Anita Mason

Mason's novels are extremely varied in terms of both their historical and geographical settings. Bethany is about a commune in Cornwall; The Illusionist is the story of Simon Magus, and his relationship with the early Christians; The War Against Chaos is set in a dystopian future (or alternative present) in which a victim of corruption encounters marginalised communities while in search of his estranged wife; The Racket is set in modern-day Brazil; Angel tells of a female test-pilot working for the Nazis (it is based loosely on the life of Hanna Reitsch); The Yellow Cathedral is an account of the political conflict in Chiapas, Mexico; Perfection is set during the Anabaptist rebellion in 16th-century Germany; and The Right Hand of the Sun covers the Spanish invasion and settlement of Central America. Two short stories, "Interpretation" and "Irma" are both set in Latin America: the former in pre-colonial times; the latter in present-day Brazil.

The novel is set in 16th-century Germany, at the time of the Anabaptist rebellion. The civic leaders of Munster are supporters of the Anabaptist movement, and so attract to the city hordes of refugees fleeing religious persecution. Among these are the charismatic former actor and playwright, Jan Bockelson, and the zealous Jan Matthys, who quickly become the most powerful figures in the city. They expel all non-believers, and abolish money and private property. Munster is subsequently besieged by the expelled Bishop von Waldeck, and Mattys, with a small troop of men, rides out to confront the besiegers, convinced that his enemies will be defeated by God, and that his assumed victory will initiate the founding of a New Jerusalem. The troop is massacred, and Matthys's head displayed on a pike. Subsequently, Bockelson takes charge, and continues the siege for another year, during which he crowns himself king and enforces polygamy. As the inhabitants of the city suffer starvation, the bishop makes a determined assault on the city's defences, during which a recurring character, Sister Agnes, makes her escape.

Arguably Mason's most explicitly political novel, The Yellow Cathedral is set in the impoverished southern Mexican state of Chiapas in the early 1990s, at the time of the rebellion by the indigenous population and Zapatista activists (the EZLN) against the wealthy landowners and the political establishment. The book relates the attempt by the opposition party (the PRD) to install a (democratically elected) 'rebel' governor, Avendano, in place of Rosas, the placeman of the central government, and representative of the dominant PRI party. The narrative switches between a number of characters who represents different aspects of the conflict. Benito, a young PRD activist, is impatient at the peaceful strategy advocated by his respected uncle Hernandez, and falls in with a group who carry out a disastrous raid on a ranch. Rafael is another young man whose work for the PRD estranges him from his father. Similarly, Rafael's sister Maria has angered her father over her conversion to evangelism and her rumoured affair with the local PRD candidate, Mateo Mendez. Mateo is eventually beaten by PRI supporters, and Maria driven from her home by a mob. The life of the rebel governor Avendano, who works with little or no equipment or money in the thick of communal life, is contrasted with that of Rosas, the official governor, who frequents meetings with the President and Pereira, the leader of the local ranchers. Pereira wants Rosas to suppress the rebels ruthlessly, but the president has instructed Rosas to win hearts and minds, albeit with few resources that might back up the demands for reform. The Zapatistas initiate an uprising, which is suppressed by the army. In San Cristobal, a mob attacks the cathedral, where the left-wing Bishop Samuel Ruiz is staging a fast in support of the rebels. Indigenous supporters of the Bishop protect the cathedral, and are attacked, but police eventually arrive to disperse the mob.

The War Against Chaos is set in a dystopian version of Britain that is similar in its depiction of a grey, shabby, philistine country, to Orwell's 1984. The principal character, Hare, is a clerk for a vast conglomerate known as Universal Goods, who is dismissed from his job and his lodgings after his corrupt boss, Jacobs, manipulates evidence against him. After sleeping rough, Hare is befriended by a community of so-called "marginals" who live in anarchic communes on the fringes of society. After recuperating, Hare decides to search for his estranged wife, an artist who fled mainstream society after the government closed all art colleges. He encounters another group, known as "Diggers", who live in abandoned subterranean chambers that were originally intended for use in the event of nuclear war. A group of young Diggers attempt to seize their own plot of land, but the attempt is a failure, and Hare is obliged to lead a group of fleeing marginals and Diggers into "the Zone", a mysterious patch of land where, it is rumoured, nothing is able to survive.

The novel is clearly informed by the political events of the decade in which it was written. The account, towards the end of the novel, of the suppression of a demonstration by police in full riot gear, is reminiscent of events during the UK miners' strike of 1984–85. Similarly, the account of the way in which the government had manipulated popular fears about nuclear war to effect programmes of social manipulation, indicates the closing years of the Cold War between the Soviet Union and the West.

Mason's novels include Bethany (Hamish Hamilton, 1981); The Illusionist (Hamish Hamilton, 1983), which was nominated for the 1983 Booker Prize in the UK; The War Against Chaos (Hamish Hamilton, 1988); The Racket (Constable 1990), shortlisted for the Fawcett prize 1990; Angel (Hamish Hamilton, 1994), which was also published with the alternative title Reich Angel; The Yellow Cathedral (Spinsters Ink, 2002); Perfection (Spinsters Ink, 2003); and The Right Hand of the Sun, published by John Murray in September 2008;. Her short stories "Irma" and "Interpretation" have been included in the collections Winter's Tales, volumes 6 and 9, respectively (Constable, 1990 & 1993, ed. Robin Baird-Smith).

Mason's first novel is set in the mid-1970s, and is narrated by Kay, the companion of Alex, who owns the house in Cornwall that gives the novel its title. Alex is a former jeweller who bought Bethany as part of her scheme to "drop out" of mainstream life, but who is now heavily in debt. To Kay's initial consternation, Alex invites a group of friends to join them at Bethany in an attempt at communal living: Simon, a charismatic and confident advocate of alternative lifestyles; his Thai partner Dao; Simon's friend Peter and his American partner Coral; and several children. Gradually, Simon exerts his influence over the household, persuading Kay to adopt many of his ideas, but Simon and Alex enter a conflict that threatens to ruin the experiment.

Anita Frances Mason (1942-2020) was an English novelist, best known as a former Booker Prize nominee. She is the author of eight novels, including The Illusionist (1983), The Racket (1990), and The Right Hand of the Sun (2008).

Mason was born 30 July 1942 in Bristol, England. She was an only child. Her mother was a housewife, and her father worked at a factory that manufactured aircraft engines. She attended The Red Maids' School, in Bristol. After studying English at Oxford University, Mason eventually began writing after periods spent working in publishing, journalism and organic farming. Mason is the author of eight novels to date, as well as a number of short stories. Mason is also the editor of Frome Hundred (2004), a collection of articles, poems and stories contributed by people from the area of Frome (Somerset, UK) at a number of writing workshops. Anita Mason died of polymyositis in Bristol on 8 September 2020. At the time of her death, Mason had written three short novels that remain unpublished. These were Chuichui, set in contemporary Haiti, Suppose, set in contemporary Israel, and Andromeda, a dystopian tale set in south-west England that follows the consequences of the mass suicide of animals.

The novel deals with Hernán Cortés' conquest of Mexico in 1519–21, and is partly narrated by Cortes' interpreter, a Spaniard named Gerónimo de Aguilar, who had been shipwrecked in the area a decade earlier, and had lived for years as a member of an indigenous tribe.