Kate Atkinson’s When Will There Be Good News
Revision Notes
The Detectives: General Points
The detectives are a subversion of the traditional omniscient detectives: the role of the
detective is separated into three, in order to challenge the black-and-white view of crime
posed by traditional detectives, whilst also creating greater moral ambiguities in regards to
criminals, detectives, and the crimes.
Atkinson uses focalisation as a means of developing greater depth to her detectives,
creating a greater sense of realism, and therefore subverting the one-dimensional
detective of the traditional crime writing genre.
Atkinson’s focus on character development serves to allow the reader to greater
empathise with the detectives.
The detectives are victimised, a further form of challenging the traditionally emotionally
and empathetically unattached figure of the detective. Atkinson blurs the lines between
detective and criminal…
Given the detectives’ emotional and domestic turmoil, they are forced to seek refuge in the
art of crime solving as a form of escaping their victimisation, possibly a comment by Kate
Atkinson on how the figure of the detective is constantly defined by crime.
Some critics have argued that Louise and Jackson can be viewed as the personification of
the nihilistic ‘hard-boiled detective’, whilst Reggie remains a subversion of the traditional
detective, acting as a personification of love, and therefore her triumph in her detective
skills over those of Louise and Jackson perhaps serve to symbolise the triumph of love over
nihilism.
Within traditional ‘Golden Age’ crime fiction, the detective acts as a figure of authority
providing certainty and complete closure, therefore acting as an absolute that the reader
could place their faith into in the contemporary inter-war uncertainty. However, within
WWTBGN, Atkinson replaces the detective’s position as a figure for absolutes and certainty
with love.
The detectives possess an inability to provide a full sense of closure, such as that exhibited
within many of Christie’s works, with Billy still at large, the mystery of Decker’s suicide
remaining unexplained and the detectives experiencing turmoil within their own lives,
thereby challenging the position of the traditional detective as a figure providing complete
closure and certainty.
JACKSON BRODIE
Jackson is the hero of the novel. He allies with Reggie, and together, they find the kidnapped
Joanna Hunter. Jackson understood that Joanna did not want her baby to always have to live in
the shadow of crime and so destroys the crime scene to remove any evidence that was indicative
of Joanna and her killing of her captors. Before becoming a private investigator, Jackson spent
time serving in the army, a self-defining experience for him, and gained an understanding of
, detection from working for the police as a detective inspector. He sees his purpose in life as being
to “protect and serve”. Despite seeing the humorous side to many dire situations that he finds
himself in, Jackson’s character resembles that of a detective found in the ‘hard-boiled’ sub-genre
of detective fiction. This is due to his gender, nihilistic outlook on life, and his troubled past,
including his harsh upbringing, traumatic past experiences, multiple failed marriages, the murder
of his sister and his daughter’s abandonment of him.
Other key points:
Atkinson, from a feminist perspective, perhaps intentionally restricts her male detective,
placing him in hospital for much of the novel perhaps as a means of empowering her
female detectives. This highlights how they drive much of the investigation, serving as a
role reversal of the traditional crime writing genre, in which it is often the male detective
seeking justice and the female victim remaining vulnerable.
Jackson testifies to the cyclical nature of crime, in that he discovers Joanna at both the
start and at the end of the novel, whilst also reflecting the role of fate in the investigation
and pursuit of Joanna Hunter.
Jackson’s portrayal as a detective figure/hero:
“He left the police with the rank of detective inspector which seemed a good basis for
setting himself up in a one-man private agency.”
“‘Protect and serve.”
“It all felt wrong.’ - he has strong instincts, a quality of a successful detective, seen across
the genre of detective fiction.
“One at a time, he thought. I’ll get them out one at a time.’ - during the Musselburgh train
crash; he is selfless and takes the responsibility upon himself to save others.
“She was police and he used to be. There was a chasm between them now that could
never be bridged because he could never tell the truth. She was always going to be in his
past, never in his future.” – Jackson cannot tell Louise about his cover up of Joanna
Hunter’s “double murder”.
“Over here, I’ve found her, she’s over here!’ - the novel has a cyclical structure as the
ending returns to the Hunter tragedy at the beginning as Jackson is startled by the
realisation that the child he found on the “field of wheat” when he was a detective for the
police was actually the young Joanna Hunter.
Jackson’s portrayal as a victim:
“Lack of money and harsh life of a mining community.”- difficult upbringing
“If you didn’t smoke and you didn’t drink then standing by a waterfall for ten minutes
with nothing to do was something that could really get to you because all you were left
with were your thoughts.”
“Bleak in its beauty, the landscape was beginning to bring out the mournful streak in
Jackson that he was usually better off at keeping at bay.”
“He was on the road to nowhere.”
“Turn your back for a minute and they were gone.” , “He suspected her life was too full to
notice his absence.”- he feels abandoned and neglected by his daughter, Marlee.
Revision Notes
The Detectives: General Points
The detectives are a subversion of the traditional omniscient detectives: the role of the
detective is separated into three, in order to challenge the black-and-white view of crime
posed by traditional detectives, whilst also creating greater moral ambiguities in regards to
criminals, detectives, and the crimes.
Atkinson uses focalisation as a means of developing greater depth to her detectives,
creating a greater sense of realism, and therefore subverting the one-dimensional
detective of the traditional crime writing genre.
Atkinson’s focus on character development serves to allow the reader to greater
empathise with the detectives.
The detectives are victimised, a further form of challenging the traditionally emotionally
and empathetically unattached figure of the detective. Atkinson blurs the lines between
detective and criminal…
Given the detectives’ emotional and domestic turmoil, they are forced to seek refuge in the
art of crime solving as a form of escaping their victimisation, possibly a comment by Kate
Atkinson on how the figure of the detective is constantly defined by crime.
Some critics have argued that Louise and Jackson can be viewed as the personification of
the nihilistic ‘hard-boiled detective’, whilst Reggie remains a subversion of the traditional
detective, acting as a personification of love, and therefore her triumph in her detective
skills over those of Louise and Jackson perhaps serve to symbolise the triumph of love over
nihilism.
Within traditional ‘Golden Age’ crime fiction, the detective acts as a figure of authority
providing certainty and complete closure, therefore acting as an absolute that the reader
could place their faith into in the contemporary inter-war uncertainty. However, within
WWTBGN, Atkinson replaces the detective’s position as a figure for absolutes and certainty
with love.
The detectives possess an inability to provide a full sense of closure, such as that exhibited
within many of Christie’s works, with Billy still at large, the mystery of Decker’s suicide
remaining unexplained and the detectives experiencing turmoil within their own lives,
thereby challenging the position of the traditional detective as a figure providing complete
closure and certainty.
JACKSON BRODIE
Jackson is the hero of the novel. He allies with Reggie, and together, they find the kidnapped
Joanna Hunter. Jackson understood that Joanna did not want her baby to always have to live in
the shadow of crime and so destroys the crime scene to remove any evidence that was indicative
of Joanna and her killing of her captors. Before becoming a private investigator, Jackson spent
time serving in the army, a self-defining experience for him, and gained an understanding of
, detection from working for the police as a detective inspector. He sees his purpose in life as being
to “protect and serve”. Despite seeing the humorous side to many dire situations that he finds
himself in, Jackson’s character resembles that of a detective found in the ‘hard-boiled’ sub-genre
of detective fiction. This is due to his gender, nihilistic outlook on life, and his troubled past,
including his harsh upbringing, traumatic past experiences, multiple failed marriages, the murder
of his sister and his daughter’s abandonment of him.
Other key points:
Atkinson, from a feminist perspective, perhaps intentionally restricts her male detective,
placing him in hospital for much of the novel perhaps as a means of empowering her
female detectives. This highlights how they drive much of the investigation, serving as a
role reversal of the traditional crime writing genre, in which it is often the male detective
seeking justice and the female victim remaining vulnerable.
Jackson testifies to the cyclical nature of crime, in that he discovers Joanna at both the
start and at the end of the novel, whilst also reflecting the role of fate in the investigation
and pursuit of Joanna Hunter.
Jackson’s portrayal as a detective figure/hero:
“He left the police with the rank of detective inspector which seemed a good basis for
setting himself up in a one-man private agency.”
“‘Protect and serve.”
“It all felt wrong.’ - he has strong instincts, a quality of a successful detective, seen across
the genre of detective fiction.
“One at a time, he thought. I’ll get them out one at a time.’ - during the Musselburgh train
crash; he is selfless and takes the responsibility upon himself to save others.
“She was police and he used to be. There was a chasm between them now that could
never be bridged because he could never tell the truth. She was always going to be in his
past, never in his future.” – Jackson cannot tell Louise about his cover up of Joanna
Hunter’s “double murder”.
“Over here, I’ve found her, she’s over here!’ - the novel has a cyclical structure as the
ending returns to the Hunter tragedy at the beginning as Jackson is startled by the
realisation that the child he found on the “field of wheat” when he was a detective for the
police was actually the young Joanna Hunter.
Jackson’s portrayal as a victim:
“Lack of money and harsh life of a mining community.”- difficult upbringing
“If you didn’t smoke and you didn’t drink then standing by a waterfall for ten minutes
with nothing to do was something that could really get to you because all you were left
with were your thoughts.”
“Bleak in its beauty, the landscape was beginning to bring out the mournful streak in
Jackson that he was usually better off at keeping at bay.”
“He was on the road to nowhere.”
“Turn your back for a minute and they were gone.” , “He suspected her life was too full to
notice his absence.”- he feels abandoned and neglected by his daughter, Marlee.
