Chiswick Timeline: Notes and Sources

The Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books lists around 425 writers who have written a book and lived in Chiswick W4, or written books about the area.  See A Quick Guide.

We have tried to ensure that all those named on the Timeline have lived in, or written books about, Chiswick W4 –  and that the list is comprehensive – but we are open to corrections and we welcome discussion. Some writers may not have lived here for very long or written their best-known works here; others regarded Chiswick as their home and an inspiration. The listings are still growing.

If you have suggestions for other authors you think we should include, please email admin@chiswickbookfestival.net.

We have used the following sources. We are very grateful to them, and to the individuals who are cited below these.

Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society
. and its Chiswick Writers Research Group (CWRG)
Books about Chiswick – ChiswickW4.com
Who Was Who on Strand on the Green – Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society
Chiswick – Wikipaedia
History of Chiswick – ChiswickW4.com
Chiswick: Growth – British History Online (BHO)
Chiswick History: Gillian Clegg
Gill Clegg’s Chiswick History Web Pages: People – BCLHS
The Architects of Bedford Park – Bedford Park Society
History of the Suburb – Bedford Park Society
The Exhibition that saved Bedford Park – Bedford Park Society
Mainly About Bedford Park People – Christina Speight and Laurence Duttson (not online)
Romantic Mythologies – edited by Dr Ian Fletcher
London Remembers/Memorials/W4
Notable Abodes/Chiswick
English Heritage – Blue Plaques/ Chiswick
Gunnersbury Park & Museum

See also:
Chiswick Timeline of Writers & Books: How it began and more names at:
Waterstones Local Authors Party 2018
Waterstones Local Authors Party 2017

.

Further notes below:

– We are adding more source links to the main listings pages, starting with Non-fiction.
– These are ‘work in progress’ and will be updated over time.
– We intend to list our sources for the information that: these writers lived in Chiswick;
or are so closely associated with Chiswick that they warrant inclusion (such as John Betjeman, Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Erin Pizzey).
– Where people have written books about Chiswick or set scenes in Chiswick, we hope their inclusion is self-explanatory.

Sources (marked in red below) include individuals such as Val Bott (VB), Torin Douglas (TD) and Paul Wade (PW), and works and organisations such as ChiswickW4.com (CW4), Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society (BCLHS) and its Chiswick Writers Research Group (CWRG), The Chiswick Calendar (TCC), Mainly About Bedford Park People (MABPP), Wikipaedia (Wiki) and Notable Abodes (NA). Several of the links on this page are to these sources.
– Where authors have been nominated by themselves or family members, these have been verified by Torin Douglas below (TD).
Addresses (marked ‘Res’ in green): Where possible, we aim to include addresses (though not of living writers, for privacy reasons).

We start with the ‘Latest Names’ page, as at April 28th 2020, and more names will be added gradually.

Tony Aldous – Chiswick’s art, architecture, history – Illustrated London News Book of London’s Villages (chapter) TD

Kathy Arnold – travel – Thomas Cook, Frommer’s and other travel guides to countries and regions. See also Paul Wade below PW

Humphrey Arthure – Chiswick’s art, architecture, history – Life and Work in Old Chiswick

Elias Malke Assad – art – Pearls from Heaven TD

Magdalena Bak-Maier – science, education, health – Body Talk, Get Productive TD

KC Barnaby – business, industry – 100 years of Specialised Shipbuilding and Engineering; Some Ship Disasters and their Causes PW Res: The Hollies/Heron House, Chiswick Mall.

Colin Bamford – law – Principles of International Financial Law 

Mary Berry (1763-1852) – journals – Social Life in England and France from the French Revolution PW

Alan Bignell – memoir – The Year I Became Al  CW4

Fiona Brattle – fashion – The Model’s Handbook TD

Charles and Edward Bright (EB 1831-1913) – business and industry – The Life Story of Sir Charles Tilston Bright  PW Res: 2 Bolton Road. Sir Charles is buried in St Nicholas graveyard (Charles was his son, Edward his brother)

Nick Brooks – novels, including crime – Betrayed TD

Ginny Brown (1941 – 2006) – memoir – Swans At My Window  TD/PW Res: Houseboat on Thames

Carla Capalbo – cookery – Tasting George: A food and wine journey in the Caucasus PW

Jessie Childs – history – God’s Traitors  TD

Cosmo Clark (1897-1967) – history, memoir – The Tin Trunk TD

Rev William Cotton (1813-1879) – environment – My Bee Book PW

Gary Critcher – sport – Shutter and Speed TD

Martin Daly – travel – Tonga, a Bibliography TD

Nelson Dawson (1859-1941) – design – Goldsmiths’ and Silversmiths’ Work  PW Res: Swan House, Chiswick Mall, and The Guardship, Church Street

Brian Dobbs – sport – Black and White: The Birth of Modern Boxing  CW4

Declan Donnelly – biography – Ooh! What A Lovely Pair: Our Story (with Ant McPartlin) TD

Claudia Flanders (1933-1998) – lyrics (compiler and introduction) – The Songs of Michael Flanders & Donald Swann  TD Res: 63 Esmond Road

Robert Fortune (1812-1880) – horticulture, travel – A Journey to the Tea Countries of China PW

Ann Francke – business – Create a Gender-Balanced Workplace  TD

Glenn Frankel – journalism – High Noon PW

Emma Forrest – novels – Namedropper, Royals TD

Sylvia Freedman – plays and biography – Poor Penelope: Lady Penelope Rich, an Elizabethan Woman PW

Suzy Grant – coaching, therapy – Alternative Ageing  PW

Sir Percy Harris (1876-1952) – politics – Forty Years In and Out of Parliament, London and its Government PW Res: Morton House, Chiswick Mall

Ada May Harrison – poems, novels, children’s, travel books – The Adventures of Polly Peppermint  PW Res: Lingard House, Chiswick Mall

Mary Cecil Hay (1839-1886) – novelist – The Squire’s Legacy PW

Simon Jenkins – Chiswick’s art, architecture and history – The Companion Guide to Outer London (chapter) TD

Thomas Kennedy – novels, scenes set in Chiswick – The Avery-Stripes  TD

Michael Kerr – biography – Virtuoso (John Ogdon)  TD

Vyvyan Kinross – diplomacy – Information Warriors TD

Andrew Lloyd Webber, Lord (President of ArtsEd) – memoir – Unmasked  TD

Patricia Lousada (1929-2019) cookery – Pasta Italian Style, American Baking and many others  PW

Desmond Lynam – stage, screen, radio – I Should Have Been at Work  PW

Virginia Makins – education – The Invisible Children  TD

Mark Malloch Brown, Lord – politics, diplomacy – The Unfinished Global Revolution PW Res: Church Street and Chiswick Mall

Jose Manser – art – Mary Fedden and Julian Trevelyan  PW

Robin Marris, Professor (1924-2012) – economics – Ending Poverty PW

Alec Marsh – novels – Rule Britannia  TD

Ant McPartlin – biography – Ooh! What A Lovely Pair: Our Story (with Declan Donnelly) TD

Ralph Miliband (1924-1994) – economics, politics – Marxism and Politics, The State in Capitalist Society. See Ralph Miliband and Chiswick Library  TD (info, Matt Myers) Res: not known but worked in Chiswick Library

Tim Moore – travel – Do Not Pass Go, Gironimo and many others PW

Matt Myers – politics – Student Revolt: Voices of the Austerity Generation  TD

Rev Martine Oborne – children’s  – Hamilton’s Hats  PW

Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847) – politics – An Historical Memoir: Ireland and the Irish  PW   Res: Walpole House, Chiswick Mall (lodged as student)

Robert Oulds – history – Montgomery and the First War On Terror  TD

Denis Postle – psychology – Fabric of the Universe  PW

Patrick Riddell – plays – Defence in Depth and other BBC radio plays

Erin Pizzey – politics, campaigning, Chiswick Women’s Aid  – Scream quietly or the neighbours will hear  PW

William P Roe – Chiswick history – Glimpses of Chiswick’s Place in History 

Sir Francis Ronalds (1788-1873) – engineering, science – A Description of an Electric Telegraph  PW

Helen Sedgwick – novelist – The Growing Season, When the Dead Come Calling  TD

Christine Shaw – Chiswick history – The Rebuilding of Chiswick Vicarage (1657-8)

Louise Silverton – medicine – The Art and Science of Midwifery  TD

Rob Sprackling – screenwriter – Gnomeo & Juliet – and children’s – Born Again Ben  TCC

Imogen Stubbs – plays – We Happy Few  PW

Alison Taylor – environment, education – Guide to Education and the River Thames  PW

Herbert Thorndike (1598-1672) – theology – Of the Government of Churches  PW

Alan Toop – business – Only £3.95?!  TD

Carol Townend – romantic novels, history – Shattered Vows and many more  PW

Roger Tredre – fashion – The Great Fashion Designers  TD

Thomas Harrington Tuke (1826-1888) – science, medicine – journal papers  PW

Liz Vercoe – journalism – Where to live in London? TD

Professor Fred Vine – science – journal papers  PW

Paul Wade – Travel – Thomas Cook, Frommer’s and other travel guides to countries and regions. See also Kathy Arnold above. And Sport – Sports Injuries  PW

Jutta Wagner – gardening – The Family Kitchen Garden  TD

Martin Wainwright – travel, biography, environment – Guardian Book of the Countryside and others  PW

Frederick Walton (1834-1928) – business – The Infancy and Development of Linoleum PW

Gordon Wansborough-White – military – Names with Wings PW

Commodore Ronald Warwick – shipping – QE2: The Cunard Line Flagship, Queen Elizabeth 2  PW

Annette Wendland – gardening – The Family Kitchen Garden TD

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903) – artist, wit – The Gentle Art of Making Enemies  PW

Roderick White – business – Advertising: What it is and How to do it  TD

Stephanie White – Chiswick history – Down Memory Lane  

Christopher Wilk – design, furniture – Modernism  PW

Lewis Pinhorn Wood (1848-1918) – children’s – Harry Goodchild’s Day Dream  PW

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