Rayner Heppenstall
Encyclopedia
John Rayner Heppenstall (27 July 1911 in Lockwood, Huddersfield
, Yorkshire, England – 23 May 1981 in Deal, Kent
, England) was a British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC
radio producer.
, where he read English and Modern Languages, graduating in 1932. He had a brief teaching career, in Dagenham
.
Coming to London in 1934, he rapidly made initial contacts in the literary world. A short study Middleton Murry: A Study in Excellent Normality (1934) brought him for a time into John Middleton Murry
's Adelphi commune at "The Oaks", where in 1935 he worked as a cook. In 1935, also, he met Dylan Thomas
, sent to meet him by Sir Richard Rees of the Adelphi
magazine. In short order he became a Catholic convert, and married Margaret Edwards in 1937. In the mid-1930s he was influenced by Eric Gill
.
He was a friend of George Orwell
, encountered also in 1935 through Thomas and Rees, and later wrote about him in his memoir Four Absentees. Heppenstall, Orwell and the Irish poet Michael Sayers shared a flat, in Lawford Road, Camden. Heppenstall once came home drunk and noisy, and when Orwell emerged from his bedroom and asked him to pipe down, Heppenstall took a swing at him. Orwell then beat him up with a shooting-stick, and the following morning told him to move out. Friendship was restored, but after Orwell's death, Heppenstall wrote an account of the incident called The Shooting-Stick.
During World War II, he was in the British Army, but with a Pay Corps posting at Reading
, close enough to remain in touch with literary Fitzrovia
. He was also posted to Northern Ireland.
award. He was Francophile in literary terms, and his non-fiction writing reflects his tastes.
Critical attention has linked him to the French nouveau roman
, in fact as an anticipator, or as a writer of the "anti-novel". Several critics (including, according to his diaries, Hélène Cixous
) have named Heppenstall in this connection. He is sometimes therefore grouped with Alain Robbe-Grillet
, or associated with other British experimentalists: Anthony Burgess
, Alan Burns
, Angela Carter
, B. S. Johnson
, Ann Quin
, Stefan Themerson
and Eva Figes
. The Connecting Door (1962) is singled out as influenced by the nouveau roman.
He was certainly influenced by Raymond Roussel
, whose Impressions of Africa he translated. Later novels include The Shearers, Two Moons and The Pier. He also wrote a short study of the French Catholic writer Léon Bloy
(Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes, 1953).
in 1947.
In his journals, Heppenstall mentions problems he had with Evelyn Waugh
regarding a radio broadcast in the 1940s. Waugh apparently felt that Heppenstall purposely insulted him when he was sent to take him to the broadcast.
Lockwood, Huddersfield
Lockwood is an area of Huddersfield, in the Metropolitan Borough of Kirklees, West Yorkshire, England. It is to the southwest of Huddersfield Town Centre, to the west of the River Holme....
, Yorkshire, England – 23 May 1981 in Deal, Kent
Deal, Kent
Deal is a town in Kent England. It lies on the English Channel eight miles north-east of Dover and eight miles south of Ramsgate. It is a former fishing, mining and garrison town...
, England) was a British novelist, poet, diarist, and a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
radio producer.
Early life
He was a student at the University of LeedsUniversity of Leeds
The University of Leeds is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...
, where he read English and Modern Languages, graduating in 1932. He had a brief teaching career, in Dagenham
Dagenham
Dagenham is a large suburb in East London, forming the eastern part of the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham and located east of Charing Cross. It was historically an agrarian village in the county of Essex and remained mostly undeveloped until 1921 when the London County Council began...
.
Coming to London in 1934, he rapidly made initial contacts in the literary world. A short study Middleton Murry: A Study in Excellent Normality (1934) brought him for a time into John Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry
John Middleton Murry was an English writer. He was prolific, producing more than 60 books and thousands of essays and reviews on literature, social issues, politics, and religion during his lifetime...
's Adelphi commune at "The Oaks", where in 1935 he worked as a cook. In 1935, also, he met Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
, sent to meet him by Sir Richard Rees of the Adelphi
Adelphi (magazine)
The Adelphi or New Adelphi was an English literary journal published between 1923 and 1955.founded by John Middleton Murry. The first issue appeared in June 1922, with issues published monthly thereafter. Between August 1927 and September 1930 it was renamed the New Adelphi and issued quarterly...
magazine. In short order he became a Catholic convert, and married Margaret Edwards in 1937. In the mid-1930s he was influenced by Eric Gill
Eric Gill
Arthur Eric Rowton Gill was a British sculptor, typeface designer, stonecutter and printmaker, who was associated with the Arts and Crafts movement...
.
He was a friend of George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
, encountered also in 1935 through Thomas and Rees, and later wrote about him in his memoir Four Absentees. Heppenstall, Orwell and the Irish poet Michael Sayers shared a flat, in Lawford Road, Camden. Heppenstall once came home drunk and noisy, and when Orwell emerged from his bedroom and asked him to pipe down, Heppenstall took a swing at him. Orwell then beat him up with a shooting-stick, and the following morning told him to move out. Friendship was restored, but after Orwell's death, Heppenstall wrote an account of the incident called The Shooting-Stick.
During World War II, he was in the British Army, but with a Pay Corps posting at Reading
Reading, Berkshire
Reading is a large town and unitary authority area in England. It is located in the Thames Valley at the confluence of the River Thames and River Kennet, and on both the Great Western Main Line railway and the M4 motorway, some west of London....
, close enough to remain in touch with literary Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia
Fitzrovia is a neighbourhood in central London, near London's West End lying partly in the London Borough of Camden and partly in the City of Westminster ; and situated between Marylebone and Bloomsbury and north of Soho. It is characterised by its mixed-use of residential, business, retail,...
. He was also posted to Northern Ireland.
Novelist
Heppenstall's first novel The Blaze of Noon (1939), was neglected at the time. Much later, in 1967, it received an Arts CouncilArts council
An arts council is a government or private, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting the arts mainly by funding local artists, awarding prizes, and organizing events at home and abroad...
award. He was Francophile in literary terms, and his non-fiction writing reflects his tastes.
Critical attention has linked him to the French nouveau roman
Nouveau roman
The nouveau roman is a type of 1950s French novel that diverged from classical literary genres. Émile Henriot coined the title in an article in the popular French newspaper Le Monde on May 22, 1957 to describe certain writers who experimented with style in each novel, creating an essentially new...
, in fact as an anticipator, or as a writer of the "anti-novel". Several critics (including, according to his diaries, Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous
Hélène Cixous is a professor, French feminist writer, poet, playwright, philosopher, literary critic and rhetorician. She holds honorary degrees from Queen's University and the University of Alberta in Canada; University College Dublin in Ireland; the University of York and University College...
) have named Heppenstall in this connection. He is sometimes therefore grouped with Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet
Alain Robbe-Grillet , was a French writer and filmmaker. He was, along with Nathalie Sarraute, Michel Butor and Claude Simon, one of the figures most associated with the Nouveau Roman trend. Alain Robbe-Grillet was elected a member of the Académie française on March 25, 2004, succeeding Maurice...
, or associated with other British experimentalists: Anthony Burgess
Anthony Burgess
John Burgess Wilson – who published under the pen name Anthony Burgess – was an English author, poet, playwright, composer, linguist, translator and critic. The dystopian satire A Clockwork Orange is Burgess's most famous novel, though he dismissed it as one of his lesser works...
, Alan Burns
Alan Burns
Professor Alan Burns FREng FIET FBCS SMIEEE CEng is a professor in the Computer Science Department at the University of York, England. He has been at the University of York since 1990, and held the post of Head of Department from 1999 until 30 June 2006, when he was succeeded by John McDermid.He is...
, Angela Carter
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
, B. S. Johnson
B. S. Johnson
B. S. Johnson was an English experimental novelist, poet, literary critic, producer of television programmes and film-maker.-Biography:...
, Ann Quin
Ann quin
Ann Quin was a British writer noted for her experimental style. The author of Berg , Three , Passages and Tripticks , she committed suicide in 1973 at the age of 37, the same year as B.S. Johnson...
, Stefan Themerson
Stefan Themerson
Stefan Themerson was a Polish, later British poet, novelist, film-maker, composer and philosopher.-Early life:Stefan Themerson was born in Płock in what was then the Russian Empire on 25 January 1910 and died in London on 6 September 1988....
and Eva Figes
Eva Figes
Eva Figes is an English author.Figes has written novels, literary criticism, studies of feminism, and vivid memoirs relating to her Berlin childhood and later experiences as a Jewish refugee from Hitler's Germany. She arrived in Britain in 1939 with her parents and a younger brother...
. The Connecting Door (1962) is singled out as influenced by the nouveau roman.
He was certainly influenced by Raymond Roussel
Raymond Roussel
Raymond Roussel was a French poet, novelist, playwright, musician, and chess enthusiast. Through his novels, poems, and plays he exerted a profound influence on certain groups within 20th century French literature, including the Surrealists, Oulipo, and the authors of the nouveau...
, whose Impressions of Africa he translated. Later novels include The Shearers, Two Moons and The Pier. He also wrote a short study of the French Catholic writer Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy
Léon Bloy , was a French novelist, essayist, pamphleteer and poet.-Biography:Bloy was born in Notre-Dame-de-Sanilhac, in the arondissement of Périgueux, Dordogne. He was the second of six sons of Voltairean freethinker and stern disciplinarian Jean Baptiste Bloy and his wife Anne-Marie Carreau,...
(Cambridge: Bowes & Bowes, 1953).
Radio work
From 1945 to 1965, he worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation on radio as a feature writer and producer, and then for two further years as a drama producer. One of his early adaptations was of Orwell's Animal FarmAnimal Farm
Animal Farm is an allegorical novella by George Orwell published in England on 17 August 1945. According to Orwell, the book reflects events leading up to and during the Stalin era before World War II...
in 1947.
In his journals, Heppenstall mentions problems he had with Evelyn Waugh
Evelyn Waugh
Arthur Evelyn St. John Waugh , known as Evelyn Waugh, was an English writer of novels, travel books and biographies. He was also a prolific journalist and reviewer...
regarding a radio broadcast in the 1940s. Waugh apparently felt that Heppenstall purposely insulted him when he was sent to take him to the broadcast.
Works
- Middleton Murry: A Study in Excellent Normality (1934)
- First Poems (1935)
- Apology for Dancing (1936) ballet
- Sebastian: New Poetry (1937)
- Poems (1938) with Lawrence DurrellLawrence DurrellLawrence George Durrell was an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer, though he resisted affiliation with Britain and preferred to be considered cosmopolitan...
, Ruthven ToddRuthven ToddRuthven Campbell Todd was a Scottish poet, artist and novelist, best known as an editor of the works of William Blake. He wrote also under the pseudonym R. T. Campbell.-Background:...
, Patrick EvansPatrick EvansPatrick Evans is a Church of England clergyman. He trained originally to become a solicitor and then worked in marketing and sales management, before training for ordination at Lincoln Theological College and becoming Vicar of St Mildred's, Tenterden and Area Dean of West Charing.He then became...
, Edgar FoxallEdgar FoxallEdgar Foxall was an English poet whose work features in one of the Penguin poetry anthologies, Poetry of the Thirties . Though notable for caustic political commentary and acute social observation, the natural world is a strong recurrent theme throughout his work.Born near Ellesmere Port on...
, and Oswell BlakestonOswell BlakestonOswell Blakeston was the pseudonym of Henry Joseph Hasslacher , a British writer and artist who also worked in the film industry, made some experimental films, and wrote extensively on film theory... - The Blaze of Noon (1939) novel
- Blind Men's Flowers Are Green (1940) poetry
- Saturnine (1943) novel, reissued as The Greater Infortune (1960)
- Poems, 1933–1945 (poems) (1946)
- The Double Image: Mutations of Christian Mythology in the Work of Four French Catholic Writers of To-Day and Yesterday (1947)
- Imaginary Conversations: Eight Radio Scripts (1948)
- Three Tales of Hamlet (1950) with Michael Innes
- The Lesser Infortune (1953) novel
- Léon Bloy (1953)
- My Bit of Dylan Thomas (1957)
- Architecture of Truth: The Cistercian Abbey of Le Thoronnet in Provence (1957)
- Four Absentees: Dylan Thomas, George Orwell, Eric Gill, J. Middleton Murry (1960)
- The Fourfold Tradition: Notes On the French And English Literatures, with Some Ethnological And Historical Asides (1961)
- The Woodshed (1962)
- The Connecting Door (1962)
- The Intellectual Part: An Autobiography (1963)
- Raymond Roussel: A Critical Study (1966)
- The Shearers (1969)
- A Little Pattern of French Crime (1969)
- Portrait of the Artist as a Professional Man (1969)
- French Crime in the Romantic Age (1970)
- Bluebeard and After: Three Decades of Murder in France (1972)
- The Sex War and Others: Survey of Recent Murder, Principally in France (1973)
- Reflections on the "Newgate Calendar" (1975)
- Two Moons (1977)
- Tales from the "Newgate Calendar" (1981)
- Master Eccentric: Journals, 1969–81 (1986)
- The Pier (1986)
Critical studies
- Buckell, G.J. (2007). Heppenstall – A Critical Study (DAP). ISBN 1-56478-471-1 : ISBN 978-1-56478-471-1
External links
- Dalkey Archive Press on Heppenstall's life and works
- 3:AM Magazine on Heppenstall
- Heppenstall on imdb.com
- Jonathan Goodman (ed.), The Master Eccentric: The Journals of Rayner Heppenstall, 1969–1981 (London and New York, Allison & Busby, c1986), 278p. ISBN 0-85031-536-0