At a time when the Labour Party appears to be in severe danger of eating itself, and faces a strong prospect of a return to Opposition at the next General Election, it’s fascinating to be reading a novel that takes the rise of New Labour as its political backdrop, and reminds you of the heady sense of potential, of excitement, that attended the build up to their election victory in 1997. Yet Richard T. Kelly‘s Crusaders is a bleak novel, which juxtaposes the decline of the Church of England with the resurgent Labour Party, and shows how both organisations, with their own traditions of crusading zeal, are fundamentally incapable of righting the social and economic ills of run down inner-city housing estates (and perhaps many other national ills). The Reverend John Gore has a foot in both camps – once a Labour activist of the old school, he is now on his way to the fictional area of Hoxheath, in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, there to ‘plant’ a church.

The range of impediments to his mission is impressive, and he certainly does not come across as being equipped to handle the task before him. Gore seems designed as the very embodiment of the ‘good old C of E’ – patronising without meaning to be, well intentioned but lacking self confidence, going about his mission despite a sense of mild but perpetual doubt. Considering his occupation, he is not presented as an overly pious character, and what faith he has will be sorely tested by the challenge awaiting him in Hoxheath: temptations and tribulations of many different kinds await his arrival.

While the bulk of the book follows Gore’s progress, and the path by which he arrives at this juncture of his life, we are also gradually introduced to his three main challenges, through spending time following them around and learning their stories. There’s Stevie Coulson, a bouncer turned ‘security consultant’ whose initial offers of assistance to Gore set an unwelcome precedent; there’s Lindy Clark, a single mother and one of Gore’s parishioners who’s the femme fatale of the piece; and there’s Martin Pallister, a local MP who’s rising rapidly up the ranks of a Labour Party that’s been revitalised by Tony Blair and the New Labour experiment. Pallister’s assistant and political muse is Gore’s sister, Suzy, and thus however much Gore dislikes him, he can never quite seem to get away from him and his influence. Each, in their own way, puts Gore in to situations he is uncomfortable in, or even morally compromised, yet each time this happens he doesn’t help himself much either – John Gore is a character who is easy to pity but difficult to like.

It’s not hard to see the travails of the Reverend Gore as a parable for the fate of Labour: key party members made religion and faith a central plank of their politics, whether they believed or not; New Labour unwisely accepted gifts from those who later turn out to be unsuitable bedfellows, as Gore does from Coulson; and perhaps most of all, they lost sight of what they stood for in the eyes of their members, suffering a crisis of identity and moral certainty in the pursuit of popularity, much as Gore does. While the parallels are clear and deliberate, I don’t want to overstate them, because before everything else Crusaders is a very well written, tightly plotted and above all character-driven novel, and Kelly puts his fascination with film to good use with some very cinematic scenes, while the phonetically-rendered Geordie dialogue quickly becomes second nature for the reader to cope with. If I have any criticism, it’s around the plausibility of Gore’s dalliance with Lindy – specifically, her interest in him rather than his in her. It’s not something that spoiled my enjoyment though.

I did not know what to expect from Crusaders – but having finished it, I am kicking myself for not having read it eight months ago, and I think that says a lot. Richard T. Kelly has surpassed himself with this very ambitious debut novel, and I look forward to seeing what he does next on the ficton front. Maybe it will be the turn of the Tories for the Kelly treatment?

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