The ‘Card’ in question is Edward Henry Machin - His mother called him ‘Denry’. This light-hearted story is of his rise from humble beginnings as the son of a washerwoman and sempstress in the last quarter of the nineteenth century, in the pottery towns (which Arnold Bennett christened ‘The Five Towns’) of the English Midlands; how, by his own wits, enterprise and ‘nerve’ he rose to wealth, married bliss and public recognition as the youngest-ever mayor of his home town.<br /><br />“’And yet,’ demanded Councillor Barlow, ‘what’s he done? What great cause is he identified with?<br />’‘He’s identified,’ said the speaker, ‘with the great cause of cheering us all up’.” (summary by Andy Minter)
