Three Local Luminaries Talk by Howard Norton on 15 February 2019

Many thanks to Bill Doherty for this account of our February meeting:

Beached and battered by the tsunami that is contemporary feminist literature, the Lit. Soc. rejoiced in the opportunity to once again sit at the feet of its favourite patriarch, Howard Norton, for an edifying exposition of a Trinity of literary luminaries blessed with the good fortune of being Winchelsea residents.  

First out the blocks was the Hastings-born Malcolm Saville, the prolific author of 80 books, mostly adventure novels for children. 57 of these formed ‘The Lone Pine’ series and so devoted were the post-war acolytes of these works that  ‘The Lone Pine Club’, sadly now an ageing band of aficionados, had even visited Winchelsea where Saville’s ‘The Gay Dolphin’ was set. The format usually involved a wholesome bunch of plucky teens thwarting the malevolent plans of a sub-Bond villain whose evil schemes were hatched behind the veil of charming rural locations in Shropshire or Sussex. Although normally acknowledged as a repository of Enthusiasm, our speaker was distinctly lukewarm on the merits of Saville’s oeuvre although allowing that the otherwise dull, worthy novels succeeded in creating a strong sense of place. The author lived in ‘Chelsea Cottage’ until his death in 1981. His funeral was held in St. Thomas’ church.   

Howard slipped seamlessly down the Dante scale from Saville’s muscular Christianity to the circle  occupied by the “raffish” Sir Brian Batsford – painter, publisher and politician - who spent the last 4 years of his life (1987-91) at ‘Buckland House’ in Winchelsea.  He had joined his uncle’s publishing firm on leaving Repton and in the 1930s managed to catch two waves. He mastered the Berthé printing process which created bright colourful dust jackets and travel posters, destined to become an art form of their own and seduced the aspiring, car-owning middle classes of Metroland further out into the countryside in search of ‘The Villages of England’ or ‘The Inns of England’. 

In the post-war years Batsford became chairman and then president of the company, roles which he combined from 1958-74 with being Conservative M.P. for Ealing South before he and Edward Heath picked up their knighthoods and rode into the political sunset in February 1974 before you could say “Miners’ Strike”. Batsford’s artistic career flourished as an appreciative cult formed round his poster art and his work formed the subject of an exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in 1985. At this time he was living at Lamb House in Rye and was energetically engaged in restoring the upper floor rooms. Even in his last years in his new build  in Winchelsea he managed to create an instant garden, sufficiently intriguing to draw “The Times” gardening correspondent down to do a feature on it.  

God the Father in Howard’s Trinity was undoubtedly Asa Briggs, owner of but infrequent resident in “Boundary Cottage”. A towering public intellectual, with a C.V. that reads like a character from Anthony Powell’s “Dance to the Music of Time” series: Keighley Grammar School, synchronous Firsts at Oxford and L.S.E., a good war – hut 6 with Turing at Bletchley Park, Oxford don and P.P.E. tutor to Rupert Murdoch, Professor of History at Leeds, started the History Dept. at the new Sussex University, Vice-Chancellor of  Sussex, building on his Labour Party links played a major role in setting up The Open University, becoming its Vice-Chancellor in 1977. He remained true to his Yorkshire roots when he assumed the presidency of  “The Brontë Society”. Our speaker’s fondest words were for Briggs’ extensive body of work on England’s Victorian heritage which particularly focused on the urban, industrial and social aspects.  

Concluding with a gratified audience, Howard doubtless heard echoes of his previous History A-Level classes who after a double period with one of Asa Briggs’ text books would mumble “Please, sir, I want some more.”  Victorian values! You can’t beat them!