BBC Radio 4 Miss Nobody by Ethel Carnie
1/2 Sunday 23 October 2022
2/2 Sunday 30 October 2022

A musical dramatisation of the novels This Slavery and Miss Nobody.
Ethel Carnie was a mill worker from the age of 11 to 20 years old. She called it slavery and became the first English working class novelist.

Music composed, arranged and played by Rowan Rheingans. Accordion: Hannah James. Singers: Janet Swan, Rosie Swan, Jules Gibb, Katherine Watson, Grainne Gordon, Victoria Knott, Mark Mukerji and Huw Johnson and all members of the cast.

After hearing the broadcast, I wrote this song; This Slavery

The tune is based on "Can mlynedd i nawr" ("A Hundred Years from Now"), a traditional Welsh ballad popular in the early nineteenth century. It is better known as "Joanna" or "St Denio", familiar as the hymn tune for "Immortal, invisible, God only wise."

The mill-owner stands at the gates with his key
While inside the workers all long to be free
They lie down so weary at the end of the day
And dream that a new world will soon come their way

Chorus; You may call me a millgirl or Miss Nobody
But no-one can keep me in this slavery

A world where the hungry can find food to eat
And those who go barefoot have shoes for their feet
Where those who go ragged shall have clothes to wear
And all those who labour shall have their fair share!

Chorus

Where walls that divide us fall down to the ground
And we can roam freely the country all round
Where we have a pathway up to the great heights
And we have a party to fight for our rights!

Chorus

One hundred years later, what have we to show
As prices rise higher and wages stay low
Where families must choose, should they heat or they eat?
And still pay the rent or be thrown on the street

You may call me a millgirl or Miss Nobody
But no-one should have to live in poverty