William Matthew Scott
Encyclopedia
William Matthew Scott pen name Will Scott, was a British author of stories and books for adults and children, published from 1920 to 1965. Towards the end of his life he was best known for The Cherrys series, written for children and published between 1952 and 1965. However in earlier years he was known for his detective novels, his stage plays which were made into films, notably The Limping Man in 1931 and 1936, and for the 2,000 short stories that he contributed to magazines and newspapers; believed to be a record for the United Kingdom during his lifetime. As of 2011, his books are out of print.
, Yorkshire
on 30 September 1893. Camp Road was demolished in the 1960s. His place of birth was next to the poor Jewish immigrant area of tailors and shoemakers, called the Leylands, in the All Souls
district of Leeds. At least until 1911 Scott lived in the working-class areas of Little London
and Woodhouse
, next to Meanwood Beck
. The area has a history of poverty, and within living memory were the Woodhouse cholera
epidemic of the 1840s, and the typhoid
epidemic in nearby Headingley
of 1889. When Scott was born, the midden
s and ashpits which had nurtured the diseases were being replaced by communal water closets
. That meant that inhabitants of the back-to-backs
had to walk to the end of the row to use the lavatory or empty a chamber pot
but they would not catch cholera; communal outside lavatories and cobbled streets with washing lines
overhead persisted while Scott lived there. However it should be remembered that street communities were strong, public transport was efficient and good quality education and libraries were available for working people. All the addresses at which Scott lived in his youth were demolished in the early 1960s slum clearances to make way for new council estates
, but it should be remembered that many of these buildings were known to be repairable, so that "slum" was often a misnomer.
His father was William Scott, a joiner, born in Leeds in 1861. His mother was Eliza Anne (or Eliza Annie) Scott nee Hibbard, born in Nottinghamshire
in 1864. In 1891 the couple were living alone at 4 Clayfield Street in the All Souls
parish
of north Leeds
, and Eliza Anne was a tailoress. This street of Victorian back-to-backs ran between Cambridge Road and Ashfield Leather Works; the area is now a playing field. This tannery
would have been odiferous during smog
or to houses downwind of it; also the nearby Meanwood Beck
had in those days a history of industrial pollution. This may be the reason why William and Eliza Anne Scott took over the tobaconnist's from Samuel Cooper at 128 Camp Road in 1893 and their son was born there.
However the 1901 Census
records W.M. Scott aged seven years with his parents and no siblings close to the tannery again at 20 Stonefield Terrace, in the All Souls parish of north Leeds, Yorkshire
, and only four streets away from the Scotts' previous home in Clayfield Street. It was a four-room corner house in a back-to-back row on the corner with Cambridge Road. This was a street of back-to-back houses
, but is now a row of trees on a playing field. In the 1911 Census
he was aged 17 years, he had no siblings and he was a lithographic
artist apprentice, living with his parents in a back-to-back house at 49 Ganton Mount at Woodhouse, Leeds
; the street is now rebuilt as modern houses. In 1911 his father was a journeyman
joiner, and his mother a housewife. The 1911 census enumerator recorded that the house had eight rooms instead of the regular back-to-back four rooms, so no. 49 must have been a larger corner house.
So he was living in Herne Bay, Kent
by 1921, and he was already familiar with the area by 1925 when he published Disher, Detective, which has his detective's assistant discovering a black stamp washed up at Hampton. In 1928 he was at St Minver Cottage in Salisbury Drive. From 1929 to 1932 he was living at Crown Hill Cottage, West Cliff Drive. From 1933 to 1935 he lived at The Old Cottage, a 17th century listed building, at 125 Grand Drive. From 1935 to the end of his life he lived with his wife at Windermere in High View Avenue, at the top of Westcliff overlooking Hampton-on-Sea
. He was living there when he wrote Herne Bay Pageant in 1937, and all his children's books were written there from about 1951 to 1964. The surroundings of all his Kentish residences are reflected in the settings of his books: notably in Half-Term Trail, 1955, which was written at Windermere and is set in Herne Bay and Hampton. While he was living at Windermere he had grandchildren for whom he wrote The Cherrys series.
He was a private person, said to have "shunned the limelight". However he contributed to the life of Herne Bay by directing its amateur dramatic society The Mask Players from 1930 to 1940, and he wrote the 1939 Town Guide "in his own idiosyncratic way". He died of a stroke
at Nunnery Fields Hospital, Canterbury
, on 7 May 1964; his death certificate describes him as a journalist. He was cremated at Barham
Crematorium on 12 May 1964; his ashes were scattered in the grounds there, and there is no headstone or memorial. In 1998 the Herne Bay Gazette
said, "Mr Scott was a true citizen of Herne Bay who had not received due recognition."
obituary says that he began in London as a caricaturist
for the Performer magazine, drawing George Robey
, Wilkie Bard
, and Fred Kitchen from the film Old Mother Riley Overseas
. However he was already working as a caricaturist in Leeds by 1915 when he was twenty-one. He was briefly the art editor of Pan magazine in London, but then moved to Herne Bay to become a full-time writer. The dust jacket of the first edition of The Cherrys series says:
. On this occasion the entertainment consisted of variety sketches and turns, including and accompanied by "a breezy pianoforte selection". It also included a rare speech by Scott, who was known to "shun the limelight". The group was named after Scott's play, The Mask, its first play which opened on 28 March 1930 at the King's Hall and produced a £42 donation for a local charity. The Players regularly performed yearly Christmas pantomimes, the early ones starring a disguised Eileen Wilson as principal boy. It also functioned as a social club for the players, with garden parties at Beltinge. The Players continued to entertain at least until 1940, although other entertainment societies had to close; for example The Mask Players Girls performed a variety concert in aid of a wartime charity at St Johns Hall on 31 October 1940, charging 6d entry fee. By 1945 The Mask Players had disbanded due to war operations, and the group was succeeded by Theatrecraft.
and contributed many of these to the magazines Pan, 20-Story, The Passing Show, John Bull
, Illustrated, Everybody's Magazine
, John O' London's Weekly, London Opinion, The Humorist, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
and The Star
as well as The Strand Magazine and The Evening News to which he contributed 94 stories. His stories were also published in summer and Christmas annuals. The short, short stories tend to rely for effect on the audience's expectation being trumped by a clever twist at the end. Although the short stories are long out of print, one by Will Scott was reprinted in 1992, in The Folio Anthology of Humour, this being a reprint of a P.G. Wodehouse's A Century of Humour collections of 1935 and 1936.
holds a reference copy.
. The plot begins with a man suffering victimisation after inheriting an estate, and enlisting a detective to find out why. This play was a development of Scott's 1928 novel, Shadows. The play was revived onstage and made into two films: Creeping Shadows (1931) and The Limping Man (1936). This is not the same story as Frances D. Grierson's The Limping Man
(1924). The play went on tour and then debuted in London on Monday 19 January 1931 at the Royalty Theatre
, starring Franklin Dyall, Eve Gray, Miriam Lewes and Arthur Hardy. It was copyrighted in the same year as a play in three acts in the United States. The Times review was printed the following day. The Daily Express review said:
In 1935 The Limping Man was at the Phoenix Theatre
; by 1936 the play was at the Saville Theatre
, and produced by Arthur Hardy.
This stage play was filmed as His Wife's Mother (1932). In the plot, a man pretends to be his own double when he is seen with an actress by his mother-in-law.
on 13 and 14 May 1937. It consists of an introduction and six single-scene episodes showing how the town celebrated previous coronations and events, each representing eras of Herne Bay's history: 1821, 1831, 1838, 1902, 1911 and 1937. Some scenes reveal historical moments: for example the 1911 episode mentions fields laid out for development on Westcliff. Some of the scenes are humorous: for example the 1838 episode includes a light mockery of reactionary attitudes, showing an elderly resident worrying that the new clock tower is déclassé. The 1937 episode includes a parade of individuals carrying placards representing all the institutions, groups and societies of Herne Bay. The entire pageant promotes pride in Herne Bay through understanding of its development from a fishing village to a complex town and tourist attraction. Lawrence Noble, who took part in the pageant in 1937, recalled in 1998: "He was a shy and modest man. He wrote the pageant script, directed, assembled the cast and humoured and persuaded all the disparate elements. Will Scott loved Herne Bay."
review of May 1925 said: "The reader will be unusually thrilled by Mr Scott's brilliantly conceived story - really a little masterpiece of ingenuity." This is the first of three novels by Scott in which the hero is Disher: a fat and lazy detective who is given to spouting witty aphorism
s on the subject of contemporary society. The setting of the plot ranges from Seasalter
with its neighbouring north Kent
coastal towns and the Isle of Sheppey
, via London
and New York
to Canterbury
and Blean Woods
and back again to Seasalter. The story begins with the classic scenario of the locked room mystery
, and moves thence to the morality of worldwide contemporary politics. However, before the tale is halfway through, Scott puts into the mouth of his detective a suggestion that the tight detective fiction
genre of clues, detection and denouement is already exhausted by 1925:
holds two reference copies. The 1928 dust jacket is illustrated in art deco
style. It shows a bright orange silhouette of the haunted house on a hill against a grey sky with full moon, and below it are black shadows of trees on the base of the hill. At the top and bottom of this picture it says: "Disher solves another mystery / Shadows / by Will Scott / author of The Black Stamp". The dustjacket illustrates the fictional setting of the book at a grand and ancient house on a hill, called Tinker's Revel, described on page 12:
in Kent
. The novel is a mystery melodrama
featuring the detective Disher and written almost in the form of a screenplay
or stage play. Most of the characterisation and plot stem from the conversation, the description of the setting and the characters' movements which could be read as stage directions. As in a stage melodrama, almost all of the action takes place in one room, although there are one or two brief garden scenes. At the novel's dénouement on page 294 is possibly one of the earliest usages of the word, "happenings", employed loosely in the sense of prearranged events, here compared with the scandalous plays of the Naughty Nineties
: "These aren't the happenings for an old man to be dropped into. I got past this kind of thing in the 'nineties!"
holds a reference copy. In this whodunit
novel, private detective Will Disher is described as suave, plump, astute and bored, but Scotland Yard still asks him for help in solving the mystery. The plot begins with the masked-murderer scenario, this one being a toff
in evening dress. Much of the plot takes place in an English country house, and some of it is set in London, but the general setting is the marshland just south of Herne Bay
and Birchington in Kent
. Real local place names such as Maypole
, Whitstable
and Stodmarsh
are transmuted into fictional places with names such as the Hope Poles Inn, Winstonlea and Stodmere Farm, and a chase through countryside at night evokes the true atmosphere of the marshes around the rivers Stour
and Wantsum
with their dykes
or banked drainage trenches, twisting lanes and dark woods.
However this novel also offers glimpses of the area just before the beginning of the Great Depression
when many local farmers and innkeepers went bankrupt and their land was sold for very little to itinerant farm labourers, as happened at Shelvingford
and Marshside
. The character Wilks the farmer with his Kentish dialect
could be taken to represent the existing peasantry
in the area, as a contrast with the upper class in the novel's Georgian House. However it may be that Scott identifies with this character. The author's roots are after all in a poor suburb of Leeds; he began life speaking a Loiner
dialect; as a writer he identified with the observing-neighbour character Wilks in his Cherrys series, saying that "Wilks" was a half-synonym for the beginning of "Will Sc-ott".
There are moments in The Mask which capture this landscape just as it was changing from that of the horse to that of the motor car. The farmer Wilks still has a horse and cart. However the taxi driver was a ploughman fifteen years before, and the local smithy is now a garage and petrol station. The bus, the train and walking are still preferred methods of travel for the majority, though, and even the car-owning gentry at the Georgian House are familiar with public transport timetables.
holds no reference copy of this novel, but it does hold an American anthology of detective stories called Clues.
holds a reference copy.
's children's books. Numbers 1-12 in the series contain various pictorial maps of the stories' fictional settings, for example Market Cray and River House, on the end papers. These twelve books are illustrated throughout with black and white drawings. The stories are about a family of children whose middle-class parents, especially the father, play with them and encourage adventures, some of which are imaginary. The series is aimed at a reading age of about 10 years in the middle classes of the 1950s to 1960s era. Many of the stories are set in the fictional village of Market Cray, which may have some reference to St Mary Cray
, or even an indirect or hidden reference to St. Mary Mead
, the fictional home of Agatha Christie
's sleuth Miss Marple
. The characters are: Captain and Mrs Cherry; Jimmy Cherry; Jane Cherry; Roy Cherry; Pam Cherry; Mr Watson the monkey; Joseph the parrot; Mr and Mrs Wilks the neighbours; Sally Wilks; Mr Wilks’ brother from the Isle of Wight; Mr and Mrs. Pringle; Joe Pringle; Betty Pringle; Mrs. Pearl the cleaner from Marigold Cottages; Mr Mount the baker. The fictional father Captain Cherry is a retired explorer whose name may be a reference to Apsley Cherry-Garrard
.
to the end of the Windrush
, having a high old time". The story is about children who have happening
s "as they called their adventures", and this may be the first written example of the usage of the word, "happening" in this way. This book was published in French by Editions G. P. in 1962 under the title La famille Cherry de la maison sur la Riviere, translated by Genevieve Meker and illustrated in colour by Pierre Le Guen. Happenings: Their first happening; Through hostile territory; Treasure Island; If only we’re in time!; Nothing at all to do; Find me who can!; He must be somebody; Black Jack strikes again!; Clue upon clue; Unmasked!
, "The Cherrys are a lively, likeable family of four children, their mother and their father, a retired explorer, who thinks he likes a quiet life in the country, and is constantly inventing "Happenings" which keep the family on the move round the countryside in their old car". This book was published by American Book Company in 1962 in French under the title Les Cherry Et Compagnie; illustrated by Pierre Le Guen. Happenings: The games they get up to; Man in armour; Adventure on See-Saw Mountain; Disappearing trick; Black Jack Junior, Pirate; Kidnapped; Mystery of See-Saw Mountain; The Empty House; Little clue, big clue; Biggest clue of all.
. The stories start with a message in a bottle and end with a haunted sea front. It was published in French in 1963 by Rouge et Or Dauphine as Les Cherry au Bord de la Mer, illustrated by Pierre Le Guen. In 1970 it was published by Estudios Cor in Portuguese as Uma aventura na praia (A Familia Cherry). Happenings: The message in the bottle; The watch on the coast; On the trail of the Oozlum; Alone on a desert isle; Follow my leader; Look out for Smiths!; The slap-dash carnival; This way or that?; Seaside Christmas; The haunted sea front.
tree in a wood; written before the second wave of Dutch elm disease in 1967 caused most of these to be lost in the UK. There were 3 editions of the book in 1957-1973, including two impressions in 1957 and 1961. It was published in French in 1963 by Rouge et Or Dauphine as Les Cherry et la Double Fleche, illustrated by Pierre Le Guen. Happenings: This way to anywhere; The double arrow; Adventures of Jimmy's party; Adventures of Joe's party; Again and again; Roy in his own; Public notice; After him!; Strange disappearance of Mr Wilks; This way to the Bang Kwit.
entertainment at Hampton-on-Sea
near to Will Scott's home at Herne Bay. Happenings: Mr Wilks cries ‘Look!’; Mr. Nobody; Nothing but mysteries; The standstill race; The Society For Finding Things Out; Old sailor from over the water; Away they go; Smart work; The same-sounding words; The end if the trail.
companies at the time. Passengers paid for a day out at an unknown destination which could be a pleasant surprise but which sometimes brought them to their home area. Happenings: Keep your eyes open; The mystery of Mr Wotherspoon; The mystery of the pirate chief; Spik no English!; The great seaweed mystery; The writing in the sand; The mystery of the Jumping Jacks; The mystery of Neptune Island; Most mysterious of all; It’s a mystery!
and the Woozle
story in which Pooh and Piglet are following their own footprints. Happenings: Where has he got to?; To the rescue!; Strange tale from a stranger; Which way now?; Here’s your jungle!; Escape!; False trail; All meet at One-Tree Hill; Lost in the fog; Rescue!
holds a reference copy. In the winter of 1962–1963 there was an unusually thick snowfall and the surface of the sea froze along the shoreline close to Scott's house, Windermere, on Westcliff at Herne Bay. It is possible that this book was a response to that winter. Happenings: Nothing but nothing; Enter Mr. Misery; The start of a rumour; The search from end to end; You’d never guess!; "Keep him out of sight!"; Tell-tale trail; If only it works; Vanished!; Away again.
holds a reference copy. Happenings: First appearance of the blue balloon; What the littles thought; What the bigs thought; But what did the man think?; Watched; Where is Augustus?; The amazing truth; The light in the window; The night watch; Last appearance of the blue balloon.
holds a reference copy. It is set in a recognisable version of Herne Bay, Kent
and Hampton-on-Sea
. These are given the fictional names of Sandilands and West Bay respectively, and bear no resemblance to Sandilands in Lincolnshire
. Herne Bay's clock tower and adjoining public gardens appear in the story, as do Hampton-on-Sea's jetty, concrete shelter, the beach and the boating lake as it was in 1955. Swalecliffe Avenue appears in the story under the name of Matchbox Lane, and as of 2011 the area of scrub mentioned in the book still exists. Pleasant Cottage (later called Hampton Bungalow) in Swalecliffe Avenue appears in the story as Dilly Dally cottage in Matchbox Lane. Mary Willett's drawings within the book bear little or no resemblance to Herne Bay or Hampton-on-Sea, but the hand-drawn map at the end of the book - possibly by Will Scott - is clearly derived from OS
maps of Hampton-on-Sea. The endpapers-drawing shows an idealised Swalecliffe Avenue. Two names used in the story, Bottle and Sticky, may have been suggested by local Herne Bay names, although the characterisations are fictional. In the 1950s there was an antique shop in Herne Bay High Street called Len Pottle, and the caretaker at Hampton Primary School was Mr Stickels. Chapter headings: The Very Beginning; The Tuckers and the Tanners; Mystery!; And More Mystery!; The Knife; First Clue to Tim; Rings Round Dilly Dally; Surprises; Sticky's Story; The Chase Begins; Big Clue to Mary; The Trail of the Chalk Crosses; Tim Alone; Only One Missing; "I've got it!"; The Case is closed; Map of West Bay, Sandilands.
, which was still regularly played on BBC Home Service
radio in the 1950s. The song's lyrics describe the apparent low-class taste of a man clad in brown boots, but he is too modest to say that he has given his good black boots away to the poor; it is really a parable on the subject of unquestioning snobbery. An obvious clue not followed by the children is that the thief initially enters the shop asking for the previous Wednesday's newspaper. The book's publication in 1955 and the timing of the plot during the June half-term holiday possibly indicate the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act
of 6 June 1955
. If this is so, then the disagreeable man could be taken to be the author's characterisation of D. C. Thomson & Co., or its cartoonist Bill Holroyd, who published children's cartoons such as Jack Silver and His Dog Black. This cartoon was later lampooned by Viz
as Jack Black and his Dog Silver
. It is perhaps also significant in this context that the publication of Half-Term Trail in 1955 follows press commentary on the first few books of The Cherrys series, and that Scott did not like to be compared with Enid Blyton
. In Will Scott's story, the children pursue the brown-booted man unquestioningly, and they are described thus:
holds a reference copy. The book contains 13 coloured and black and white illustrations in the text, one frontispiece and a cover illustration, all by C. Clixby Watson, plus 4 coloured and black and white maps by Henry West and others. The dust-jacket summary says: "A wise old night-watchman convinced Dick, Mick and Henry that any unvisited place is uncharted territory – and that there was no need to climb Everest or track through dark jungles to enjoy the thrill of discovery. In fact, they found the tracing of an unnamed river to its source a most exciting adventure." The story is set near Newbury, Berkshire
. Chapters: 1. Somewhere – But Where? 2. The End of Somewhere; 3. The Beginning of Nowhere; 4. Several Questions; 5. The Second Camp; 6. The Relief Expedition; 7. The Rising at Million Bridges; 8. The Expedition Moves On; 9. The Last Camp; 10. Green Hat's Game; 11. No Time to Lose; 12. The Last Lap; 13. The Top of All; 14. Back to Somewhere.
Ancestry and youth
William Matthew Scott was born at 128 Camp Road (now Oatland Lane) in Little London, LeedsLittle London, Leeds
Little London, along with its adjacent areas Lovell Park and Blenheim, is an area of 1960s high-rise and maisonette council housing in inner-city north Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the city centre and Sheepscar....
, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
on 30 September 1893. Camp Road was demolished in the 1960s. His place of birth was next to the poor Jewish immigrant area of tailors and shoemakers, called the Leylands, in the All Souls
All Souls, Blackman Lane
All Souls' Church, Blackman Lane, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England is a large Victorian Church of England parish church.-History:All Souls Church was built by public subscription in one of the poorest districts of Leeds, the Leylands, as a memorial to Dr W. F. Hook, Vicar of Leeds for some 22...
district of Leeds. At least until 1911 Scott lived in the working-class areas of Little London
Little London, Leeds
Little London, along with its adjacent areas Lovell Park and Blenheim, is an area of 1960s high-rise and maisonette council housing in inner-city north Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, situated between the city centre and Sheepscar....
and Woodhouse
Woodhouse, Leeds
Woodhouse is a largely residential area just north of the city centre of Leeds and home to the University of Leeds. It is in the Hyde Park and Woodhouse ward of City of Leeds metropolitan district. It was described in 1853 as a "large and handsome village"...
, next to Meanwood Beck
Meanwood Beck
The Meanwood Beck is a stream in West Yorkshire, England, which flows through Adel, Meanwood and Sheepscar into the River Aire in central Leeds. In older texts it was sometimes referred to as the Sheepscar Beck, however that term has fallen out of use....
. The area has a history of poverty, and within living memory were the Woodhouse cholera
Cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
epidemic of the 1840s, and the typhoid
Typhoid fever
Typhoid fever, also known as Typhoid, is a common worldwide bacterial disease, transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with the feces of an infected person, which contain the bacterium Salmonella enterica, serovar Typhi...
epidemic in nearby Headingley
Headingley
Headingley is a suburb of Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It is approximately two miles out of the city centre, to the north west along the A660 road...
of 1889. When Scott was born, the midden
Midden
A midden, is an old dump for domestic waste which may consist of animal bone, human excrement, botanical material, vermin, shells, sherds, lithics , and other artifacts and ecofacts associated with past human occupation...
s and ashpits which had nurtured the diseases were being replaced by communal water closets
Flush toilet
A flush toilet is a toilet that disposes of human waste by using water to flush it through a drainpipe to another location. Flushing mechanisms are found more often on western toilets , but many squat toilets also are made for automated flushing...
. That meant that inhabitants of the back-to-backs
Back-to-back houses
Usually of low quality and high density, they were built for working class people and because three of the four walls of the house were shared with other buildings and therefore contained no doors or windows, back-to-back houses were notoriously ill-lit and poorly ventilated and sanitation was of...
had to walk to the end of the row to use the lavatory or empty a chamber pot
Chamber pot
A chamber pot is a bowl-shaped container with a handle, and often a lid, kept in the bedroom under a bed or in the cabinet of a nightstand and...
but they would not catch cholera; communal outside lavatories and cobbled streets with washing lines
Clothes line
A clothes line or washing line is any type of rope, cord, or twine that has been stretched between two points , outside or indoors, above the level of the ground. Clothing that has recently been washed is hung along the line to dry, using clothes pegs or clothes pins...
overhead persisted while Scott lived there. However it should be remembered that street communities were strong, public transport was efficient and good quality education and libraries were available for working people. All the addresses at which Scott lived in his youth were demolished in the early 1960s slum clearances to make way for new council estates
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
, but it should be remembered that many of these buildings were known to be repairable, so that "slum" was often a misnomer.
His father was William Scott, a joiner, born in Leeds in 1861. His mother was Eliza Anne (or Eliza Annie) Scott nee Hibbard, born in Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire
Nottinghamshire is a county in the East Midlands of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west...
in 1864. In 1891 the couple were living alone at 4 Clayfield Street in the All Souls
All Souls, Blackman Lane
All Souls' Church, Blackman Lane, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England is a large Victorian Church of England parish church.-History:All Souls Church was built by public subscription in one of the poorest districts of Leeds, the Leylands, as a memorial to Dr W. F. Hook, Vicar of Leeds for some 22...
parish
Parish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of north Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...
, and Eliza Anne was a tailoress. This street of Victorian back-to-backs ran between Cambridge Road and Ashfield Leather Works; the area is now a playing field. This tannery
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
would have been odiferous during smog
Smog
Smog is a type of air pollution; the word "smog" is a portmanteau of smoke and fog. Modern smog is a type of air pollution derived from vehicular emission from internal combustion engines and industrial fumes that react in the atmosphere with sunlight to form secondary pollutants that also combine...
or to houses downwind of it; also the nearby Meanwood Beck
Meanwood Beck
The Meanwood Beck is a stream in West Yorkshire, England, which flows through Adel, Meanwood and Sheepscar into the River Aire in central Leeds. In older texts it was sometimes referred to as the Sheepscar Beck, however that term has fallen out of use....
had in those days a history of industrial pollution. This may be the reason why William and Eliza Anne Scott took over the tobaconnist's from Samuel Cooper at 128 Camp Road in 1893 and their son was born there.
However the 1901 Census
United Kingdom Census 1901
A nationwide census was conducted in England and Wales on 31 March 1901. It contains records for 32 million people and 6 million houses, It covers the whole of England and Wales, with the exception of parts of Deal in Kent. Separate censuses were held in Scotland and Ireland...
records W.M. Scott aged seven years with his parents and no siblings close to the tannery again at 20 Stonefield Terrace, in the All Souls parish of north Leeds, Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
, and only four streets away from the Scotts' previous home in Clayfield Street. It was a four-room corner house in a back-to-back row on the corner with Cambridge Road. This was a street of back-to-back houses
Back-to-back houses
Usually of low quality and high density, they were built for working class people and because three of the four walls of the house were shared with other buildings and therefore contained no doors or windows, back-to-back houses were notoriously ill-lit and poorly ventilated and sanitation was of...
, but is now a row of trees on a playing field. In the 1911 Census
Census in the United Kingdom
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 and in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1921; simultaneous censuses were taken in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with...
he was aged 17 years, he had no siblings and he was a lithographic
Lithography
Lithography is a method for printing using a stone or a metal plate with a completely smooth surface...
artist apprentice, living with his parents in a back-to-back house at 49 Ganton Mount at Woodhouse, Leeds
Woodhouse, Leeds
Woodhouse is a largely residential area just north of the city centre of Leeds and home to the University of Leeds. It is in the Hyde Park and Woodhouse ward of City of Leeds metropolitan district. It was described in 1853 as a "large and handsome village"...
; the street is now rebuilt as modern houses. In 1911 his father was a journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
joiner, and his mother a housewife. The 1911 census enumerator recorded that the house had eight rooms instead of the regular back-to-back four rooms, so no. 49 must have been a larger corner house.
Adult life
His World War I services are not known, but a dozen William Scotts are recorded in the armed services at this time. In 1915 he married Lily Edmundson (born 19 August 1891) in Leeds Register Office; she was a tailoress and the daughter of George Edmundson, a machine fitter in 1891 and electrical engineer in 1915. Scott was at that time an artist and caricaturist, living at 79 Buslingthorpe Lane, Leeds; his mother was one of the witnesses at the wedding. They had two daughters: the first was Patricia Shirley born at 1 Highfield Terrace, Golder's Green on 28 September 1919 when Scott described himself as a black and white artist. The second was Marjory Sylvia born at St Edwards maternity home, Station Road, Herne Bay on 4 January 1921. At this point Scott was describing himself as a journalist and living at Roldale House, Selsea Avenue, Herne Bay.So he was living in Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
by 1921, and he was already familiar with the area by 1925 when he published Disher, Detective, which has his detective's assistant discovering a black stamp washed up at Hampton. In 1928 he was at St Minver Cottage in Salisbury Drive. From 1929 to 1932 he was living at Crown Hill Cottage, West Cliff Drive. From 1933 to 1935 he lived at The Old Cottage, a 17th century listed building, at 125 Grand Drive. From 1935 to the end of his life he lived with his wife at Windermere in High View Avenue, at the top of Westcliff overlooking Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea was a drowned and abandoned village in what is now the Hampton area of Herne Bay, Kent. It grew from a tiny fishing hamlet in 1864 at the hands of an oyster fishery company, was developed from 1879 by land agents, abandoned in 1916 and finally drowned due to coastal erosion by 1921...
. He was living there when he wrote Herne Bay Pageant in 1937, and all his children's books were written there from about 1951 to 1964. The surroundings of all his Kentish residences are reflected in the settings of his books: notably in Half-Term Trail, 1955, which was written at Windermere and is set in Herne Bay and Hampton. While he was living at Windermere he had grandchildren for whom he wrote The Cherrys series.
He was a private person, said to have "shunned the limelight". However he contributed to the life of Herne Bay by directing its amateur dramatic society The Mask Players from 1930 to 1940, and he wrote the 1939 Town Guide "in his own idiosyncratic way". He died of a stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
at Nunnery Fields Hospital, Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
, on 7 May 1964; his death certificate describes him as a journalist. He was cremated at Barham
Barham, Kent
Barham is a village and civil parish in the City of Canterbury district of Kent, England. It is situated close to the A2 road between Canterbury and Dover, 7 miles south-east of Canterbury and 7 miles north of Folkestone....
Crematorium on 12 May 1964; his ashes were scattered in the grounds there, and there is no headstone or memorial. In 1998 the Herne Bay Gazette
Kentish Gazette
The Kentish Gazette is a weekly newspaper serving the city of Canterbury, Kent. It is owned by the KM Group and is published on Thursdays.-History:The newspaper claims to be the second oldest surviving newspaper in the United Kingdom....
said, "Mr Scott was a true citizen of Herne Bay who had not received due recognition."
Career
His TimesThe Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
obituary says that he began in London as a caricaturist
Caricature
A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
for the Performer magazine, drawing George Robey
George Robey
Sir George Edward Wade , better known by his stage name, George Robey, was an English music hall comedian and star. He was marketed as the "Prime Minister of Mirth".-Early life:...
, Wilkie Bard
Wilkie Bard
Wilkie Bard was a popular vaudeville and music hall entertainer and recording artist at the beginning of the 20th century. He is best known for his songs "I Want to Sing in Opera" and "The Night Watchman." -Early life:Bard was born March 19, 1874 in Chorlton-cum-Hardy, Manchester, Lancashire...
, and Fred Kitchen from the film Old Mother Riley Overseas
Old Mother Riley Overseas
Old Mother Riley Overseas is a 1943 British comedy film directed by Oswald Mitchell and starring Arthur Lucan, Kitty McShane and Anthony Holles. Old Mother Riley relocates to Portugal.-Cast:* Arthur Lucan ... Mrs. Riley* Kitty McShane ... Kitty Riley...
. However he was already working as a caricaturist in Leeds by 1915 when he was twenty-one. He was briefly the art editor of Pan magazine in London, but then moved to Herne Bay to become a full-time writer. The dust jacket of the first edition of The Cherrys series says:
"After being a cartoonist, an art critic, an art editor and a drama critic, Will Scott settled down as a fiction writer. He has written over 2,000 short stories, which is believed to be a record for this country. When his own daughters were small he wrote plays and books, all for grown ups. It was grandchildren who turned his thoughts to books for young readers. He says they are 'the greatest fun in the world'".
Mask Players (The)
The Mask Players was the amateur Herne Bay drama group started for charity purposes by Edward Anstee in March 1930, with twelve or twenty-four founder members; this number had risen to 300 by 1935. Between 1930 and 1940, 673 people had contributed to the group and 176 acting members had taken part in 179 performances and two thousand rehearsals. There was a monthly show called "Green Room Night". Will Scott was involved with this society as director for most of its life. The group celebrated its tenth anniversary and 63rd green room night on 28 March 1940 at St John's Hall in Herne Bay, although the previous cast of hundreds had been whittled down to dozens by the warWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. On this occasion the entertainment consisted of variety sketches and turns, including and accompanied by "a breezy pianoforte selection". It also included a rare speech by Scott, who was known to "shun the limelight". The group was named after Scott's play, The Mask, its first play which opened on 28 March 1930 at the King's Hall and produced a £42 donation for a local charity. The Players regularly performed yearly Christmas pantomimes, the early ones starring a disguised Eileen Wilson as principal boy. It also functioned as a social club for the players, with garden parties at Beltinge. The Players continued to entertain at least until 1940, although other entertainment societies had to close; for example The Mask Players Girls performed a variety concert in aid of a wartime charity at St Johns Hall on 31 October 1940, charging 6d entry fee. By 1945 The Mask Players had disbanded due to war operations, and the group was succeeded by Theatrecraft.
Short stories
His first short story was published in 1920. He wrote over 2,000 stories; he specialised in the short, short storyFlash fiction
Flash fiction is a style of fictional literature or fiction of extreme brevity. There is no widely accepted definition of the length of the category...
and contributed many of these to the magazines Pan, 20-Story, The Passing Show, John Bull
John Bull (magazine)
John Bull Magazine was a weekly periodical established in the City, London EC4, by Theodore Hook in 1820.-Publication dates:It was a popular periodical that continued in production through 1824 and at least until 1957...
, Illustrated, Everybody's Magazine
Everybody's Magazine
Everybody's Magazine was an American magazine from 1899 to 1929.The magazine was founded by Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker in 1899, though he had little role in its actual operations....
, John O' London's Weekly, London Opinion, The Humorist, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine
Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine is an American monthly digest size fiction magazine specializing in crime fiction, particularly detective fiction...
and The Star
The Star (London)
The Star was a London evening newspaper founded in 1788.The first edition was printed on 3 May 1788 under the editorship of Peter Stuart. Founding sponsors of the new paper included publisher John Murray and William Lane of the Minerva Press...
as well as The Strand Magazine and The Evening News to which he contributed 94 stories. His stories were also published in summer and Christmas annuals. The short, short stories tend to rely for effect on the audience's expectation being trumped by a clever twist at the end. Although the short stories are long out of print, one by Will Scott was reprinted in 1992, in The Folio Anthology of Humour, this being a reprint of a P.G. Wodehouse's A Century of Humour collections of 1935 and 1936.
The Daily Express Cameo Tale series
The ninth story in the series was Will Scott's Old Bus, which appeared on 30 September 1930: a shaggy dog tale about twenty years in the life of a limousine. It is set in London, and in a fictional Sunnysands which may have been suggested by Herne Bay.Passing Show (The) Magazine
Where Men Are Men (1926) is a humorous tale about a henpecked husband. The Fingerprint (1926) is a detective story about an unsolved crime where the evidence consists of unusually large thumbprints. The Ten Year Smile (1927) is a murder mystery in which a felon explains why he is pleased with himself.Giglamps (1924)
In the title story of this collection of tales the detective is a tramp. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds a reference copy.
Plays
It has been said that "his real love was the theatre". He wrote comedies and thrillers for the stage.The Mask, performed 1930
It is not known whether this play was a development of his novel, The Mask (1929), or vice versa. It was the first play performed by The Mask Players at Herne Bay in 1930.The Limping Man, filmed 1931 and 1936
Will Scott's thriller drama, The Limping Man was called an "outstanding success", the character of Disher being expanded onstage by Franklin DyallFranklin Dyall
Franklin Dyall was an English actor.He appeared in 26 films between 1916 and 1948...
. The plot begins with a man suffering victimisation after inheriting an estate, and enlisting a detective to find out why. This play was a development of Scott's 1928 novel, Shadows. The play was revived onstage and made into two films: Creeping Shadows (1931) and The Limping Man (1936). This is not the same story as Frances D. Grierson's The Limping Man
The Limping Man
The Limping Man is a 1953 British film directed by Cy Endfield , starring American actor Lloyd Bridges and Cape Town born actress Moira Lister. The film was based on Anthony Verney's novel Death on the Tideway and was released in the U.S...
(1924). The play went on tour and then debuted in London on Monday 19 January 1931 at the Royalty Theatre
Royalty Theatre
The Royalty Theatre was a small London theatre situated at 73 Dean Street, Soho and opened on 25 May 1840 as Miss Kelly's Theatre and Dramatic School and finally closed to the public in 1938. The architect was Samuel Beazley, a resident in Soho Square, who also designed St James's Theatre, among...
, starring Franklin Dyall, Eve Gray, Miriam Lewes and Arthur Hardy. It was copyrighted in the same year as a play in three acts in the United States. The Times review was printed the following day. The Daily Express review said:
"Will Scott, an artist and author, has written in The Limping Man a comedy thriller which is far above the average if only for the reason that it contains at least a score of very amusing lines. There is a valuable Rembrandt, a Henry VIII mansion, mysterious footsteps, a bell that rings by itself, a suspicious-looking butler, Americans, a man murdered at the crossroads - all sorts of ingredients that would mix up into a stage mystery. The solution is by no means an obvious one. Franklin Dyall is a modern man of mystery - a being who wanders all over the globe solving crimes that baffle every one else. Arthur Hardy, who has been acting in this play on tour for some months, has some admirable lines as a fashionable physician . . . If The Limping Man had been produced two years ago I should have promised it a long run."
In 1935 The Limping Man was at the Phoenix Theatre
Phoenix Theatre (London)
The Phoenix Theatre is a West End theatre in the London Borough of Camden, located on Charing Cross Road . The entrance is in Phoenix Street....
; by 1936 the play was at the Saville Theatre
Saville Theatre
The Saville Theatre is a former West End theatre at 135 Shaftesbury Avenue in the City of Westminster. The theatre opened in 1931, and became a music venue during the 1960s, finally being converted to a cinema in 1970.-Theatre years:...
, and produced by Arthur Hardy.
His Wife's Mother, filmed 1932
The Umbrella Man, filmed 1937
This stage play was filmed as London by Night (1937); an atmospheric thriller in which a series of murders occurs in a foggy London square. However the plot of the film may differ from the original play, which is a comedy about crooks with jewellery hidden in an umbrella.Herne Bay Pageant, 1937
This is The Herne Bay Pageant In Celebration of the Coronation of their Majesties King George V1 and Queen Elizabeth which was written and directed by Will Scott for performance in Herne BayHerne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
on 13 and 14 May 1937. It consists of an introduction and six single-scene episodes showing how the town celebrated previous coronations and events, each representing eras of Herne Bay's history: 1821, 1831, 1838, 1902, 1911 and 1937. Some scenes reveal historical moments: for example the 1911 episode mentions fields laid out for development on Westcliff. Some of the scenes are humorous: for example the 1838 episode includes a light mockery of reactionary attitudes, showing an elderly resident worrying that the new clock tower is déclassé. The 1937 episode includes a parade of individuals carrying placards representing all the institutions, groups and societies of Herne Bay. The entire pageant promotes pride in Herne Bay through understanding of its development from a fishing village to a complex town and tourist attraction. Lawrence Noble, who took part in the pageant in 1937, recalled in 1998: "He was a shy and modest man. He wrote the pageant script, directed, assembled the cast and humoured and persuaded all the disparate elements. Will Scott loved Herne Bay."
Novels
Disher, Detective (1925) or The Black Stamp (1926)
Disher, Detective was the UK title. This book is dedicated to "my friend Albert Bailey". Two editions of The Black Stamp were produced in the United States in 1926. The book retailed at 7s 6d in the UK, and The Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
review of May 1925 said: "The reader will be unusually thrilled by Mr Scott's brilliantly conceived story - really a little masterpiece of ingenuity." This is the first of three novels by Scott in which the hero is Disher: a fat and lazy detective who is given to spouting witty aphorism
Aphorism
An aphorism is an original thought, spoken or written in a laconic and memorable form.The term was first used in the Aphorisms of Hippocrates...
s on the subject of contemporary society. The setting of the plot ranges from Seasalter
Seasalter
Seasalter is a village in the Canterbury District of Kent, England. It is located by the sea on the north coast of Kent, between the towns of Whitstable and Faversham, facing the Isle of Sheppey across the estuary of the River Swale...
with its neighbouring north Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
coastal towns and the Isle of Sheppey
Isle of Sheppey
The Isle of Sheppey is an island off the northern coast of Kent, England in the Thames Estuary, some to the east of London. It has an area of . The island forms part of the local government district of Swale...
, via London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
and Blean Woods
East Blean Woods
East Blean Woods is a National Nature Reserve south of Herne Bay in southeast England.The reserve covers 122 hectares of ancient semi-natural woodland situated on poorly drained London clay, with a small area of gravelly soil in the south. The underlying clay results in much surface water and mud...
and back again to Seasalter. The story begins with the classic scenario of the locked room mystery
Locked room mystery
The locked room mystery is a sub-genre of detective fiction in which a crime—almost always murder—is committed under apparently impossible circumstances. The crime in question typically involves a crime scene that no intruder could have entered or left, e.g., a locked room...
, and moves thence to the morality of worldwide contemporary politics. However, before the tale is halfway through, Scott puts into the mouth of his detective a suggestion that the tight detective fiction
Detective fiction
Detective fiction is a sub-genre of crime fiction and mystery fiction in which an investigator , either professional or amateur, investigates a crime, often murder.-In ancient literature:...
genre of clues, detection and denouement is already exhausted by 1925:
"Heaven is the place where the last chapter will be torn out of the finest story that ever will be written. And it is a heaven to me unattainable. Believe me, I never want to solve any of these so-called mysteries with which my name is associated. But I always do solve them. I can't help it. The greatest thing that my present career could hold for me would be a case that was utterly beyond my powers . . . if there were someone else who could do my job as well as I can do it, I'd drop it at once and go in for some inexact science that leads to nowhere and nothing. But there isn't."
Shadows (1928)
The 1928 Philadelphia edition is dedicated to "my friend W.A. Williamson, Skipper of the Good Ship Passing Show of London, who, also, thinks an Adventure in the Armchair is worth two in the Bush." Five editions were published 1928-1931 in English and German. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds two reference copies. The 1928 dust jacket is illustrated in art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
style. It shows a bright orange silhouette of the haunted house on a hill against a grey sky with full moon, and below it are black shadows of trees on the base of the hill. At the top and bottom of this picture it says: "Disher solves another mystery / Shadows / by Will Scott / author of The Black Stamp". The dustjacket illustrates the fictional setting of the book at a grand and ancient house on a hill, called Tinker's Revel, described on page 12:
"the Revel on its hill. . . Against a background of tall black trees the Revel stood up, a brilliant red silhouette, a haphazard collection of corners and gables and curly chimney-pots and stepped terraces . . ."This location may have been suggested by Castle Hill
Folkestone Downs
The Folkestone Downs are an area of chalk downland above Folkestone, where the eastern end of the North Downs escarpment meets the English Channel...
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. The novel is a mystery melodrama
Melodrama
The term melodrama refers to a dramatic work that exaggerates plot and characters in order to appeal to the emotions. It may also refer to the genre which includes such works, or to language, behavior, or events which resemble them...
featuring the detective Disher and written almost in the form of a screenplay
Screenplay
A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...
or stage play. Most of the characterisation and plot stem from the conversation, the description of the setting and the characters' movements which could be read as stage directions. As in a stage melodrama, almost all of the action takes place in one room, although there are one or two brief garden scenes. At the novel's dénouement on page 294 is possibly one of the earliest usages of the word, "happenings", employed loosely in the sense of prearranged events, here compared with the scandalous plays of the Naughty Nineties
Gay Nineties
Gay Nineties is an American nostalgic term that refers to the decade of the 1890s. It is known in the UK as the Naughty Nineties, and refers there to the decade of supposedly decadent art by Aubrey Beardsley, the witty plays and trial of Oscar Wilde, society scandals and the beginning of the...
: "These aren't the happenings for an old man to be dropped into. I got past this kind of thing in the 'nineties!"
The Mask (1929)
Three editions were published 1929-1931 in English and German. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds a reference copy. In this whodunit
Whodunit
A whodunit or whodunnit is a complex, plot-driven variety of the detective story in which the puzzle is the main feature of interest. The reader or viewer is provided with clues from which the identity of the perpetrator of the crime may be deduced before the solution is revealed in the final...
novel, private detective Will Disher is described as suave, plump, astute and bored, but Scotland Yard still asks him for help in solving the mystery. The plot begins with the masked-murderer scenario, this one being a toff
Toff
In British English slang, a toff is a mildly derogatory term for someone with an aristocratic background or belonging to the landed gentry, particularly someone who exudes an air of superiority...
in evening dress. Much of the plot takes place in an English country house, and some of it is set in London, but the general setting is the marshland just south of Herne Bay
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
and Birchington in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
. Real local place names such as Maypole
Hoath
Hoath is a village and civil parish situated within the City of Canterbury local government district. The hamlets of Knaves Ash, Maypole, Ford, Old Tree, Shelvingford and Stoney Acre are included in the parish.-Geography:...
, Whitstable
Whitstable
Whitstable is a seaside town in Northeast Kent, Southeast England. It is approximately north of the city of Canterbury and approximately west of the seaside town of Herne Bay. It is part of the City of Canterbury district and has a population of about 30,000.Whitstable is famous for its oysters,...
and Stodmarsh
Stodmarsh
Stodmarsh is a small village 5 miles to the east of Canterbury in east Kent, England, overlooking the valley of the River Stour.Stodmarsh is now part of the parish of Wickhambreaux...
are transmuted into fictional places with names such as the Hope Poles Inn, Winstonlea and Stodmere Farm, and a chase through countryside at night evokes the true atmosphere of the marshes around the rivers Stour
River Stour, Kent
The River Stour is the river in Kent, England that flows into the English Channel at Pegwell Bay. Above Plucks Gutter, where the Little Stour joins it, the river is normally known as the Great Stour. The upper section of the river, above its confluence with the East Stour at Ashford is sometimes...
and Wantsum
River Wantsum
The River Wantsum is a tributary of the River Stour, in Kent, England. Formerly, the River Wantsum and the River Stour together formed the Wantsum Channel, which separated the Isle of Thanet from the mainland of Kent...
with their dykes
Levee
A levee, levée, dike , embankment, floodbank or stopbank is an elongated naturally occurring ridge or artificially constructed fill or wall, which regulates water levels...
or banked drainage trenches, twisting lanes and dark woods.
However this novel also offers glimpses of the area just before the beginning of the Great Depression
Great Depression in the United Kingdom
The Great Depression in the United Kingdom, also known as the Great Slump, was a period of national economic downturn in the 1930s, which had its origins in the global Great Depression...
when many local farmers and innkeepers went bankrupt and their land was sold for very little to itinerant farm labourers, as happened at Shelvingford
Hoath
Hoath is a village and civil parish situated within the City of Canterbury local government district. The hamlets of Knaves Ash, Maypole, Ford, Old Tree, Shelvingford and Stoney Acre are included in the parish.-Geography:...
and Marshside
Marshside, Kent
Marshside is a hamlet in the English county of Kent.It is in the parish of Chislet alongside the Chislet Marshes southeast of Herne Bay....
. The character Wilks the farmer with his Kentish dialect
Kentish dialect
The Kentish dialect combines many features of other speech patterns, particularly those of East Anglia, The Southern Counties and London. Although there are audio examples available on the British Library website and BBC sources, its most distinctive features are in the lexicon rather than in...
could be taken to represent the existing peasantry
Tenant farmer
A tenant farmer is one who resides on and farms land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management; while tenant farmers contribute their labor along with at times varying...
in the area, as a contrast with the upper class in the novel's Georgian House. However it may be that Scott identifies with this character. The author's roots are after all in a poor suburb of Leeds; he began life speaking a Loiner
Loiner
-History:Natives of Leeds are known as Loiners and there are several theories as to the origin of the term but nobody can be certain where the word comes from.There are three competing theories....
dialect; as a writer he identified with the observing-neighbour character Wilks in his Cherrys series, saying that "Wilks" was a half-synonym for the beginning of "Will Sc-ott".
There are moments in The Mask which capture this landscape just as it was changing from that of the horse to that of the motor car. The farmer Wilks still has a horse and cart. However the taxi driver was a ploughman fifteen years before, and the local smithy is now a garage and petrol station. The bus, the train and walking are still preferred methods of travel for the majority, though, and even the car-owning gentry at the Georgian House are familiar with public transport timetables.
Clues (1929)
This is a puzzle-plot mystery. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds no reference copy of this novel, but it does hold an American anthology of detective stories called Clues.
The Man (1930)
A novel of 287 pages, published by Stanley Paul of London, 1930. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds a reference copy.
Children's books: The Cherrys series
The Cherrys series consists of 15 books, published from 1952 to 1965, the last being published after Will Scott died. Numbers 1-12 in the series were illustrated by Lilian Buchanan who also illustrated some of Enid BlytonEnid Blyton
Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
's children's books. Numbers 1-12 in the series contain various pictorial maps of the stories' fictional settings, for example Market Cray and River House, on the end papers. These twelve books are illustrated throughout with black and white drawings. The stories are about a family of children whose middle-class parents, especially the father, play with them and encourage adventures, some of which are imaginary. The series is aimed at a reading age of about 10 years in the middle classes of the 1950s to 1960s era. Many of the stories are set in the fictional village of Market Cray, which may have some reference to St Mary Cray
St Mary Cray
St Mary Cray lies on the River Cray and is part of the London Borough of Bromley. St Mary Cray, like St Paul's Cray, has been somewhat overshadowed by the growth of nearby Orpington, which now provides local communities with their main shopping and business facilities...
, or even an indirect or hidden reference to St. Mary Mead
St. Mary Mead
St. Mary Mead was the fictional village created by popular crime fiction author Dame Agatha Christie.The quaint, sleepy village was home to the renowned detective spinster Miss Jane Marple. The village was first mentioned in a Miss Marple book in 1930, when it was the setting for the first Marple...
, the fictional home of Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
's sleuth Miss Marple
Miss Marple
Jane Marple, usually referred to as Miss Marple, is a fictional character appearing in twelve of Agatha Christie's crime novels and in twenty short stories. Miss Marple is an elderly spinster who lives in the village of St. Mary Mead and acts as an amateur detective. She is one of the most famous...
. The characters are: Captain and Mrs Cherry; Jimmy Cherry; Jane Cherry; Roy Cherry; Pam Cherry; Mr Watson the monkey; Joseph the parrot; Mr and Mrs Wilks the neighbours; Sally Wilks; Mr Wilks’ brother from the Isle of Wight; Mr and Mrs. Pringle; Joe Pringle; Betty Pringle; Mrs. Pearl the cleaner from Marigold Cottages; Mr Mount the baker. The fictional father Captain Cherry is a retired explorer whose name may be a reference to Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Apsley Cherry-Garrard
Apsley George Benet Cherry-Garrard was an English explorer of Antarctica. He was a survivor of the Terra Nova Expedition and is acclaimed for his historical account of this expedition, The Worst Journey in the World....
.
First: The Cherrys of River House (1952)
The dedication says, "A book for Mike to remind him of the days when all of us - and Daisy's sister - dashed about, like The Cherrys themselves, all over the place, from the beginning of KentKent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
to the end of the Windrush
River Windrush
The River Windrush is a river in the English Cotswolds, forming part of the River Thames catchment.The Windrush starts in the Cotswold Hills in Gloucestershire northeast of Taddington, which is north of Guiting Power, Temple Guiting, Ford and Cutsdean...
, having a high old time". The story is about children who have happening
Happening
A happening is a performance, event or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. Happenings take place anywhere , are often multi-disciplinary, with a nonlinear narrative and the active participation of the audience...
s "as they called their adventures", and this may be the first written example of the usage of the word, "happening" in this way. This book was published in French by Editions G. P. in 1962 under the title La famille Cherry de la maison sur la Riviere, translated by Genevieve Meker and illustrated in colour by Pierre Le Guen. Happenings: Their first happening; Through hostile territory; Treasure Island; If only we’re in time!; Nothing at all to do; Find me who can!; He must be somebody; Black Jack strikes again!; Clue upon clue; Unmasked!
Second: The Cherrys and Company (1953)
This edition was reprinted four times, in 1953, 1956, 1957 and 1961. The dust jacket carries a quotation from The Times Literary SupplementThe Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
, "The Cherrys are a lively, likeable family of four children, their mother and their father, a retired explorer, who thinks he likes a quiet life in the country, and is constantly inventing "Happenings" which keep the family on the move round the countryside in their old car". This book was published by American Book Company in 1962 in French under the title Les Cherry Et Compagnie; illustrated by Pierre Le Guen. Happenings: The games they get up to; Man in armour; Adventure on See-Saw Mountain; Disappearing trick; Black Jack Junior, Pirate; Kidnapped; Mystery of See-Saw Mountain; The Empty House; Little clue, big clue; Biggest clue of all.
Third: The Cherrys by the Sea (1954)
The happenings or adventures take place at the fictional St Denis Bay which setting may be partly informed by Scott's residence at Herne BayHerne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
. The stories start with a message in a bottle and end with a haunted sea front. It was published in French in 1963 by Rouge et Or Dauphine as Les Cherry au Bord de la Mer, illustrated by Pierre Le Guen. In 1970 it was published by Estudios Cor in Portuguese as Uma aventura na praia (A Familia Cherry). Happenings: The message in the bottle; The watch on the coast; On the trail of the Oozlum; Alone on a desert isle; Follow my leader; Look out for Smiths!; The slap-dash carnival; This way or that?; Seaside Christmas; The haunted sea front.
Fourth: The Cherrys and the Pringles (1955)
The Cherry children are joined by their new friends, the Pringle children, and their father Captain invents happenings or adventures for them. Happenings: The great reception; Let it rain!; Mr. Pringle has a go; The Crocotosh; Early birds; The other house; The torn treasure chart; The battle Of Bigs And Littles; Let them have it!; I know where!Fifth: The Cherrys and the Galleon (1956)
An island becomes a make-believe galleon, with a pictorial map on the endpapers showing the island. Happenings: The get-on-with-its; The great cross-over; The well-I-never place; The seaside at home; The peculiar periscope; The famous think; The big idea; The big mystery; The big work; The big day. There could be literary references in these subtitles to ancient ideas of transition and perception.Sixth: The Cherrys and the Double Arrow (1957)
The story starts with Captain Cherry organising the children to find an elmElm
Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...
tree in a wood; written before the second wave of Dutch elm disease in 1967 caused most of these to be lost in the UK. There were 3 editions of the book in 1957-1973, including two impressions in 1957 and 1961. It was published in French in 1963 by Rouge et Or Dauphine as Les Cherry et la Double Fleche, illustrated by Pierre Le Guen. Happenings: This way to anywhere; The double arrow; Adventures of Jimmy's party; Adventures of Joe's party; Again and again; Roy in his own; Public notice; After him!; Strange disappearance of Mr Wilks; This way to the Bang Kwit.
Seventh: The Cherrys on Indoor Island (1958)
This is perhaps the definitive Cherrys series happening: a rainy day on which the interior of River House becomes an imaginary indoor island for the children, organised as an adventure for the children by their father Captain Cherry. Happenings: The wreck; The castaways; The cave; Exploring the jungle; Mountain rescue; The mysterious footprint; Yes, it’s pirates!; A sail! A sail!; But where can it be?; Buried treasure.Eighth: The Cherrys on Zigzag Trail (1959)
There were two impressions in 1959 and 1962. The story starts with a game of Silly Golf, which may have been informed by the crazy golfMiniature golf
Miniature golf, or minigolf, is a miniature version of the sport of golf. While the international sports organization World Minigolf Sport Federation prefers to use the name "minigolf", the general public in different countries has also many other names for the game: miniature golf, mini-golf,...
entertainment at Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea was a drowned and abandoned village in what is now the Hampton area of Herne Bay, Kent. It grew from a tiny fishing hamlet in 1864 at the hands of an oyster fishery company, was developed from 1879 by land agents, abandoned in 1916 and finally drowned due to coastal erosion by 1921...
near to Will Scott's home at Herne Bay. Happenings: Mr Wilks cries ‘Look!’; Mr. Nobody; Nothing but mysteries; The standstill race; The Society For Finding Things Out; Old sailor from over the water; Away they go; Smart work; The same-sounding words; The end if the trail.
Ninth: The Cherrys’ Mystery Holiday (1960)
One edition was published in English in 1960. The title may have been informed by the novelty of the mystery tours being run by coachCoach (vehicle)
A coach is a large motor vehicle, a type of bus, used for conveying passengers on excursions and on longer distance express coach scheduled transport between cities - or even between countries...
companies at the time. Passengers paid for a day out at an unknown destination which could be a pleasant surprise but which sometimes brought them to their home area. Happenings: Keep your eyes open; The mystery of Mr Wotherspoon; The mystery of the pirate chief; Spik no English!; The great seaweed mystery; The writing in the sand; The mystery of the Jumping Jacks; The mystery of Neptune Island; Most mysterious of all; It’s a mystery!
Tenth: The Cherrys and Silent Sam (1961)
This story is based on the mystery-man plot. Happenings: A very peculiar affair; He must be watched; Red hot news!; The next move; At it again; Caught!; What a surprise!; Then who is it?; I know who it is; Oh no, it isn’t!Eleventh: The Cherrys’ Famous Case (1962)
Two editions were published in 1962 and 1972, in English and another language. The story starts by examining the idea of clues and evidence. Happenings: The day that woke up; Missing!; The Home-made Police-Force; Hot on the trail; The footprint again; The light in the window; That third clue; Clue all the time; Action!; Portrait of the Queen.Twelfth: The Cherrys to the Rescue (1963)
It was published in English in 1963 and reprinted in 1970. This story is a follow-my-leader tracking game. The pictorial map on the endpapers has some reference to Winnie-the-PoohWinnie-the-Pooh
Winnie-the-Pooh, also called Pooh Bear, is a fictional anthropomorphic bear created by A. A. Milne. The first collection of stories about the character was the book Winnie-the-Pooh , and this was followed by The House at Pooh Corner...
and the Woozle
Woozle
A woozle is a fictional weasel-like creature mentioned in the Winnie the Pooh stories.No woozle illustrations appear in A. A...
story in which Pooh and Piglet are following their own footprints. Happenings: Where has he got to?; To the rescue!; Strange tale from a stranger; Which way now?; Here’s your jungle!; Escape!; False trail; All meet at One-Tree Hill; Lost in the fog; Rescue!
Thirteenth: The Cherrys in the Snow (1964)
It was published in English in 1964 and reprinted in 1970. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds a reference copy. In the winter of 1962–1963 there was an unusually thick snowfall and the surface of the sea froze along the shoreline close to Scott's house, Windermere, on Westcliff at Herne Bay. It is possible that this book was a response to that winter. Happenings: Nothing but nothing; Enter Mr. Misery; The start of a rumour; The search from end to end; You’d never guess!; "Keep him out of sight!"; Tell-tale trail; If only it works; Vanished!; Away again.
Fourteenth: The Cherrys and the Blue Balloon (1965)
A posthumous publication. The phrase, "last appearance" in the final chapter heading may be significant. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds a reference copy. Happenings: First appearance of the blue balloon; What the littles thought; What the bigs thought; But what did the man think?; Watched; Where is Augustus?; The amazing truth; The light in the window; The night watch; Last appearance of the blue balloon.
Half-Term Trail (1955)
This book is llustrated by Mary Willett. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds a reference copy. It is set in a recognisable version of Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay, Kent
Herne Bay is a seaside town in Kent, South East England, with a population of 35,188. On the south coast of the Thames Estuary, it is north of Canterbury and east of Whitstable. It neighbours the ancient villages of Herne and Reculver and is part of the City of Canterbury local government district...
and Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea
Hampton-on-Sea was a drowned and abandoned village in what is now the Hampton area of Herne Bay, Kent. It grew from a tiny fishing hamlet in 1864 at the hands of an oyster fishery company, was developed from 1879 by land agents, abandoned in 1916 and finally drowned due to coastal erosion by 1921...
. These are given the fictional names of Sandilands and West Bay respectively, and bear no resemblance to Sandilands in Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire
Lincolnshire is a county in the east of England. It borders Norfolk to the south east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south west, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire to the west, South Yorkshire to the north west, and the East Riding of Yorkshire to the north. It also borders...
. Herne Bay's clock tower and adjoining public gardens appear in the story, as do Hampton-on-Sea's jetty, concrete shelter, the beach and the boating lake as it was in 1955. Swalecliffe Avenue appears in the story under the name of Matchbox Lane, and as of 2011 the area of scrub mentioned in the book still exists. Pleasant Cottage (later called Hampton Bungalow) in Swalecliffe Avenue appears in the story as Dilly Dally cottage in Matchbox Lane. Mary Willett's drawings within the book bear little or no resemblance to Herne Bay or Hampton-on-Sea, but the hand-drawn map at the end of the book - possibly by Will Scott - is clearly derived from OS
Ordnance Survey
Ordnance Survey , an executive agency and non-ministerial government department of the Government of the United Kingdom, is the national mapping agency for Great Britain, producing maps of Great Britain , and one of the world's largest producers of maps.The name reflects its creation together with...
maps of Hampton-on-Sea. The endpapers-drawing shows an idealised Swalecliffe Avenue. Two names used in the story, Bottle and Sticky, may have been suggested by local Herne Bay names, although the characterisations are fictional. In the 1950s there was an antique shop in Herne Bay High Street called Len Pottle, and the caretaker at Hampton Primary School was Mr Stickels. Chapter headings: The Very Beginning; The Tuckers and the Tanners; Mystery!; And More Mystery!; The Knife; First Clue to Tim; Rings Round Dilly Dally; Surprises; Sticky's Story; The Chase Begins; Big Clue to Mary; The Trail of the Chalk Crosses; Tim Alone; Only One Missing; "I've got it!"; The Case is closed; Map of West Bay, Sandilands.
Commentary
The story follows the attempts of five children to clear the name of their friend Sticky by trailing and catching a homeless thief with disagreeable manners; a "ghastly type" to be identified by his brown boots. The boots are possibly a reference to the 1931 monologue Brahn Boots by Stanley HollowayStanley Holloway
Stanley Augustus Holloway, OBE was an English stage and film actor, comedian, singer, poet and monologist. He was famous for his comic and character roles on stage and screen, especially that of Alfred P. Doolittle in My Fair Lady...
, which was still regularly played on BBC Home Service
BBC Home Service
The BBC Home Service was a British national radio station which broadcast from 1939 until 1967.-Development:Between the 1920s and the outbreak of The Second World War, the BBC had developed two nationwide radio services, the BBC National Programme and the BBC Regional Programme...
radio in the 1950s. The song's lyrics describe the apparent low-class taste of a man clad in brown boots, but he is too modest to say that he has given his good black boots away to the poor; it is really a parable on the subject of unquestioning snobbery. An obvious clue not followed by the children is that the thief initially enters the shop asking for the previous Wednesday's newspaper. The book's publication in 1955 and the timing of the plot during the June half-term holiday possibly indicate the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act
Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955
The Children and Young Persons Act 1955 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom Parliament that prohibited comics that were thought to be harmful to children...
of 6 June 1955
1955 in the United Kingdom
Events from the year 1955 in the United Kingdom. The year is marked by changes of leadership for both principal political parties.-Incumbents:* Monarch – Elizabeth II* Prime Minister – Winston Churchill and Anthony Eden, Conservative Party-Events:...
. If this is so, then the disagreeable man could be taken to be the author's characterisation of D. C. Thomson & Co., or its cartoonist Bill Holroyd, who published children's cartoons such as Jack Silver and His Dog Black. This cartoon was later lampooned by Viz
Viz (comic)
Viz is a popular British comic magazine which has been running since 1979.The comic's style parodies British comics of the post-war period, notably The Beano and The Dandy, but with incongruous language, crude toilet humour, black comedy, surreal humour and either sexual or violent storylines...
as Jack Black and his Dog Silver
Jack Black (Viz)
Jack Black is a character appearing in the adult Viz comic. The cartoons in which he appears are currently drawn by Simon Ecob.Jack is effectively a young amateur detective who along with his dog Silver seems to spend an eternal school holiday staying with his Aunt Meg in an ever changing idyllic...
. It is perhaps also significant in this context that the publication of Half-Term Trail in 1955 follows press commentary on the first few books of The Cherrys series, and that Scott did not like to be compared with Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton
Enid Blyton was an English children's writer also known as Mary Pollock.Noted for numerous series of books based on recurring characters and designed for different age groups,her books have enjoyed huge success in many parts of the world, and have sold over 600 million copies.One of Blyton's most...
. In Will Scott's story, the children pursue the brown-booted man unquestioningly, and they are described thus:
The children douse the brown-booted man with red paint at the end; this could be understood as a symbolic killing as the paint is blood-coloured. We never find out what has driven him to steal or why he is bad-tempered. This aspect suggests that the apparently simple children's tale has a moral depth which is possibly intended to undermine its own plot and thus to bring into question the moral basis of some other children's detective tales of the era.
". . . and if you'd done something you shouldn't have done they were the last people you'd have liked to have looking at you. They looked really dangerous."
The Great Expedition (1962)
The author intended this to be the thirteenth in The Cherrys series, but the agent discouraged the idea of a thirteenth novel for children, and the new publisher declined to produce a matching cover for the previous series. The British LibraryBritish Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
holds a reference copy. The book contains 13 coloured and black and white illustrations in the text, one frontispiece and a cover illustration, all by C. Clixby Watson, plus 4 coloured and black and white maps by Henry West and others. The dust-jacket summary says: "A wise old night-watchman convinced Dick, Mick and Henry that any unvisited place is uncharted territory – and that there was no need to climb Everest or track through dark jungles to enjoy the thrill of discovery. In fact, they found the tracing of an unnamed river to its source a most exciting adventure." The story is set near Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury, Berkshire
Newbury is a civil parish and the principal town in the west of the county of Berkshire in England. It is situated on the River Kennet and the Kennet and Avon Canal, and has a town centre containing many 17th century buildings. Newbury is best known for its racecourse and the adjoining former USAF...
. Chapters: 1. Somewhere – But Where? 2. The End of Somewhere; 3. The Beginning of Nowhere; 4. Several Questions; 5. The Second Camp; 6. The Relief Expedition; 7. The Rising at Million Bridges; 8. The Expedition Moves On; 9. The Last Camp; 10. Green Hat's Game; 11. No Time to Lose; 12. The Last Lap; 13. The Top of All; 14. Back to Somewhere.
External links
- Webpage listing short stories by Will Scott and the magazines they appeared in
- The British Library (holds reference copies of all Will Scott's children's books and most of the novels: see listings above)