In the introduction to his new book, Literary Somerset \u2013 A readers\u2019 guide, author James Crowden plays down the significance of his work, calling it a \u2018first trawl\u2019 of a county teeming with literary anecdotes. He suggests that his work may be a source for readers to begin their own research. He may be right, there is plenty of room for each reader to do their own further research, but Literary Somerset is quite an extraordinary first trawl.
\nFrom Thomas Hardy\u2019s time spent living in Yeovil to John Le Carre\u2019s time spent teaching at Millfield, James Crowden has packed his book full of fascinating facts and anecdotes. Through the highways and byways of Somerset, including the cities of Bath and Bristol, he has created a literary road map from Anglo Saxon times up to the present day.
\nWho would have guessed, for example, that Johnathan Dimbleby ran an organic farm near Bath for some years or that Thomas Hardy\u2019s former home in Yeovil is now a private car park for a shop that specialises in \u2018cheap knickers, blouses and skirts\u2019. What would Hardy have made of that?
\nNot everyone would have known that JRR Tolkien honeymooned in Clevedon or that Roald Dahl went to boarding school in Weston-super-Mare, the same town in which John Cleese was born and Jeffery Archer grew up. James Crowden recalls spending four weeks in the Himalayas with John Cleese, who fell over and sprained his ankle whilst doing a silly walk over a pass at high altitude.
\nHe devotes five pages to TS Elliot who became a pen pal of the comedian Groucho Marx, even requesting a portrait which he proudly hung in his home.
\nThe book covers more than 300 writers: early chroniclers and opium addicted Romantic poets, philosophers, pirates and playwrights, eccentric clergymen, diarists and herbalists, novelists and historians, travellers, chefs and scientists \u2013 from Gildas to George Bernard Shaw, Fay Weldon, Margaret Drabble and Terry Pratchett.
\nMany of these literary connections are well known: TS Eliot and East Coker, Wordsworth and Coleridge in the Quantocks; but did you know that John Taylor, founder of the Guardian lived in Ilminster; or that Virginia Woolf had her honeymoon in Holford; or that John Steinbeck lived near Bruton to research the Arthurian legends; or that the weird electrical experiments of Andrew Crosse at Fyne Court inspired Frankenstein\u2026 or that the vicar of Isle Brewers was once sold for 25\/- and then walked naked across Afghanistan; or that Arthur C Clarke was born in Minehead or that Cheddar Gorge inspired Helm\u2019s Deep in Lord of the Rings?
\nLiterary Somerset is broken down into manageable chapters, many with quirky names such as \u2018Three Wise Men\u2019, \u2018Two Herbalists and a Leg Stretcher\u2019 and \u2018Hacks and Scribblers\u2019. One chapter, \u2018Four Waugh and a Herbert\u2019 about Arthur, Evelyn, Auberon, and Alexander Waugh, and Aubrey Herbert, has the author remembering how Arthur Waugh became his father\u2019s godfather. He points out that Waugh\u2019s deep interest in books and publishing rubbed off on his own family and how the Waughs all had a great sense of humour \u2013 an art that James Crowden has mastered and uses with great effect in this book.
\nIrrepressible, energetic and passionate about the West Country, James Crowden has produced yet another excellent addition to a library of Somerset literature that is already bursting at the seams.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the introduction to his new book, Literary Somerset \u2013 A readers\u2019 guide, author James Crowden plays down the significance of his work, calling it a \u2018first trawl\u2019 of a county teeming with literary anecdotes. He suggests that his work may be a source for readers to begin their own research. He may be right, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[13],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts","tag-fergus-byrne"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}