Footnotes

by Peter Fiennes

  Violet Florence Martin (pseud. Martin Ross)

  11 June 1862–21 December 1915

  One half of the writing duo that produced The Real Charlotte, the Irish R.M. stories and twenty-nine other books (sixteen of them after her death). Born in Connemara, County Galway, into the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy, the youngest of sixteen children of James and Anna Martin. Met Edith Somerville in 1886 and wrote together (and lived together when they could) until her death in a nursing home at Cork. Keen fox hunter.

  John Boynton Priestley

  13 September 1894–14 August 1984

  Born in Bradford. Father, Jonathan, a teacher; mother, Emma, probably a millworker, died when he was two. Fought in the First World War, wounded and gassed three times. Prolific author of novels, plays (including An Inspector Calls and Time and the Conways) and reams of journalism and non-fiction. Hugely popular broadcaster. Inadvertently started the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament with an article for the New Statesman in 1957. Married three times: Emily ‘Pat’ Tempest (1921–1925); Jane Wyndham-Lewis (1926–1953); and Jacquetta Hawkes (from 1953). Five children. Died at home near Stratford-upon-Avon.

  Edith Anna Œnone Somerville

  2 May 1858–8 October 1949

  One half of the writing duo that produced The Real Charlotte, the Irish R.M. stories and twenty-nine other books (sixteen of them after the death of her writing partner, ‘Martin Ross’). Born in Corfu (into the Anglo-Irish Ascendancy), eldest of ten children to Thomas and Adelaide. Trained as an artist in Paris. Met Violet Martin in 1886 and wrote together (and lived together when they could) until Martin’s death in 1915. Fox hunter and Irish nationalist. Died in Castletownshend, County Cork.

  ‌Acknowledgements

  Love and thanks to Anna, who set me on the path to Enid Blyton, and walked some of the way, and made all of this possible; also Natalie, Alex and Esme for the comments and encouragement. Thank you, once again, Sam Carter of Oneworld Publications, for the pitch-perfect support and thoughtful editing (and the C. L. R. James books); Jonathan Bentley-Smith, also of Oneworld; Kathleen McCully, for the sharp copy-editing; to Alice Carter, for the glorious maps; Josie Sommer of Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children’s Books; Louisa Price, Curator, Charles Dickens Museum; Miranda Kaufmann, for her research help, and also Michael Obajanu; Martin Fiennes for letting me loose on Celia Fiennes’ journal; Nathaniel and Mariette Fiennes; Ivor Fiennes; my brother, Toby Fiennes, especially for the family tree; Aunt Biddy; wordsmith Ruth Jarvis, for the title!; Andrew ‘Rudi’ White; Tom Holland; Nick Marston; Conor McCutcheon; Felicity Lawrence; Simon Rohde, Judith Hawley and Philip Horne, for many suggestions; Gill Morgan; Angharad Penrhyn Jones; Kevin Ebbutt, for introducing me to Ithell Colquhoun; Mick Drury of Trees for Life, and my bothy-buddies Howard, Roy and Fitch; Nick from the Wirral; Brendan King, for getting me started with Beryl Bainbridge; Caroline Knox of the Boswell Trust; Geoff Metzger, for the Seven Ages; Ben Tippet; and last but very much not least, my enormously helpful agent Rebecca Winfield (davidluxtonassociates.co.uk).

  ‌Permissions

  I have quoted from many writers and poets in these pages and am extremely grateful to all the copyright holders who allowed me to use their words. I made strenuous efforts to secure permissions (reluctantly jettisoning some favourites) and apologise if there are any omissions or mistakes. Please get in touch if so! You’ll find most of the sources in the Select Bibliography, but I would also like to acknowledge the following:

  Lines from ‘Praise of a Man’ © 1990 Norman MacCaig, from Collected Poems, published by Chatto & Windus. Reproduced by permission of the estate of Norman MacCaig.

  Extract from Cat’s Eye by Margaret Atwood, Copyright © 1988 by O. W. Toad, Ltd. Used in the UK and Commonwealth, excluding Canada, by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc. Used in the United States by permission of Doubleday, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Reprinted in Canada by permission of Emblem/McClelland & Stewart, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. All rights reserved.

  Extracts from Enid Blyton reproduced by permission of Hodder Children’s Books, an imprint of Hachette Children’s Books, Carmelite House, 50 Victoria Embankment, London, EC4Y 0DZ.

  Extracts from The Living Stones by Ithell Colquhoun, 1957, reproduced by permission of Peter Owen Publishers, UK.

  Extracts from The Journey Through Wales/The Description of Wales by Gerald of Wales, Giraldus Cambrensis, trans. Lewis Thorpe © the Estate of Lewis Thorpe, 1978, published by Penguin Classics.

  Lines from ‘Welsh Landscape’ © R. S. Thomas, first published by Hart-Davis, MacGibbon Ltd, 1973, published in Selected Poems 1946–1968 by Bloodaxe Books Ltd, 1986.

  Extract from ‘Buffalo Bill’s’, Copyright 1923, 1951, © 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright © 1976 by George James Firmage, from Complete Poems: 1904–1962 by E. E. Cummings, edited by George J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation.

  Extracts from Bright Day Copyright © 1946 by J. B. Priestley, renewed 1974. Quoted with permission of Valancourt Books. Extracts from English Journey, 1933, by J. B. Priestley quoted with permission and published by Great Northern Books, PO Box 1380, Bradford BD5 5FB.

  Extracts from English Journey, Copyright © 1983 by Beryl Bainbridge, reprinted by permission of Johnson and Alcock Literary Agency, Bloomsbury House, 74–77 Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3DA.

  Extracts from Beyond a Boundary, Copyright © 1963 by C. L. R. James reprinted by permission of Yellow Jersey Press.

  Extracts from A Passage to England, Copyright © 1959 by Nirad Chaudhuri, published by Macmillan & Co.

  Extracts from Beggars on Horseback: A Riding Tour in North Wales by E. Œ. Somerville and Martin Ross, first published by William Blackwood & Sons, 1895.

  ‌Select Bibliography

  This could go on a while, except I won’t let it. Instead, here are all the books mentioned in the text, plus a handful of others that were especially engrossing when I was researching and writing Footnotes. I’ve put the primary texts for each journey first.

  General

  AA, Illustrated Guide to Britain (Drive Publications, 1971)

  Anderson, Sarah, Anderson’s Travel Companion: A Guide to the Best Non-fiction and Fiction for Travelling (Scholar Press, 1995)

  Briggs, Katharine M., British Folk Tales and Legends: A Sampler (Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1977)

  Chaudhuri, Nirad C., A Passage to England (Macmillan, 1959)

  Crane, Nicholas, Great British Journeys (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2017)

  Davidson, Peter, The Idea of North (Reaktion Books, 2005)

  Drabble, Margaret, A Writer’s Britain (Thames & Hudson, 2009)

  Grigson, Geoffrey, The Shell Country Alphabet: The Classic Guide to the British Countryside (Penguin Books, 1966)

  Hibbert, Christopher, The English: A Social History 1066–1945 (Guild Publishing, 1987)

  Holmes, Richard, Footsteps: Adventures of a Romantic Biographer (Penguin Books, 1985). I started here.

  Ingrams, Richard (Ed.), England: An Anthology (Collins, 1990)

  Ishiguro, Kazuo, The Buried Giant (Faber & Faber, 2015)

  Kaufmann, Miranda, Black Tudors: The Untold Story (Oneworld Publications, 2017)

  Klein, Naomi, This Changes Everything (Penguin Books, 2014)

  Legget, Jane, Local Heroines: A Travel Guidebook to Women’s History in Great Britain (Pandora, 1988)

  Macfarlane, Robert, The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot (Penguin Books, 2013)

  McGarvey, Darren, Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass (Luath Press, 2017)

  Minshull, Duncan (Ed.), While Wandering: A Walking Companion (Vintage Books, 2014)

  Monbiot, George, Feral: Rewilding the Land, Sea and Human Life (Allen Lane, 2013)

  Montgomery, Charles, Happy City: Transforming Our Lives through Urban Design (Penguin Books, 2013)

  Morley, Paul, The Nort
h (and Almost Everything In It) (Bloomsbury, 2013)

  Morton, H. V., I Saw Two Englands (Methuen & Co., 1942)

  Morton, H. V., In Search of England (Methuen & Co., 1927)

  Morton, H. V., The Call of England (Methuen & Co., 1928)

  Orwell, George, Inside the Whale and Other Essays (Penguin Books, 1957)

  Orwell, George, The Road to Wigan Pier (Victor Gollancz, 1937)

  Overy, Richard, The Morbid Age: Britain Between the Wars (Penguin Books, 2009)

  Paxman, Jeremy, The English: A Portrait of a People (Penguin Group, 1998)

  Priestley, J. B., The English (William Heinemann, 1973)

  Roberts, Alice, The Celts: Search for a Civilisation (Heron Books, 2015)

  Rutherford, Adam, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Stories in Our Genes (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2016)

  Schama, Simon, A History of Britain Vols. I–III (BBC Books, 2000–2002)

  Schama, Simon, Landscape & Memory (HarperCollins, 1995)

  Sheers, Owen, A Poet’s Guide to Britain (Penguin Books, 2010)

  Stringer, Chris, Homo Britannicus: The Incredible Story of Human Life in Britain (Penguin Books, 2006)

  Thomas, R. S., Collected Poems 1945–1990 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2000)

  Tombs, Robert, The English & Their History (Penguin Books, 2014)

  Westwood, Jennifer and Simpson, Jacqueline, The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England’s Legends, from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (Penguin Books, 2005)

  Wilson, A. N., The Victorians (Arrow Books, 2003)

  Winder, Robert, The Last Wolf: The Hidden Springs of Englishness (Little, Brown, 2017)

  Enid Blyton & Dorset

  Enid Blyton wrote over 750 books. There’s as complete a list as you’d think possible at the Enid Blyton Society website (enidblytonsociety.co.uk) in the ‘Cave of Books’, which also includes a list of her journalism and poetry. My favourite has always been Five Go Adventuring Again.

  Blyton, Enid, The Story of My Life (Pitkins, 1952)

  Baverstock, Gillian, Enid Blyton (Evans Brothers, 1997)

  Howard, Nesta and Underwood, Spencer, The Penguin Guide to Wilts and Dorset (Penguin Books, 1949)

  Norman, Dr Andrew, Enid Blyton and Her Enchantment with Dorset (Halsgrove, 2005)

  Pitt-Rivers, Michael, A Shell Guide to Dorset (Faber & Faber, 1935)

  Pollock, Ida, Starlight: A Memoir (Authors Online, 2009)

  Smallwood, Imogen, A Childhood at Green Hedges: A Fragment of Autobiography by Enid Blyton’s Daughter (Methuen Children’s Books, 1989)

  Stoney, Barbara, Enid Blyton: The Biography (Hodder & Stoughton, 1974; Tempus Publishing, 2006)

  Also, the film drama Enid (BBC, 2009)

  Wilkie Collins, Ithell Colquhoun & Cornwall

  Wilkie was prolific – the best places to start are The Moonstone and The Woman in White. There are books in print by Ithell Colquhoun at peterowen.com and psupress.org.

  Collins, Wilkie, Rambles Beyond Railways (out of print; first published 1851)

  Colquhoun, Ithell, The Living Stones (Peter Owen, 1957)

  Ackroyd, Peter, Wilkie Collins (Vintage, 2013)

  Betjeman, John, A Shell Guide to Cornwall (Faber & Faber, 1964)

  Carey, Peter, The Chemistry of Tears (Faber & Faber, 2012)

  Clarke, William M., The Secret Life of Wilkie Collins (Allison & Busby, 1988)

  Gasson, Andrew, Wilkie Collins: An Illustrated Guide (Oxford University Press, 1998)

  Jenkins, Elizabeth, The Mystery of King Arthur (Michael Joseph, 1975)

  Lycett, Andrew, Wilkie Collins: A Life of Sensation (Windmill Books, 2014)

  Peters, Catherine, The King of Inventors: A Life of Wilkie Collins (Secker & Warburg, 1991).

  Smith, Laura, Tassi, Enrico and Bennett, Eloise, Virginia Woolf Exhibition Book (Tate Publishing, 2018)

  Time Out Guide to Devon & Cornwall (Time Out Guides, 2012)

  White, Paul, Druids in the South-West? (Bossiney Books, 2017)

  White, Rupert, The Re-enchanted Landscape: Earth Mysteries, Paganism & Art in Cornwall 1950–2000 (Antenna Publications, 2017)

  Celia Fiennes & the West Country

  Fiennes, Celia, The Journeys of Celia Fiennes (Ed. Christopher Morris, Cresset Press, 1949)

  Douglass, Frederick, My Bondage and My Freedom (Penguin Books, 2003)

  Douglass, Frederick, The Portable Frederick Douglass (Penguin Books, 2016)

  Fiennes, Celia and Morris, Christopher, The Illustrated Journeys of Celia Fiennes (Michael Joseph, 1988)

  Gerald of Wales, Edith Somerville, Martin Ross & Wales

  Gerald of Wales, The Journey Through Wales/The Description of Wales (Trans. by Lewis Thorpe, Penguin Books, 1978)

  Somerville, E. Œ. and Ross, Martin, Beggars on Horseback: A Riding Tour in North Wales (out of print; William Blackwood & Sons, 1895)

  Collis, Maurice, Somerville & Ross: A Biography (Faber & Faber, 1968)

  Davies, John, A History of Wales (Penguin Books, 2007)

  Griffith, Wyn, The Welsh (Penguin Books, 1950)

  Jones, Gwyn and Ffowc Elis, Islwyn, Classic Welsh Short Stories (Oxford University Press, 1971)

  Kightly, Charles, A Mirror of Medieval Wales: Gerald of Wales and His Journey of 1188 (Cadw: Welsh Historic Monuments, 1988)

  Lewis, Gifford, Somerville and Ross: The World of the Irish R.M. (Viking, 1985)

  Lewis, Gifford (Ed.), The Selected Letters of Somerville and Ross (Faber & Faber, 1989)

  Rhys, John and Brynmor-Jones, David, The Welsh People (T. Fisher Unwin, 1906)

  Somerville, E. Œ. and Ross, Martin, The Irish R.M. Complete (Faber & Faber, 1928)

  Somerville, E. Œ. and Ross, Martin, The Real Charlotte (Capuchin Classics, 2011)

  Somerville, E. Œ. and Ross, Martin, Wheel-Tracks (Longmans, Green & Co., 1923)

  Williams, Gwyn A., When Was Wales? A History of the Welsh (Penguin Books, 1991)

  J. B. Priestley & Beryl Bainbridge, the Midlands, the North & Lincoln

  Bainbridge, Beryl, An Awfully Big Adventure (Duckworth, 1989)

  Bainbridge, Beryl, English Journey or The Road to Milton Keynes (Duckworth/BBC, 1984)

  Priestley, J. B., Bright Day (Penguin Books, 1946)

  Priestley, J. B., English Journey (William Heinemann, 1934)

  Cook, Judith, Priestley (Bloomsbury, 1997)

  Dicky Sam, Liverpool and Slavery: An Historical Account of the Liverpool–Africa Slave Trade (A. Bowker & Son, 1884)

  Gray, Dulcie, J. B. Priestley (Sutton Publishing, 2000)

  Hughes, Psiche, Beryl Bainbridge: Artist, Writer, Friend (Thames & Hudson, 2012)

  King, Brendan, Beryl Bainbridge: Love by All Sorts of Means (Bloomsbury, 2016)

  Priestley, J. B., Delight (William Heinemann, 1949; Great Northern Books, 2018)

  Priestley, J. B., Outcries and Asides (William Heinemann, 1974). Mustn’t grumble …

  Priestley, J. B., Rain Upon Gadshill (William Heinemann, 1941)

  Priestley, J. B., The Priestley Companion (Penguin Books, 1951)

  Scott, Walter Dixon, Liverpool 1907 (A. & C. Black, 1907)

  Charles Dickens & Wilkie Collins, the Lake District & the North

  If you don’t know Dickens, I would start with Great Expectations. Or maybe Oliver Twist, David Copperfield or Nicholas Nickleby. Probably not Pickwick Papers. Certainly not Our Mutual Friend. Bleak House is also a good introduction, although Esther is irritating and the tone is undeniably … bleak. If the size of the novels is daunting, perhaps try a ghost story. The Signalman, for instance, has some classic Dickensian railway action.

  Collins, Wilkie and Dickens, Charles, The Lazy Tour of Two Idle Apprentices (out of print; first published 1858)

  Ackroyd, Peter, Dickens (Vintage, 2002)

  Britton, John and Wedlake Brayley, Edward, The Beauties of England and Wales; or Delineations, Topographical, Historical, and Descriptive, of Each County, Vol. III (out of print; first published 1802)

  James, C. L. R., Be
yond a Boundary (Stanley Paul & Co., 1963; Serpent’s Tail, 1994)

  James, C. L. R., Cricket (Allison & Busby, 1986)

  Nayder, Lillian, Unequal Partners: Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, and Victorian Authorship (Cornell University Press, 2002)

  Slater, Michael, Charles Dickens (Yale University Press, 2011)

  Tomalin, Claire, Charles Dickens: A Life (Viking, 2011). Near definitive.

  Tomalin, Claire, The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens (Viking, 1990)

  Samuel Johnson & James Boswell, Scotland

  All you really need is Boswell’s Life of Johnson.

  Boswell, James, The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides

  Johnson, Samuel, A Journal to the Western Islands of Scotland (Penguin Books, 1984)

  Bainbridge, Beryl, According to Queeney (Little, Brown, 2001)

  Bone, Stephen, A Shell Guide to the West Coast of Scotland: Skye to Oban (B. T. Batsford, 1938)

  Boswell, James, Everybody’s Boswell: Being the Life of Samuel Johnson (G. Bell & Sons, 1935)

  Boswell, James, The Journals of James Boswell 1762–1795 (Yale University Press, 1991)

  Boswell, James, The London Journal 1762–1763 (William Heinemann, 1950)

  Delaney, Frank, A Walk to the Western Isles: After Boswell & Johnson (HarperCollins, 1994)

  Dunn, Douglas, Scotland: An Anthology (HarperCollins, 1991)

  Johnson, Samuel, The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abyssinia (Nonsuch Publishing, 2007)