Britain's entry into The (first) Great War, when Kif, who at 15 is big for his age, passes for 18 and successfully enlists.
Kif finds a place for himself in the army. He learns about himself and begins to learn how to differentiate between himself and others. (Yes, his need for self-knowledge is just that basic.) He discovers aptitudes and strengths, makes friends (and enemies), learns a bit about love and what he values most, and also discovers a surprise willingness to stand up for what he values. He moves through his life with a naivete and innocence which, taken together in Kif, border on a kind of blindness in the face of the world. We see Kif, wide-eyed and open to life, struggle through every imaginable kind of misstep as he moves through his sadly difficult, ungrounded, and wholly unsupported life's journey from his late childhood through his young manhood.
The writing is beautiful and engaging; the dialogue is fresh, natural and eminently present. My unending lament about the story is that Kif deserved far better than what the world served up to him...
July 5, 2023
The first published novel by Elizabeth MacKintosh, better known by her pen-names Gordon Daviot or even more so - Josephine Tey. The author uses the device of telling a true story. Hence the word "History" in the title. It is "unvarnished" in the sense that it tells the story of a young man who in early life is taken from his (too) large family to live on a farm. His name is Archibald Vicar, though he is known to all as Kif from how said his own name as a small child. He shows little emotion, positive or negative, seems to have little imagination and is not troubled by, but is indeed content with, mundane farm work.
Then one day early in the First World War, he encounters a battalion of a Highland regiment on a recruitment drive. For the first time in his life he is moved to emotion and immediately resolves to join up. Though only 15 years old, he is tall for his age and is allowed to sign up.
His time in the army is happy. He is popular, makes lifelong friends, and respected by his superiors for his positive attitude and willingness to train and work hard. During his training he develops an interest in boxing and horseracing through a middle class friend. During leave Kif is taken to meet his friend's family. They are kind and friendly, but Kif is unaware he is merely regarded as a project to them. As the war progresses, Kif grows in confidence, and on returning to visit the family while on leave, he realises they are bored with him, because their project has run its course.
During The Somme Kif is seriously wounded and is sent "back to Blighty" for the rest of the war.
Once the war is over, Kif drifts through unemployment, periods of dead-end jobs until he becomes a partner in a bookmakers through a mutual friend from the war. This goes well to a point and then Kif is unemployed again.
Once more though his luck seems to be with him when he meets another pal from the war, who takes Kif to his family home. He discovers two surprising things. One is that the family trade is burglary, and that he has own fallen love with his pal's sister.
Unsurprisingly Kif takes to burglary very well, but his luck may be running out as he takes on more housebreaking jobs.
This story is a promising start leading to the great detective fiction written by Josephine Tey.
Then one day early in the First World War, he encounters a battalion of a Highland regiment on a recruitment drive. For the first time in his life he is moved to emotion and immediately resolves to join up. Though only 15 years old, he is tall for his age and is allowed to sign up.
His time in the army is happy. He is popular, makes lifelong friends, and respected by his superiors for his positive attitude and willingness to train and work hard. During his training he develops an interest in boxing and horseracing through a middle class friend. During leave Kif is taken to meet his friend's family. They are kind and friendly, but Kif is unaware he is merely regarded as a project to them. As the war progresses, Kif grows in confidence, and on returning to visit the family while on leave, he realises they are bored with him, because their project has run its course.
During The Somme Kif is seriously wounded and is sent "back to Blighty" for the rest of the war.
Once the war is over, Kif drifts through unemployment, periods of dead-end jobs until he becomes a partner in a bookmakers through a mutual friend from the war. This goes well to a point and then Kif is unemployed again.
Once more though his luck seems to be with him when he meets another pal from the war, who takes Kif to his family home. He discovers two surprising things. One is that the family trade is burglary, and that he has own fallen love with his pal's sister.
Unsurprisingly Kif takes to burglary very well, but his luck may be running out as he takes on more housebreaking jobs.
This story is a promising start leading to the great detective fiction written by Josephine Tey.
January 9, 2019
Gordon Daviot is one of Josephine Tey's pen-names. The story is well told, well written, compelling. Set in England.
Kif is a young man with no future- he's a hired hand with no education to speak of and no connection to his large, spread out, impoverished family. He lies about his age and joins the army (I forget now if it was WW1 or 2), largely just because he's bored out of his mind. Story follows his life through his time in the military and afterwards, to the end.
It's heartbreaking, which I suppose is a spoiler.
Kif is a young man with no future- he's a hired hand with no education to speak of and no connection to his large, spread out, impoverished family. He lies about his age and joins the army (I forget now if it was WW1 or 2), largely just because he's bored out of his mind. Story follows his life through his time in the military and afterwards, to the end.
It's heartbreaking, which I suppose is a spoiler.
March 12, 2025
A parable of war, friendship, and a moral compass.
This forgotten gem by master storyteller, Josephine Tey, starts out blandly enough, but ends up following its protagonist through WWI, and returning back to England, where he has no family ties, just tenuous friendships with people above his class. The course of his life from there on out is one of a descending spiral, which is camouflaged by tiny points of hope, and it is those brief, bright moments that keep the reader rooting for his triumph. Warning: only read if you have a strong emotional constitution!
This forgotten gem by master storyteller, Josephine Tey, starts out blandly enough, but ends up following its protagonist through WWI, and returning back to England, where he has no family ties, just tenuous friendships with people above his class. The course of his life from there on out is one of a descending spiral, which is camouflaged by tiny points of hope, and it is those brief, bright moments that keep the reader rooting for his triumph. Warning: only read if you have a strong emotional constitution!
January 9, 2024
what a story
This is a wonderfully engaging book. The story keeps you reading even when u want to sleep. They is truly remarkable in her story telling.
This is a wonderfully engaging book. The story keeps you reading even when u want to sleep. They is truly remarkable in her story telling.
September 2, 2024
It’s hard to see the Tey I’ve always loved in this underdeveloped yet overwritten first novel.
March 7, 2017
"Kif" is Josephine Tey's first novel. First written under the name, Gordon Daviot, it is a story of a young man during and after World War I. It is characterized by Tey's usual meticulous prose and, although it is not a detective novel, like those that brought her to prominence in the Golden Age of mysteries during the 30's and 40's, it is a crime novel of sorts. It is also a subtle anti-war story and shows Tey's disdain for the treatment of the veterans by a disinterested government. What it does lack, that is evident in her later writings, is the skill she utilizes to make the reader empathize with her characters. The characters in "Kif" seem flat. Still, a good read, from an amazing and legendary writer. As an aside, Josephine Tey, is actually a pseudonym used by Scottish author, Elizabeth MacKintosh.
December 26, 2017
This was her first novel and not like her other mystery novels. A bit dark and tragic but I did enjoy reading it as a change.
Want to read
January 6, 2016I've been waiting on this for two decades -- the only novel by Josephine Tey I've yet to read. Some day the time will be right, and I will read it, and it will be done.
And I don't even expect much out of the book - this is a very early work, and she'd improved so much later.
And I don't even expect much out of the book - this is a very early work, and she'd improved so much later.
September 3, 2013
Josephine Tey's first book. Came across it by chance. She got a lot better!
October 27, 2015
Well written and entertaining.
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