Review: Celia Dale’s Sheep’s Clothing
Sheep’s Clothing by Celia Dale. 2023, first published in 1988 by Faber and Faber Ltd. €12.50, 306 pages.
Sheep’s Clothing, Celia Dale’s final novel, was rereleased this year, 45 years after its original publication. A departure from her earlier books such as The Least of These, published in 1943, it’s in her later books that she branched into the realms of psychological crime. She won the 1986 Crime Writer’s Association Veuve Clicquot Short Story Award for ‘Lines of Communication’, which appears in her only short story collection, A Personal Call and Other Stories. She died in 2011.
Sheep’s Clothing follows Grace and Janice, two women who meet in Holloway prison. Grace, who was convicted of larceny, devises a scheme to con single pensioners into inviting them into their homes by suggesting they can increase their benefits, as social workers. As a trained nurse, Grace worked in care homes where she became well-versed in the habits and behaviours of the elderly. While Grace listens to the old ladies babble on, Janice makes them tea, slipping in sleeping pills. They rob them of their valuables and any cash they can find.
Grace is the brains of the operation, of “a livelihood which comprised skill, nerve, an understanding and manipulation of human nature and risk. The risk made Grace Bradby’s cold blood run warmer and faster; deep out of sight behind her calm facade, the stalking, the hunt, the kill thrilled her.” Janice’s lack of self-esteem causes her to blow with Grace’s wind and become reliant on her as they share a bedsit; she’s little more than “a jellyfish in a tepid sea”. Dale’s writing enables you to simultaneously pity her and be distraught by Janice’s actions. When subservient Janice meets Dave, Grace feels her control over Janice slipping from her hands. She starts looking at long-term plans: a new scheme without Janice in mind. She meets Conroy, a bachelor who’s nearly ready to retire, and begins plotting. However, Grace and Janice are not the only ones hiding their true identities.
The story is repetitive in its thrill. Dangerous crimes become monotonous with the continuous searching and hunting. Moreover, these crimes become daily routines, ordinary. Grace seems to go about her daily tasks while stalking their next victims. She stakes out betting shops, libraries, bingo halls, supermarkets, the post office (on pension days) and park benches in search of her next target.
The ordinariness of the characters is eerie. The constant stalking and planning take the thrilling nature out of the crime. However, the characters they meet add humour to the novel, such as Mrs Greenham, who refuses to go into the front room because of the television, and believes Grace and Janice are secret agents sent by the Home Secretary. Dale writes of the vulnerabilities of ageing with humour: after all, she was in her 70s when she wrote it. That said, there’s something chilling about a crime that can happen in one’s home, having invited the perpetrators in for tea.
Dale writes continuously on the theme of power throughout this book. From when Grace and Janice first enter these frail, vulnerable old women’s homes, they are in control, they have the power. They quickly engage these women in conversation and slip something in their tea. Later, when the old woman wakes up dazed, they are powerless and fearful; missing belongings, they are left too anxious to leave the house and seek help. The power Grace has over Janice is almost maternal in a twisted way. Its comparable to Conroy and Mrs Robinson’s relationship later in the book. However, for Grace and Janice, they seek more, leading them to Dave and Conroy, hoping for an escape from this life and for security. While both women have different approaches to these men, they share the view they are their only real opportunity for security and a normal life. Moreover, the way that both women prioritise this escape over the greed of the original scheme is telling of the women’s characters. Their modest ideals contrasts with the extent of their greed, committing crimes against vulnerable women.
A modern classic, black and thrilling, I would recommend Sheep’s Clothing for people who enjoy a dark comedy.
