Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books: A quick guide
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“Only connect” wrote EM Forster in Howards End and that could be the motto of the Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books. For over 20 years, Forster lived in Chiswick (where he is celebrated with a blue plaque) and he is featured on our Writers Trail and our Writers Tales pages, where there are links and anecdotes shedding light on some of the better-known authors on the Timeline.
On this page, we feature around 60 more Writers’ Lives from the Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books. See also Writers’ Lives – M-Z. These pages are currently being re-ordered – please bear with us during these changes.
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Chiswick Writers Research Group
The entries have been written by members of the Chiswick Writers Research Group, brought together by the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society. Its members are: Francis Ames-Lewis, Val Bott, Meg Clarke, Hazel Dakers, Diana Oppé and James Wisdom – and we are very grateful to them.
They are happy to respond to any queries. As with all history, they say, the entries are only provisional – they may spark more details or alterations, which they will be happy to hear about and incorporate into revised entries. Please address comments and queries to admin@chiswickbookfestival.net.
Some of the longer entries are continued on the Writers’ Lives – Extended page. Click READ MORE where indicated.
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Leo Abse (1917-2008) Welsh lawyer and MP for 30 years, a politician whose career was dominated by his fight for homosexuality, divorce and fertility law reform. His final career was as a biographer. The subjects of his books included Harold Wilson, Hugh Gaitskell, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Michael Foot, Roy Jenkins and Daniel Defoe.
Lived at 54 Strand-on-the-Green (Checked Ancestry, British Newspaper Archive, Kathleen Judges but no easily available date) 1990-2008 (Notable Abodes)
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Edwin Lester Arnold (1857-1935) Author and journalist. Lived on Bath Road, Bedford Park W4 from 1885-1888. A writer of both non-fiction and novels, Edwin Lester Arnold wrote A Holiday In Scandinavia (1877), Coffee; Its Cultivation and Profit (1886), England As She Seems (!888) and Bird Life In England (1887) before publishing his first novel in 1890. The Wonderful Adventures Of Phra The Phoenician was first published in 24 parts by the Illustrated London News, being printed in book form a year later. His writing influenced science fiction writing of the 20th century. (Sources; Ancestry.com birth, death and baptismal records)
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Humphrey George Edgar Arthure (1906-1996) Obstetrician and gynaecologist. Lived at 12 Eyot Green, Chiswick Mall W4 from ????-1996. Wrote medical papers during his career, and later on in the 1980s published Life and Work in Chiswick, History of Thornycofts & contributed articles to the B&CLHS Journal.
(sources; CompaniesHouse.gov.uk)
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George Reginald Ogden Bacchus (1874-1945) Author & journalist. Lived at 4 Hardwicke Terrace, W4 in 1899, then from 1901 at 8 Queen Anne’s Gardens, Bedford Park W4 until at least 1907. Was in Hammersmith from 1919. George Bacchus was the author of several erotic books published by the Erotika Biblion Society. In 1899 he married Isabella (Isa) Holmes Bowman, a child actress who was a close friend of Charles Ludwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) Originally writing “uplifting stories for religious newspapers”, he later penned pornography for Leonard Smithers, publisher to the Decadents. In 1899-1900 Bacchus wrote a fictionalised version of Isa’s life on stage for Society, a magazine that he was editing. Smithers then commissioned a pornographic version of it entitled The Confessions of Nemesis Hunt, which was published from 1902 in 3 volumes. Unsurprisingly Bacchus and Bowman’s marriage seems to have ended around this time. (see also Isabella Holmes Bowman) (sources; Ancestry.com electoral registers, marriage certificates and City & County Directory)
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Kenneth Coules Barnaby (1887–1968). Naval Architect, born in Chiswick, from 1895 at The Hollies (later Heron House), Chiswick Mall until his family and Thornycroft moved to Southampton in 1909. 100 Years of Specialised Shipbuilding and Engineering (1964) a commemoration history of Thornycroft.
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Sydney Walker Barnaby (1855-1925) Thornycroft’s Naval Architect from the mid-1880s until 1925. Son of Sir Nathaniel Barnaby, KCB, Director of Naval Construction for the Royal Navy. Lived at The Hollies (later Heron House), Chiswick Mall until 1909 with wife Lylla, son Kenneth and daughter Alison. 1918 appointed Chairman of the Explosions Committee of the Institute of Naval Architects. Published Marine Propellors in 1885, which became a basic text book for trainees.
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Edward Baynard (1641– fl. 1719). Physician and poet. Health, a Poem. Shewing how to procure, preserve, and restore it. To which is annex’d The doctor’s decade by Dabry Dawne M.D. [Edw Baynard] (London 1719), was printed in at least nine editions before 1764.
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Humphry Berkeley (1926-1994). MP for Lancaster 1959-1966. At various times a member of all three main UK political parties. Also a writer whose books included: Crossing the Floor, The Odyssey of Enoch: a political memoir and The Life and Death of Rochester Sneath: a youthful frivolity and others. Lived at 3 Pages Yard, Church Street, Chiswick from 1979.
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Mary Berry (1763-1852) Mary Berry, author, was born 16 March 1763, at Kirkbridge in Yorkshire. From the time of their mother’s death, when Mary was 4 years old, she and her sister were brought up by their grandmother, Mrs. Seaton, at Askham, in Yorkshire. When Mary was 7, in 1770, they moved to College House, Chiswick Mall. Once she was 12, Mary’s governess married and from then she and her sister were entirely self-educated and later enjoyed European travels. The two sisters charmed Horace Walpole in his old age.
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Clive Bingley (1936 – 2017). Publisher of extensive list of publications, many of which focused on aspects of librarianship. Authored several including Programmed Guide to Seduction, Book publishing practice and Business of Book Publishing, The Publisher Looks at Librarianship. Lived at 26 Addison Grove W4 in 1975.
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Mary Popham Blyth (1841-1915) Poet & author. Lived at 12 St Anne’s Gardens W4 around 1881, as a boarder. Whilst still a teenager she published the poem Legend Of The Rhone (1858), and later wrote 2 novels, Antoinette: A Tale of The Ancien Regime (1888) and The Queen’s Jewel; A Story of Queen Anne’s Day (1889) (sources; Ancestry Census Records, At The Circulating Library; A Database of Victorian Fiction)
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Margaret Jones Bolsterli (b. 1931). Professor of English at Arkansas University. Educator and farmer.
Reportedly lived in Chiswick, no details found. Came to England from USA in 1955, initially for 9 months. Husband was academic in UK until c 1964. Wrote The Early Community at Bedford Park in 1977.
(source; UK & Ireland Incoming Passenger Lists 1878-1960 )
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Robert Bolt (1924-1995) Playwright and screenwriter. 29 Hartington Road, c. 1982-6. A Man for All Seasons (play 1960), Lawrence of Arabia (film 1962) (Images, top left), Doctor Zhivago (film 1965), Ryan’s Daughter (film 1970) and many others. Probably worked on the screenplays of The Bounty (adaptation of Capt. Bligh and Mr Christian by Richard Hough) and The Mission while in Chiswick. He had suffered a heart attack and stroke in 1979 which left him partially paralysed and in Chiswick built a writing room in his garden for the computers and equipment that helped him to continue writing. Having divorced Sarah Miles in 1976, he was married to the actress Ann Queensberry between 1980 and 1985. He remarried Sarah Miles in 1988.
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Isabella Holmes Bowman (1874-1958) Actress and author. Lived at 4 Hardwicke Terrace, W4 in 1899 when she married George Reginald Bacchus and at 8 Queen Anne’s Gardens in 1901. Isa Bowman was a child actress who from an early age had a close friendship with Charles Ludwidge Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) 1832-1898. In 1899 she published The Story Of Lewis Carroll; Told for Young People. She appears to have divorced George Bacchus soon afterwards, maybe as he had written a fictionalised and pornographic story of her life, and in 1903 married Frank Barclay. (source; Ancestry.com census and marriage records).
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Charles Tilston Bright (1832-1888), Edward Brailsford Bright (1831-1891)
Charles Tilston Bright was the engineer who over saw the laying of the first transatlantic telegraph cable in 1858, for which work he was knighted. Sir Charles’ presidential address was published Journal of the Society of Telegraph Engineers and Electricians xvi, 27 1887. A joint paper with Latimer Clark, read before the British Association at Manchester in 1861 define modern standards and the system of electrical units – the volt, amp and ohm. Charles’ wife, Hannah Barrick Taylor, and their 4 children lived at 2 Bolton Road, with Hannah’s mother in the early 1870s whilst he was working abroad for 5 years. Edward Brailsford Bright, Sir Charles’ brother, was co-author with Sir Charles’ son, also Charles, of a two-volume biography of Sir Charles, published in 1898. He is buried at St Nicholas’ Churchyard. Source: https://brentfordandchiswicklhs.org.uk/chiswicks-unsung-here-sir-charles-tilston-bright/ and Graces Guide.
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Mark Malloch Brown (b. 1953), politician, diplomat and journalist. KCMG 2007; Life peer and PC, 2007. Political correspondence for The Economist 1977-79; Minister of State for Africa, Asia and the United Nations 2007-09; United Nations Commissioner for Refugees 1979-83; administrator of the United Nations Development Programme 1999-2005; United Nations Deputy Secretary-General, 2006. The Unfinished Global Revolution (2011). His residence in Chiswick has not been identified.
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Penny Cartledge (b. 1949) Journalist and writer. Lived at 35 Speldhurst Road, W4 1979 to late 1984, then 67 Burlington Lane, W4 until September 1987, when the family moved to Leeds. Married Martin Wainwright 1979 (See separate entry). Publications include: Post-irradiation Examination Techniques 1972 and Steel Box Girder Bridges 1973, both published by the Institution of Civil Engineers. She co-wrote The Which? Guide to Yorkshire and the Peak District with Tim Lock and Martin Wainwright (1992). She was chief sub at Cosmopolitan. Her journalism has included contributions to the Yorkshire Post and Northern Life. She also wrote Opposite the Infirmary, a History of the Thackray Company 1902 – 1990 (Medical Museum Publishing 1997). The Thackray company of Leeds was a pioneer in the manufacture of hip joints.
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Ginny Brown (1941-2006). Author of an account of living on a boat on moorings off Chiswick Mall “Swans at My Window”, she lived with American actor producer husband on Mayflower I and later Mayflower II in the 1960s. Memoir: Swans At My Window January 1, 1960.
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Rev Henry Francis Cary (1772 – 1844)
Born Gibraltar. First poetry published aged 15. Published his translation of Dante’s Inferno in English blank verse in 1805 and completed the entire Divine Comedy in 1814. Italian poet Ugo Foscolo considered this not only the best translation in the English language, but the best in any language. It was promoted by Samuel Taylor Coleridge who admired the work.
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John Chardin (1643 – 1713),
Huguenot jeweller, traveller and travel-writer. Le couronnement de Soleïmaan troisième, roy de Perse (Paris, 1671); Journal du voyage du Chevalier Chardin en Perse et aux Indes orientales (Paris, 1686); The Travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East Indies, &c. (London, 1686); Journal du voyage du chevalier Chardin (10 vols, Amsterdam, 1711). He lived in Arlington House, Turnham Green, by 1705 (when John Evelyn commented favourably on the gardens) until his death in 1713.
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Mavis Cheek (1948-2023)
Writer of comic novels for some of which Chiswick forms the background – Pause Between Acts, Parlour Games, Dog Days, Aunt Margaret’s Lover, Yesterday’s Houses.
Born in Wimbledon. Lived at 48 Oxford Road South 1978-1990 and 11 Gordon Road 1990-2001.
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Donald Churchill (1930–1991)
Donald Churchill was born on November 6, 1930 in Southall, Middlesex, England. He was an actor and writer, known for The Sweeney (1974), Spooner’s Patch (1979) and El C.I.D. (1990). He was married to Pauline Yates. He died on October 29, 1991 in Fuengirola, Spain. Father of actress Jemma Churchill & writer Polly Churchill. (Imbd)
111 Esmond Rd, Acton (1962, 1964, 1965 electoral registers)
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John Cosmo Clark, MC (1897-1967) Painter & writer. Address c.1915-1924 was 44 Rusthall Avenue, W4. John Cosmo Clark published his war correspondence from the First World War, The Tin Trunk: Letters & Drawings 1914-1918 (Images, top centre). He was commissioned into the Middlesex Regiment in 1915 having enlisted in the London Regiment in August 1914 and served on the Western Front until he was wounded in the retreat from the Somme in 1918. Whilst working for the Rural Industries Bureau (1943-1963) he wrote Decorative Ironwork; Some Aspects of Design and Technique. As an artist, John Cosmo Clark taught at Camberwell and Hackney Schools of Art, and was a member of the Royal Academy, the New English Art Club and the Watercolour Society. He exhibited widely and his paintings are still found in many leading public and private art collections. He died at his home in St Peter’s Square in 1967. (sources; British Army WW1 Medal Rolls, Electoral Registers 1832-1965, The Great War Forum)
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Lady Mary Coke (1727-1811)
Letter and journal writer. She bought Morton House, Chiswick, four years before her death there in 1811. Sir Stephen Fox built it late in the 17th century She is best known for the pithy journal she kept from 1766 to 1791, making pointed observations of people in her circle and political figures. It was for her own amusement and only published in 1889. Morton House, Chiswick (1807-1811).
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Tommy Cooper (Thomas Fredrick Cooper) (1921-1984)
Comedian and magician, he lived in Chiswick for almost 30 years. He moved into and was living there when he collapsed with a heart attack during a performance at Her Majesty’s Theatre. He was famous for his catchphrase “Just like that”, his bumbling magic tricks and his trademark fez. He had a long term affair with his personal assistant, Mary Fieldhouse. 51 Barrowgate Road, W4 (1955-1984).
Fieldhouse, Mary (1986). For the Love of Tommy: a personal portrait of Tommy Cooper
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Charles James Cornish (1858–1906)
Schoolmaster and Journalist. At Orford House, Chiswick Mall. 1893 – 1906. 1885 Assistant classics master at St Paul’s, West Kensington. 1893 married Edith, eldest daughter of Sir John Thorneycroft. Contributor to many periodicals, including The Spectator from 1890 onwards. Nine volumes of collected articles, including The Naturalist on the Thames (1902).
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William Charles Cotton (1813-1879) Vicar, missionary, apiarist & writer. Died in Chiswick on 22nd June 1879, buried in St John The Baptist Churchyard in Leytonstone. In 1837 he published his first work about bees, A Short and Simple Letter to Cottagers from a Bee Preserver, which sold 24,000 copies, and a second Letter followed three years later. In 1842 he published My Bee Book which amongst other advice suggested ways to render bees semiconscious to obtain the honey rather than by killing them. Further books and articles followed whilst living in New Zealand, and when back in England Cotton took an active part in setting up the British Beekeepers Association. Plagued by mental illness throughout his life, he spent a few weeks at the Manor House Asylum, Chiswick, in autumn 1865 under the care of Seymour Tuke, and died there, at Farm Cottage, in June 1979 having been readmitted a few weeks earlier. (Source; death cert.)
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Edward Gordon Craig (1872–1966)
OBE, CH (1958), theatrical theorist; actor, director and stage designer. The Art of the Theatre (1905); Towards a New Theatre (1913); Henry Irving (1930); Ellen Terry and her Secret Self (1931); Index to the Story of My Days (1957). He lived at 20 Addison Road (now Grove), Bedford Park, W4, from 1895 to 1897.
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Anthea Craigmyle (1933–2016),
Painter, illustrator and editor. A Vicarage In The Blitz. The Wartime Letters of Molly Rich 1940 – 1944, edited and illustrated by Anthea Craigmyle (2013) (Images, top right). She lived in the (Old) Vicarage, Chiswick Mall, W4 2PJ (1934–1944) and at Cedar House, Chiswick Mall, W4 2PS (1999–2016).
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William Dalrymple (b. 1965) Historian and writer, art historian and curator, as well as a broadcaster and critic. Dalrymple first went to Delhi on 26 January 1984, and has lived in India on and off since 1989. He spends most of the year at his Mehrauli farmhouse in the outskirts of Delhi, but summers are in Chiswick and Edinburgh. His first book, In Xanadu, written in 1986 when he was only 22, described following on foot the outward route of Marco Polo from Jerusalem to Mongolia. He began with travel writing with an historical element, then moved on to history and art history, particularly of the Indian sub-continent.
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Martin Daly (born 1939)
Publisher and university administrator. Tonga: a new bibliography, (Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2009); three scholarly articles on subjects related to Tonga. He has lived in W4 since 1967.
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Edith Brearey Dawson, née Robinson (1862-1928)
Water-colourist, jeweller and enamellist, worked collaboratively with her husband Nelson Dawson (qv), m 1893, a metalworker with whom she collaborated. Born Croydon into a Quaker family, lived at Swan House, Chiswick Mall 1898-1911 then at Staithe House, further upstream on Chiswick Mall. In 1906 Edith published Enamels in the “Little Books on Art ” series, dedicated to her daughters.
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Nelson Ethelred Dawson (1859-1941)
Painter and metalworker a wide range of metalwork, including church plate, jewellery, light fittings, interior fittings, silverware and wall plaques. Also an engraver and photographer. Born Stamford Lincs, worked as watercolourist in Scarborough then trained with Alexander Fisher. With wife Edith (qv), lived at Swan House, Chiswick Mall 1898-1911 then at Staithe House, further upstream on Chiswick Mall. Published Goldsmiths’ and Silversmiths’ Work, Methuen 1908. Source: Rhoda Bickerdike (nee Dawson), The Dawsons: An Equal Partnership of Artists, Apollo, November 1988, p. 321
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John Denham (1615–1669), KB (1660). Poet, playwright and translator. The Sophy: A Tragedy (1641); Cooper’s Hill (1642); The Anatomy of Play (1651); The Destruction of Troy (1656). [Warwick Draper, in Chiswick (1973 ed., p.70) states, without supporting evidence, that Denham ‘lived in Chiswick’].
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Michael Dibdin (1947-2007)
Crime writer & novelist. Lived in 11 Ramillies Road, W4 from c 1975-1979.
Wrote “The Last Sherlock Holmes Story “ , published 1978, during this time influenced by Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes. Created the Venice-born detective Aurelio Zen in novels set in Italy and taught English at the University of Perugia for 4 years.
(sources; Guardian obituary. Mainly About Bedford Park People, Laurence Duttson)
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Mora Dickson née Hope-Robertson (1918-2001) Writer, poet, painter and campaigner. Lived with her husband, Alec, at 19 Blenheim Road, until his death in 1994. (see also Alec Dickson). Most famous for founding Voluntary Service Overseas with her husband in 1958, Mora Dickson studied fine arts at the Edinburgh School of Art and the Byam Shaw School of Art in London. She continued to paint throughout her life and also wrote 15 books and published poetry, including War Poems 1944-1945. Her books were mainly autobiographies, and accounts of those working to improve the human condition. Her last publication was Portrait of a Partnership, about her work with Alec. (Sources; Guardian obituary, National Probate Register)
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Alec Dickson (1914–1994) Lived for many years at 19 Blenheim Road, Bedford Park W4, where he died. Born in Ruislip, Alexander Graeme Dickson returned from serving in the Forces during WW2 inspired to set up VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) encouraging young people to share their skills and knowledge abroad. Later, in 1962, he and his wife Mora, established CSV (Community Service Volunteers) which focused on young volunteers helping individuals and communities in this country. In his book, A Chance to Serve (1976), Alec Dickson described the founding of VSO.
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Ellen Dryden (dates not known)
Playwright for stage and radio. Harvest (1982), The Burston Drum (1988; with Don Taylor (q.v.), for Chiswick Youth Theatre (CYT)), Summer in the Park (1990; with Don Taylor, for CYT), Power of the Dog (1996). The Road to the Sea (2003; with Don Taylor), Anna’s Room (2015). Radio plays: The Lake (1993), Imagining some Fear (2014), The Westward Journey (2017). She lived at 33 Airedale Avenue, W4 2NV, from about 1970 to about 1995.
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Ian Dury (1942-2000)
Punk Musician, songwriter & actor
Lived at Kara Lodge, Newton Grove, Chiswick W4 from 1967-1970. Was teaching at art schools in the South of England during this time. Daughter Jemima born in 1969 at Chiswick Maternity Hospital
(sources; Hallo Sausages by Jemima Dury, NotableAbodes.com)
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Lisa Evans
Playwright, lived in Chiswick from 1981–1987, Annandale Road, Carlton Road – subsequently moved to Brentford. Work spans television, radio and theatre, including many award-winning plays with credits for TV including The Bill, Holby City, Peak Practice, Casualty and EastEnders.
(Sources – Lisa Evans)
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Fenella Fielding (Fenella Marion Feldman) OBE (1927- 2018). Actress, she was a resident of Chiswick for nearly 40 years. She was generally acknowledged as a very witty person with a gift for one-liners and was often referred to as “England’s first lady of the double entendre.” Ground floor flat, 29 Esmond Road, W4, in the late 70s, possibly longer. Do You Mind If I Smoke?: The Memoirs of Fenella Fielding, London: Peter Owen Publishers ISBN-13: 978-0720619911 with Simon McKay.
Update 2023 by Simon McKay: Fenella was awarded an OBE in 2018. She moved to Esmond Road in July 1981 and was there till her death in September 2018. As well as writing her memoirs, in 1963, Fenella also wrote a play So Much to Remember with Johnny Whyte. It was performed at the Establishment, the Vaudeville Theatre and then adapted for broadcast on BBC2. Fenella also wrote columns for various magazines including Punch, The Observer and Forum. Simon Hattenstone published an interview with her in the Guardian in 2018 and says ‘Fielding is a phenomenal storyteller’ and reminds him of ‘the great raconteur Quentin Crisp’.
Link to ChiswickW4.com item about her 90th birthday and the publication of her memoir.
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Michael Flanders OBE (1922-1974). Actor, broadcaster, writer and performer. He lived in Chiswick, W4 from 1971 until his death. His ashes were scattered in the grounds of Chiswick House, a place where he had often liked to sit in the afternoon during the final years of his life. His main legacy with Donald Swann, who wrote the music, includes the recordings. 63 Esmond Road W4 (1971-1974). At the Drop of a Hat 1963 (Image, top right). At the Drop of Another Hat 1963.
See: Michael Flanders in Chiswick
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Claudia Flanders OBE (1933-1998). Lyrics (compiler and introduction). American born, she married Michael Flanders on New Year’s Eve, 1959. Together they opened the Albert Dane Centre in 1973. After Michael’s death she opened the Michael Swann Centre in Acton. The Flanders lived at 63 Esmond Road. The Songs of Michael Flanders & Donald Swann, 1996
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Ford Madox Ford (1873–1939). Novelist, poet and critic. Books include Ford Madox Brown: A Record of his Life and Work (1896); The Fifth Queen trilogy (1906 – 1908); The Good Soldier (1915); Henry James: A Critical Study (1915); the Parade’s End trilogy (1924 – 1928); Joseph Conrad: A Personal Remembrance(1924); The English Novel: From the Earliest Days to the Death of Joseph Conrad (1929); Return to Yesterday(a memoir; 1931). He was editor of the English Review (founded 1908) and the Transatlantic Review (founded 1924). Ford never lived in Chiswick, but sections of his trilogy Parade’s End were set in Bedford Park.
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Robert Fortune (1812-1880). Horticulturist, traveller. He began work at the Royal Botanic Garden in Edinburgh before later taking up a post at the Royal Horticultural Society’s gardens at Chiswick in 1848. Working for the RHS and the British East India Company, Fortune was sent to China to collect new plant series and managed to secure clandestinely a large number of tea plants.
Publications include A Journey to the Tea Countries of China 1852.
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Rebecca Frayn (b. 1979) Novelist, screenwriter/film maker and environmental activist, Rebecca is a long-term Chiswick resident. She founded the Friends of Turnham Green in 2007. She published her first novel One Life in 2007, Deception in 2010 and Heatwave is due for publication in 2022. She is the daughter of playwright and novelist Michael Frayn and his first wife, Gillian (née Palmer). https://www.rebeccafrayn.com/
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John Roderick Warlow Gradidge (Roddy) (1929 – 2000)>
Architect and writer on architecture. At 2 The Avenue, Bedford Park. Enthusiast for Lutyens, the Arts and Crafts, the Victorian Society and the Thirties Society (a founder member) – known as “the kilted crusader”. A tall, imposing figure, he wore his hair in a pony tail and usually dressed in a tweed (not tartan) kilt. Master of the Art Workers Guild. Bedford Park 1875-1975: the centenary of an aesthetic suburb (1975), Dream Houses: The Edwardian Ideal (1980), Edwin Lutyens: Architect Laureate (1981) Poetic drama and history: the costume designs of Stella Mary Newton (1991) and The Surrey Style (1991).
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Jo (Joseph) Grimond (1913-1993)
Politician and writer. The Leader of the Liberal Party from 1956-67 and in 1976 during the post Thorpe interregnum. Member of Parliament for Orkney and Shetland 1950-82. He died on Orkney and was buried in Finstown on Orkney. Upon leaving the House of Commons, he was created a life peer as Baron Grimond, of Firth in the County of Orkney on 12 October 1983. 24 Priory Avenue, W4 (1976-1993). Books published while he lived in Chiswick include: The Common Welfare (Temple Smith, London, 1978), Memoirs (Heinemann, London, 1979), A Personal Manifesto (Martin Robertson, Oxford, 1983), The St Andrews of Jo Grimond (Alan Sutton, St. Andrew’s, 1992)
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Peter Hall (Professor) FBA (1932-2014)
Town planner. 5 Bedford Road 1973-1994. Author or joint author of at least 22 books and editor or joint editor of at least 6 volumes (estimates vary up to 50), 14 of which were published while living in Chiswick, especially Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design in the Twentieth Century (1988). An academic at the University of Reading, then at the Bartlett, University College London, and an advisor to governments, he was President of and knighted for service to, the Town and Country Planning Association. He may have been the originator of the idea to move Heathrow to the Thames Estuary.
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Sheila Cameron Hancock CBE (b. 1933) Actress and writer. She now alternates between Hammersmith and the Cotswolds. She lived in Chiswick in Grove Park Terrace and Grove Park Road during the 1970s and early 1980s. First husband actor Alex Ross died 1971. Second husband actor John Thaw died 2002. Publications: The Two of Us (2004), Just Me (2008) and her debut novel Miss Carter’s War (2014).
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Sir Percy Alfred Harris (1876-1952) Lawyer & Liberal politician, Percy Harris lived at Morton House, Chiswick Mall from 1938-1950. He died in Kensington but is buried in St Nicholas’ Churchyard. His monument in the churchyard of St Nicholas Church, Chiswick is Grade II* listed. The relief carving by Edward Bainbridge Copnall depicts the resurrection of the dead. It was carved in the late 1920s and acquired by Harris for display in his garden at Morton House. In 1946 he published his autobiography, Forty Years In and Out of Parliament, following a successful career as a radical liberal MP and a member of the London County Council.
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Mary Cecil Hay (1839 – 1886) Novelist. She abbreviated her middle name from Cecilia to Cecil. Born in Shrewsbury to a clockmaker. In the 1881 census Mary was living with her mother and two sisters in Woodstock Road, Chiswick and her occupation was given as author. She later moved to Bay Trees, East Preston, East Sussex until her death. A prolific writer, she had a 15-year career followed by a long illness, She was buried in Highgate cemetery. Her work was often serialised and appeared in periodicals and weeklies in the UK, America and Australia. A list of her works is available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Cecil_Hay
https://sussexman.blogspot.com/2017/04/mary-cecil-hay-author.html
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James Lewis Henderson (1910-1986) A teacher of history teachers who was one of the leaders of a movement to reform the teaching of history to embrace world history, to support world citizenship and world peace.
Dr Henderson was a Senior Lecturer in History & International Affairs at the Institute of Education, London. From 1970 – 1979 he was Chairman of the World Education Fellowship (previously the New Education Fellowship, founded in 1921). He edited the New Era In Education (the WEF journal). Members of the Fellowship were driven by a strong conviction that new initiatives in education were vital for the future of the world. He was General Editor of the series Aspects of Contemporary World History (Methuen) and author of (amongst others): World Questions: A Study Guide (1963); The Teacher: Neither Saviour Nor Stooge (1966); Education for World Understanding (1968); Since 1945: Aspects of Contemporary World History (1971); Hiroshima (Flashpoints Series) 1974; The Teaching of World History (1979). The General Secretary of the WEF from 1973 to 1997 was Rosemary Crommelin (1924-2003) with its HQ at her house in Kinnaird Avenue. Dr. Henderson lived at Strand on the Green.
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William Ernest Henley (1849–1903) Poet, critic and editor, known for ‘Invictus’. Works include: Echoes (1888); A Book of Verse (1888); Views and Reviews (1890); London Voluntaries (1893); Poems (1898); Hawthorn and Lavender (1899); For England’s Sake (1900). Editor of The London (1877–1878); the Magazine of Art (1882–1886); and The Scots Observer, latterly The National Observer (1889-1893). Lived at 1 Merton Place, Chiswick High Road in 1887-8, later site of Merton Avenue. Sources: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/william-ernest-henley; Selected Letters of W.E. Henley, Damian Atkinson, Ashgate 2000, Routledge 2016
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William Hogarth (1697-1764)
Painter, engraver, satirist, art theorist. Born in Smithfield, lived Leicester Square with second home in Chiswick 1749-1764. Hogarth was a story-teller, using images to set out his narrative. He published ‘The Analysis of Beauty’ subscription 1753, with 2 prints demonstrating his concept of the serpentine Line of Beauty. Dr Thomas Morell and James Ralph (both of Chiswick) and James Towneley advise when h e struggled with his text.
Source: Jenny Uglow ‘Hogarth: A Life and a World’
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Herbert Percy Horne (1864 – 1916).
Architect, typographer, art historian, editor, poet and antiquarian. The Binding of Books. An Essay in the History of Gold-Tooled Bindings (London, 1894); Alessandro Filipepi, commonly known as Sandro Botticelli, painter of Florence (London 1908; repr. Princeton, N.J. 1980). 6 Newton Grove, W4 (late 1870s).
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Geoffrey Edward West Household (1900-1988)
Author. Lived at 29 Strand-on-the-Green from 1949 to 1954, rebuilding and extending it after bomb damage during the war. His early careers involved working for the Bank of Romania, selling bananas and ink, writing for children’s encyclopaedias and penning children’s plays for CBS, During WW2 he worked for British Intelligence. He wrote 28 novels, including the classic thriller Rogue Male (1939), first filmed in 1941 and later for TV in 1976, as well as 7 books of short stories. His autobiography Against The Wind was published in 1958. (sources; WWW on Strand on the Green, NY Times Obituary, family website geoffreyhousehold.co.uk)
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Roger Ingpen (1867-1936). Born in the Camden/St Pancras area of London, by 1911 Roger Ingpen was living with his wife and three daughters in Bedford Park and describing himself as an editor. He was married to Ada Mary Frances de la Mare, one of the sisters of Walter (who died in Twickenham). His publishing company was Ingpen & Grant. Ingpen edited Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson. Whilst he is best known for this, and for The Letters of Percy Bysshe Shelley: Containing Material Never Before Collected, he also edited a number of other works, including The Love Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay, with a prefatory memoir. Died at 28 Queen Anne’s Grove, Bedford Park
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Simon Jenkins (b. 1943)
Chapter on Chiswick in his Companion Guide to Outer London (1981). Educated at Mill Hill School and St John’s College, Oxford. Author of (amongst others) A Short History of England, A Short History of Europe, Britain’s 100 Best Railway Stations, England’s Thousand Best Churches and England’s Thousand Best Houses. He is a former Editor of both the Evening Standard and The Times, is a columnist for the Guardian, and has been Chairman of the National Trust. He has been voted Journalist of the Year, Columnist of the Year and has won the Edgar Wallace and David Watt awards. He was knighted in 2004. (Sources: Penguin, National Trust, Speakers Corner website).
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Edgar Alfred Jepson (1863-1938) Author (under own name and pseudonym of R Edison Page). Living in Bedford Park in 1907 and in 1918 at 36 Priory Road, W4 (also at other addresses between these dates). A quite prolific writer of adventure & detective fiction, plus supernatural & fantasy stories, between 1885 and 1937. He also translated the Arsene Lupin stories of Maurice Leblanc, and edited Vanity Fair magazine for a short while. Biblography includes; The Horned Shepherd (1904) The Mystery of the Myrtles (1909) The Girl’s Head (1910) No. 19 (1910) aka The Garden at Number 19. The Loudwater Mystery (1919) The Moon Gods (1930) Barradine Detects (1937) (sources; Ancestry.Com Census and Voter Records)
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Selwyn Jepson (1899-1989) Author & screenwriter. Lived in Bedford Park in 1907, maybe at 36 Priory Road in 1918. Wrote many mystery/detective books, notably Keep Murder Quiet (1940) and the Eve Gill series of sleuth novels. Selwyn also worked extensively as a screenwriter & director between 1933-1954. (sources; Ancestry.com Voter Lists)
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Margaret Jepson (1907-2003) Author (also under married name of Margaret Birkinshaw and pen name Pearl Bellairs). Born in Bedford Park. Wrote serialised stories, some with her father, mainly for the Strand Magazine and the Saturday Evening Post, and 6 novels between 1932-1950. Her first and most notable novel was Via Panama (1934). Mother of the writer Fay Weldon. (sources; Birth Certificate)
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Arthur Valentine Judges (1898-1973) An economic historian who became a leader in the study of the history of education. Served in the London Rifle Brigade from 1915 and then the Tank Corps, and in the Home Guard in WWII. Taught and researched economic history at the LSE. From 1934 was Hon Sec of the Business Archives Council, in 1939 appointed Reader in Economic History at the LSE. Irish Labour in Great Britain, 1939-1945, for the Cabinet Office.
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Rachel Kempson (1910–2003)
Actor. Life among the Redgraves (1986). She lived at Bedford House, Chiswick Mall, W4 (1945 – 1954).
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Margaret Kennedy (1896-1967)
Margaret Kennedy was born in London on 23 April 1896, the eldest of four children. She was educated at Cheltenham Ladies’ College and at Somerville College, Oxford. She is best known for her second novel, The Constant Nymph (1924) which became a worldwide bestseller. She wrote fifteen further novels and also wrote plays, adapting both The Constant Nymph and its sequel The Fool of the Family very successfully. Noel Coward , John Gielgud, Ivor Novello and Joan Fontaine starred in her plays and films. She also published a study of Jane Austen (1950) and a work of literary criticism, The Outlaws on Parnassus, in 1958. In 1964 Margaret Kennedy moved from London to Woodstock, Oxfordshire, where she lived until her death on 31 July 1967. Her London home was Strand House, 1 Strand-on-the-Green.
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Michael Kerr (b. 1933) Novelist, biographer, children’s writer, TV scriptwriter. Benjamin Seven (1975); Virtuoso: the story of John Ogdon, (1981, 1989). 51 Duke Road (1979 – 84); still living in Chiswick (1984-present).
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Susan Lee Kerr (b. 1945), Biographical novelist, poet (haiku), ‘how-to’ writer. Creative Writing: the Matrix, exercises & ideas for creative writing teachers (2007); The Extraordinary Dr Epstein (2015); The Walk Home (2020). 51 Duke Road (1979 – 84); still living in Chiswick (1984 – present).
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Julia Mary Langdon (b. 1946) Political journalist, broadcaster and writer. A political journalist since 1971, she became a lobby correspondent in 1974. Leaving the Guardian in 1984, she was appointed political editor of the Daily Mirror, the first woman to hold the position on a national newspaper in the UK. Langdon has been a freelance writer since 1992. She published a biography of the Labour politician Mo Mowlam (2000). She works from home and lives in Strand on the Green. https://chiswickcalendar.co.uk/when-working-from-home-turns-out-ok/
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Patricia McBride Lousada (1929 – 2019), ballerina and writer of recipe books. Danced in George Balanchine’s company in post-war New York, and in Merce Cunningham’s modern dance company. Pasta Italian Style (1985), The Dinner Party Book (1990), The Cooking of the USA (1993), Flavours of the Sun (1994; with Charlotte Fraser), Ultimate Chocolate (1997), and several further titles. The Tides, Chiswick Mall, W4 (1961–2019).
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Rosamund Lupton (b. 1964)
Author. Lived at 25 Whitehall Park Road, W4 from c 2002-2010.
Her first novel, Sister, was written during this time and was published in 2010. Her second novel, Afterwards (2013) is mainly set in Chiswick. (sources; 192.com, UK Electoral Registers)
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Des Lynam (b. 1942)
Sports presenter and game show host. Lived at 10 Eyot Green, W4 (also see Steve Marriott) from c 1997 to 2005. Contributed to sport books including the Guide to Commonwealth Games (1986), The 1988 Olympics (1988), The Barcelona Olympics 1992 (with Caroline Searle, 1992), and published an autobiography I Should Have Been at Work! (2005) (sources; CompaniesHouse.gov.uk, Daily Mail property article 2011)
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Gillian Lynne (1926-2018)
Ballet dancer, choreographer and ballet director. Autobiography 2012: A Dancer in Wartime: The touching true story of a young girl’s journey from the Blitz to the Bright Lights. Lived at 25 The Avenue, Chiswick from 1976.