The Times in 1935 thought the play was powerful, but only of interest while the Depression lasted, and the Crewe Chronicle in 1967 asserted that Love on the Dole was no longer of any interest now that unemployment was a thing of the past (a little over-optimistic there perhaps?). In 1933 the Times Literary Supplement thought Greenwood’s novel would still be being read in a hundred years’ time, while the Croydon Times was sure that no play was more ‘certain to be seen by our grandchildren and by their grandchildren than Love on the Dole‘. This article compares fourteen reviews which either saw Greenwood’s work as having a short shelf-life or argued that it had claims to immortality. In the end all these pieces focus on whether Love on the Dole is a work of art or rather a time-limited social protest piece.
See: The Value of Love on the Dole – the Short View and the Long View (1933-1980)
Enjoy! Chris Hopkins
Walter Greenwood: Not Just Love on the Dole 