Biography
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (March 13, 1884 - June 1, 1941) was an English novelist.
He was born in Auckland in New Zealand and educated in England at the King's School, Canterbury and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He worked as a teacher before turning to writing full time. His first novel was The Wooden Horse (1909), with Fortitude (1913) his first great success. He worked for the Red Cross in Russia during World War I, experiences which fed his The Dark Forest (1916) and The Secret City (1919). The latter won the inaugural James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Walpole lived at Brackenburn Lodge on the slopes of Catbells in the Lake District from 1924 to his death. Here he wrote many of his best known works including the family saga The Herries Chronicle, comprising Rogue Herries (1930), Judith Paris (1931), The Fortress (1932) and Vanessa (1933). Another Herries story, The Church in the Snow, was published in The Queen's Book of the Red Cross. Farthing Hall (1929) was produced in collaboration with J.B. Priestley.
Walpole's work was very popular, and brought him great financial rewards. He was a prolific worker who embraced a variety of genres. These included: short stories; school novels (Mr Perrin and Mr Traill, 1911 and the Jeremy trilogy) that delve deep into the psychology of boyhood; gothic horror novels (Portrait of a Man with Red Hair, 1925 and The Killer & The Slain, 1942); biographies (of Joseph Conrad in 1916, James Branch Cabell in 1920 and Anthony Trollope in 1928); plays and the screenplay for the George Cukor-directed David Copperfield (1935). He was also a member of the Detection Club and contributed to the 1930 BBC serial by members of that body, Behind the Screen, published in 1983 as The Scoop and Behind the Screen.
He was knighted in 1937. He died while doing volunteer war work in 1941.
Walpole was a key member of the exclusive homosexual coterie in 1930s London, which included Noel Coward and Ivor Novello. W. H. Auden visited him in the 1930s.
Trivia
Hugh Walpole, and his book Rogue Herries, were mentioned in passing in the Monty Python's Flying Circus "Cheese Shop Sketch". In the version included on the Monty Python DVD (which is the originally televised version) - he is referred to erroneously, as 'Horace Walpole' (no relation). The version in the Instant Record Collection refers to him correctly.
For quiz related to this personality visit squareroot
- J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM (born 13 September 1894, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, died 14 August 1984, Warwickshire) was an English writer and broadcaster. Career Priestley was born in what he described as an "ultra-respectable" suburb of Bradford....
- Thomas Gray
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Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (August 27, 1899 ? April 2, 1966), an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure with military themes. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series,...
- Noel Coward
Early life Born in Teddington, Middlesex, England to a middle-class family, he was the second of a family of three sons (the eldest of whom died in 1898 at the age of six) of Arthur Sabin Coward (1856?1937), a clerk, and his wife, Violet Agnes (1863?1954),...
- Agatha Christie
Biography A plaque from the Agatha Christie Mile at Torre Abbey in Torquay.Agatha Christie was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in Torquay, Devon, to an American father and an English mother. She never claimed United States citizenship. Her father...
Biography
Hugh Walpole
Sir Hugh Seymour Walpole (March 13, 1884 - June 1, 1941) was an English novelist.
He was born in Auckland in New Zealand and educated in England at the King's School, Canterbury and at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He worked as a teacher before turning to writing full time. His first novel was The Wooden Horse (1909), with Fortitude (1913) his first great success. He worked for the Red Cross in Russia during World War I, experiences which fed his The Dark Forest (1916) and The Secret City (1919). The latter won the inaugural James Tait Black Memorial Prize.
Walpole lived at Brackenburn Lodge on the slopes of Catbells in the Lake District from 1924 to his death. Here he wrote many of his best known works including the family saga The Herries Chronicle, comprising Rogue Herries (1930), Judith Paris (1931), The Fortress (1932) and Vanessa (1933). Another Herries story, The Church in the Snow, was published in The Queen's Book of the Red Cross. Farthing Hall (1929) was produced in collaboration with J.B. Priestley.
Walpole's work was very popular, and brought him great financial rewards. He was a prolific worker who embraced a variety of genres. These included: short stories; school novels (Mr Perrin and Mr Traill, 1911 and the Jeremy trilogy) that delve deep into the psychology of boyhood; gothic horror novels (Portrait of a Man with Red Hair, 1925 and The Killer & The Slain, 1942); biographies (of Joseph Conrad in 1916, James Branch Cabell in 1920 and Anthony Trollope in 1928); plays and the screenplay for the George Cukor-directed David Copperfield (1935). He was also a member of the Detection Club and contributed to the 1930 BBC serial by members of that body, Behind the Screen, published in 1983 as The Scoop and Behind the Screen.
He was knighted in 1937. He died while doing volunteer war work in 1941.
Walpole was a key member of the exclusive homosexual coterie in 1930s London, which included Noel Coward and Ivor Novello. W. H. Auden visited him in the 1930s.
Trivia
Hugh Walpole, and his book Rogue Herries, were mentioned in passing in the Monty Python's Flying Circus "Cheese Shop Sketch". In the version included on the Monty Python DVD (which is the originally televised version) - he is referred to erroneously, as 'Horace Walpole' (no relation). The version in the Instant Record Collection refers to him correctly.
For quiz related to this personality visit squareroot
- J. B. Priestley
John Boynton Priestley, OM (born 13 September 1894, Bradford, West Riding of Yorkshire, died 14 August 1984, Warwickshire) was an English writer and broadcaster. Career Priestley was born in what he described as an "ultra-respectable" suburb of Bradford....
- Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray (December 26, 1716 ? July 30, 1771), was an English poet, classical scholar and professor of Cambridge University. He was born in Cornhill, London, the son of an exchange broker and a milliner. He was the fifth of eight children and the only...
- C. S. Forester
Cecil Scott Forester was the pen name of Cecil Louis Troughton Smith (August 27, 1899 ? April 2, 1966), an English novelist who rose to fame with tales of adventure with military themes. His most notable works were the 11-book Horatio Hornblower series,...
- Noel Coward
Early life Born in Teddington, Middlesex, England to a middle-class family, he was the second of a family of three sons (the eldest of whom died in 1898 at the age of six) of Arthur Sabin Coward (1856?1937), a clerk, and his wife, Violet Agnes (1863?1954),...
- Agatha Christie
Biography A plaque from the Agatha Christie Mile at Torre Abbey in Torquay.Agatha Christie was born as Agatha Mary Clarissa Miller in Torquay, Devon, to an American father and an English mother. She never claimed United States citizenship. Her father...