Battersea Fictions Janice Morphet BAC Heritage Talks 30th September 2015
4 Battersea authors… Battersea Rise
E. M. Forster Pamela Hansford Johnson
Prince of Wales Drive
John le Carre
Gladstone Terrace
Barbara Comyns
E. M. Forster 1879-1970 Descendent of Henry
Thornton (cousin of William Wilberforce) banker and social reformer born in Wandsworth Leading member of the Clapham Sect MP for Southwark Eldest daughter Marianne Thornton Purchased Battersea Rise House 1792
Battersea Rise House c1890
E. M. Forster and Battersea Rise House
Henry Thornton was his great grandfather Father was an architect who died when he was one Visited Battersea Rise House as a boy His mother was supported by his great aunt Marianne who, in 1887, left him £8,000 (£0.8m in 2015) and he was able to live on this until 1925 Battersea Rise House left to Thornton’s son and then as a life interest his widow on his death and then sold on her death in 1907 Sold for development to consortium led by estate agents Edwin Evans of Lavender Hill
Site of Battersea Rise House now At a late stage in the sale, the historic link with
abolition and social reform was realised House and 2 acres offered to Battersea Council The council, in the hands of the progressives, refused as Thornton has been a Conservative MP Developed into redbrick housing
Alfriston, Muncaster, Canford and Bowood Roads
Battersea Rise House c1900
Typical houses now
Forster’s response? In 1910, published ‘Howard’s End’ Seen to be a novel about class and social conventions But also about a house which the dying owner Ruth
Wilcox wants to keep although her family would prefer to see it demolished and redeveloped for housing Passes to Margaret Schlegel when she is being turned out of her home by a developer but her husband Henry burns the note Margaret and her sister’s interests in the society for preservation of Historic places take them to Battersea Eventually, Henry relents and Margaret and her sister’s son inherit the house
A later view ď Ž Forster wrote a
biography of Marianne Thornton in 1956 ď Ž More details about the life of Battersea Rise House
Pamela Hansford Johnson 1912-1981 Novelist, poet and critic Granddaughter of Sir Henry Irving’s treasurer Mother and aunts members of London Lyceum
Company – Gilbert and Sullivan Father colonial civil servant in Africa who died when she was 11 Pamela born and lived at 53 Battersea Rise until she was 22 Later married C. P. Snow
Pamela Hansford Johnson
53 Battersea Rise
Pamela’s life in Battersea Attended Clapham County Girls grammar school Mother left the rooms of the house and they lived
in the basement Mother took in secretarial work including for Buffalo Bill’s son who visited the house – Pamela describes seeing him come down the basement stairs in his cowboy kit Left school at 16 to take secretarial course Worked at Bank but also wrote poetry
Pamela’s writing about Battersea Her poetry won a prize in national competiton in
1933- led to her meeting the next winner, Dylan Thomas Thomas stayed with Pamela and her mother a number of times in Battersea and they became engaged Pamela wrote a novel about Battersea and Thomas suggested the title ‘This bed thy centre’ from John Donne
‘This bed thy centre’ 1935 Story of a teenage girl, Elsie coming to maturity in
Battersea Set amongst a sea of characters of all ages not unlike Under Milkwood – get a view into their lives Deals with social realist issues including cancer, pregnancy, relationships, suicide, poverty Eventually Elsie becomes engaged to a young man who works at the Town Hall like his father and Elsie joins him
Battersea’s response? The book sold well and was described as the
‘Angry Young Man’ novel of the day Rift with Dylan Thomas Battersea Council not happy with the book and the library has never stocked it – has no copy now Was purchased by Clapham libraries and a celebration of a 100 years of her birth was the last event in the Clapham Common branch before it closed Her own family disowned her
Pamela’s memories of Battersea… ‘We lived in a large brick terrace house bought by my grandfather some time in the eighties, when it looked out on fields…By the time I was born, the railway had come and the houses had been built up right over the hills between it and us. Not pretty I suppose. But in my childhood, I could create an Arabian Nights fantasy about anything and found the smoky sunset between the spires of St Mark’s and the Masonic School (Peabody estate site) magical to contemplate’ (autobiography, 1974)
Site of the Masonic School
The Masonic School
John le Carre Born 1931 in Dorset Went to Sherbourne and then into espionage at an
early age Lived in Overstrand Mansions 1960-1962 when still working for security services Published first book ‘Call for the Dead’ 1961 and ‘A Murder of Quality’ (1962) ‘The spy who came in from the cold’ 1963
Overstrand Mansions
Using Battersea as a location?
And Battersea’s role in choosing his name? I went to my employers and said that I’d written my first novel. They read it and said they had no objections, but… they said, I would have to choose a pseudonym….So then I went to my publisher, Victor Gollancz, who was Polish by origin, and he said, ‘My advice to you, old fellow, is choose a good Anglo-Saxon couple of syllables…So as is my courteous way, I promised to be Chunk-Smith. After that, memory eludes me and the lie takes over. I was asked so many times why I chose this ridiculous name, then the writer’s imagination came to my help. I saw myself riding over Battersea Bridge, on top of a bus, looking down at a tailor’s shop. Funnily enough, it was a tailor’s shop, because I had a terrible obsession about buying clothes in order to become a diplomat in Bonn. And it was called something of this sort—le Carré. That satisfied everybody for years. But lies don’t last with age. I find a frightful compulsion towards truth these days. And the truth is, I don’t know’ [i]. [i] The Paris Review 1997 issue no 143.
Barbara Comyns 1907-1992 ď Ž Born in Warwickshire had
difficult early life
‘The vet’s daughter’ 1959 Always short of money
and eclectic life style Managed properties Married a friend of Kim Philby’s who worked in security services Lost job in 1951 Had to find ways of making money Started wring novels
A little levitation… Alice and her mother brutally treated by her father After Alice’s mother dies, she has to look after her
father’s vet’s practice Her father’s new girlfriend attempts to move her out by finding her a partner, who rapes her Alice starts to realise that she can levitate Her father finds out and puts on a show on Clapham Common Alice is killed in the ensuing crush
After publication Said got idea for book when on honeymoon at
Philby’s cottage in North Wales 1978 musical of the book directed by Sandy Wilson ‘The Clapham Wonder’ Been broadcast by BBC radio as a serial
Gladstone Terrace
Any ideas about some more Battersea authors? George Gissing Graham Greene Gordon Burn G. K. Chesterton Sean O’Casey Mervyn Peake
Image acknowledgements
Henry Thornton www.historyofparliamentonline.org Battersea Rise House – London Borough of Lambeth Battersea map – www.motco.com Battersea Rise House c1900 www.stuffaboutLondon.co.uk Muncaster Road www.houser.co.uk Marianne Forster by E. M. Forster book cover www.goodreads.com Pamela Hansford Johnson www.quoteswave.com 53 Battersea Rise https://sheelanagigcomedienne.wordpress.com/
Image acknowledgements cont ‘This bed thy centre’ book cover www.amazon.co.uk Overstrand Mansions www.rightmove.com John Le Carre book covers www.wikipedia.com Barbara Comyns www.thetelegraph.co.uk Our spoons came from Woolworths
www.amazon.co.uk The Vet’s Daughter book cover www.stuck-in-abook.blogspot Gladstone Terrace images – www.rankandfile1.blogspot