Howard Spring was in the middle of a career as a successful journalist when he became a successful popular novelist. His novels deal with the strains running through British society between the world wars. Melodramatic at times, they stress the importance of love in human life and the need to endure. In his autobiography (1972) Spring says:

In a novel called Fame Is the Spur [1940] I tried to bring to a crux in the relationships of one small group of people the ideas I have here been trying to express. A woman named Pen Muff, the blinded wife of a South Wales miners' leader, is told by her daughter Alice that she'll never bring children into the world "because the world is not worthy." To that Pen replies: "It's a coward's decision. Why, God love us, Alice, the world has been pretty tough on me. And if anyone said...