I was probably about nine years old when I read my first Jalna novel. It was YOUNG RENNY and it was, of course, by MAZO DE LA ROCHE. I don’t know if it was the exotic-sounding name of the author or the Pan Book cover that first attracted me, but once I’d started it, I was hooked. This would have been around 1955, and there was little else to do other than listen to the radio or read. Both were favourite pastimes. I would hurry home from school in time to listen to Mrs Dale’s Diaries, followed by Children’s Hour. Mrs Dales’ Diary was pure soap, of course. I longed to be Bob, married to the entrancing Jenny, mother of his twins. Bob was played by Leslie Heritage, I believe. I don’t remember who played Jenny, but Ellis Powell was playing Mrs Dale, and James Dale was playing Jim Dale – how apt! Soap Operas follow the various goings-on of a particular group of people. In Mrs Dale, it was her and her family, and the village in which they lived. Sometimes there was a minor scandal, but never much to rock the boat – it was a perfect representation of middle England after the second world war, when the days stretched out to infinity and everything was fantastically good – for some.

It’s said that soap operas are supposed to mimic life. One of the girls I went to Primary school with turned out to be a prostitute at about the time I was entering the sixth form in grammar school. And one of my fellow sixth-formers, “Pedro Smith”, had a sister who mysteriously went to stay with relatives after becoming heavy with child. There were, as far as I know, no scandals in my family, though I couldn’t swear to there never being any. I was only nine years old, remember. Other than Mrs Dale, there was The Archers. I wasn’t as fond of them, though I have a soft spot for the signature tune, and it was one of the first I taught my children to play on the guitar. The heavy West Country accents didn’t attract me – though they should, I was, after all, living in rural Gloucestershire! But Mrs Dale – ah! That was real life. Bob ran the local garage, Monument did Mrs Dale’s garden, and Dr Dale had his patients. Then I discovered Whiteoaks, the saga of Jalna, the Canadian dynasty that came to be my equal favourite read along with Dennis Wheatley, Edgar Rice Burroughs and Leslie Charteris.

As I said at the beginning, I started with Young Renny. Renny was always my favourite character, he could do nothing wrong. He was headstrong, wilful, resilient, manly, resourceful, everything I wanted and expected to be. The story was brilliant. Maurice Vaughn, about to marry Meg, Rennie’s sister (I had a sister – it mirrored my life), revealed on the eve of the wedding that he had fathered an illegitimate daughter who came to be called Pheasant. Meg refused to marry Maurice, and for me, the saga took off, into the realms of a reality you could read about and enjoy, but rarely came into contact with in real life. I searched for and purchased, other books in the series. I was disappointed by THE BUILDING OF JALNA, and only later came to realise that it had been written later, so that the entire saga could stretch out to encompass a whole century.

But MARY WAKEFIELD – that was brilliant. Old Adeline wanted her favourite son Philip to marry someone special, but he wanted to marry his children’s governess. It was pure romance, not quite Mills and Boon, but something to set my pulses racing and charge my imagination. Mary Wakefield remained one of my favourite characters throughout the whole series. Determined not to be humiliated, she sought refuge with one of Philip’s brothers and was on the point of leaving for good when he finally caught up with her and dragged her back to Jalna, contrary to his grandmother’s wishes. (I had a grandmother – just the one, and she was nothing like Old Adeline – but again, it mirrored my life). Maybe that’s the secret of soap – it mirrors your life. It draws upon relations and relationships, arrives at a crossroads and takes an unexpected turn. I couldn’t imagine my sister refusing to marry someone because he was the father of an illegitimate child, because she was too astute to get involved with someone who could do such a thing. But I would want her to. I would want and expect her to react in exactly the same way that Meggie did in YOUNG RENNY. And I expected myself to be defiant in the face of unreasonable requests at the hands of any of my grandparents, parents, aunts or uncles.

I can’t remember ever doing that, but it’s the way I would have wanted to be. Renny, like Simon Templar, and Tarzan of the Apes, was my role model. They were all inspirational characters. Here are brief synopses of each of the Whiteoaks novels.

The Building of Jalna. In the first book, Adeline, an impulsive bride with an Irish temper, and her husband, Captain Philip Witeoak, select Lake Ontario as the setting for their family home.

Morning at Jalna. Now the mother of four children, Adeline finds her household involved with a family of Southerners who are members of a secret Confederate resistance movement during the American Civil War

Mary Wakefield. Ernest Whiteoak hires a young English woman to be governess to Philip Jr’s motherless children. When he falls in love with her, Adeline does all she can to stop the marriage.

Young Renny. Renny, now the head of the Jalna household, defends his sister Meg when her fiancé Maurice Vaughn is found to have fathered an illegitimate child.

Whiteoak Heritage. The mixed fortunes of the Whiteoak family after the first World War. Renny returns home to find his one-time love unforgiving and his brother involved with an elder woman.

The Whiteoak Brothers. Matriarch Adeline has reached the age of ninety-eight. This book deals with the family’s unfortunate investment in a fake gold mine.

Jalna. The family home now includes an assortment of old ladies, aunts, uncles, sisters and brothers.

The Whiteoaks of Jalna. Finch, the awkward, misunderstood musical genius of the family, finds growing up at Jalna difficult. Events reach an awkward climax when Adeline dies and leaves her fortune to him.

Finch’s Fortune. The fortune in question is still a bone of contention. On a visit to England, Finch is subjected to the bitterness of a hopeless love affair.

The Master of Jalna. Renny tries to uphold the family traditions after the death of his grandfather. He faces a financial crisis in his efforts to keep the estate viable.

Whiteoak Harvest. Renny and Alayne Whiteoak reach a marital crisis with tragic overtones. An old uncle returns to Jalna, and Wakefield, who has been staying in a monastery, also comes home.

Wakefield’s Course. The continuing saga focuses on Wakefield, now a successful actor, and his own bittersweet love affair.

Return to Jalna. Starts with WWII and has the brothers returning home and settling down, many with children of their own.

Renny’s Daughter. Renny’s daughter visits Ireland and becomes involved with an older man who turns out to be entirely unsuitable.

Variable Winds at Jalna. Renny’s daughter, young Adeline, plans to marry her Irish lover. Meg and Finch find new loves. Old Nicholas dies, leaving various legacies to family members.

Centenary at Jalna. An alienated brother, a neurotic child and a reluctant bride-to-be star in this final episode.

 

Any one of the above could form the basis of a plot for a season or an episode from Dallas, Dynasty, Emmerdale, Coronation Street, Eastenders or any modern-day soap. I don’t recall De La Roche tackling the thorny subjects of homosexuality or lesbianism, though it has been suggested she was a lesbian herself. But that may be because of the literary conventions of the time she was writing. There is little evidence of any other such literary feast structured along the same lines earlier than the Jalna saga, though family sagas were very much in vogue at the time. However, no one but De La Roche could contemplate writing about the same group of characters for more than thirty years and in that respect she is unique.

Jalna was the first volume to be written, in 1927, and was intended as a standalone novel. Such was the acclaim with which it was greeted, however, that she was soon persuaded to write other titles for the series. Many of the others were written out of synch., so to speak, and illustrate De La Roche’s desire for completeness once she knew what a good thing she was on to. This is a superb series, full of rich characters in brilliant settings, and deals primarily with relationships, both legitimate, with all their attendant complications, and illicit, with all their crises and dramas. Were she alive today, I have no doubt whatever that De La Roche would be writing a soap opera of some kind, for today’s avid viewers. The series was made into a bad film and an even worse Canadian TV series. A lost opportunity.

That doesn’t necessarily mean it was the first televised soap opera – I’d have to take advice on that; it did appear in 1972, after all. But it does mean that other people than me have noticed the familiarity of plotlines and the tremendous vista of life in the Whiteoak Chronicles that appeals to people from all walks of life.

I’m an avid viewer of Emmerdale and Eastenders, though I don’t like Coronation Street because of the silly northern accents. Yes, I know the accents in Emmerdale are also quite silly to us Southerners, but they are somewhat easier on the ear. I loved Shortland Street, too, till it was taken from us by some short-sighted and nasty people at ITV. I’ve never forgiven them for that. But back to Whiteoaks. I recently re-read the whole series, having bought most from Ebay and from boot sales, and I have to say they were as fresh and readable as when I first stumbled across RENNY’S DAUGHTER in my sister’s bedroom. You may ask what I was doing in my sister's bedroom - looking for something to read, of course. Ah! To have actually stumbled across young Adeline, Renny's daughter, in my sister’s bedroom – now that’s the stuff of soap operas…..

 

All of the illustrations for this article come from the most excellent Pan Books website run by Tim Kitchen, where you’ll find literally hundreds of Pans, all lovingly scanned and catalogued.