Timeline of Chiswick Writers and Books Now Totals Nearly 350
The search is now on for the local road which can boast the most writers
The Chiswick Book Festival 2018
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Over 90 more names have been added to the Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books, the literary archive launched a
year ago by the Chiswick Book Festival. Around 350 published writers are now known to have lived in Chiswick W4,
or written about the area, seven months after the Observer wrote that “Chiswick may be Britain’s most literary
location”.
New names posted, in the third phase of the archive, include classical guitarist Julian Bream; Pete Townshend and
John Entwistle of The Who; Midge Ure of Ultravox; DJ Pete Murray and singer/ gardening writer Kim Wilde, who
were both born in Chiswick; chef Rick Stein; theatre critic Michael Billington; impresario Sir Charles (CB) Cochrane;
actor-manager Sir Nigel Playfair; actors Fenella Fielding, Donald Pleasence and Rachel Kempson; director Vicky
Ireland; dancer Wayne Sleep; wallpaper designer Marthe Armitage; Holocaust survivor and bridge champion Martin
Hoffman; cricketer Patsy Hendren; former MP Leo Abse; and General Sir Michael Rose. Their names are listed by subject under Non-fiction or in Novels, Plays and Poems.
James O Brien at the Festival
New names from the 17th Century include Sir John Denham, who is buried at Poets Corner in Westminster Abbey and appears in Warwick Draper’s classic history, Chiswick. Sir John was born in 1615 which makes him the oldest name on the timeline. The novelist Samuel Richardson, who was born in 1689 and wrote Pamela and Clarissa, is now on the list too. See Chiswick Timeline of Writers Year by Year.
“We’re grateful to many local residents for their suggestions and we’ve also been checking other archives to fill some gaps” said Torin Douglas, director of the Chiswick Book Festival. “A year after the Timeline was launched, we’ve reached around 350 names and I think we’re near the final total.”
Julian Bream was identified as a former Chiswick resident by Simon Francis, one of several people who responded to an appeal for suggestions. The information was confirmed in the Daily Telegraph property pages. Simon also suggested Lord Robert Skidelsky (“lived in Chiswick briefly in 1976-8 but moved to somewhere in Bloomsbury”); Edward Robert Kelly (1817-1896), proprietor of Kelly’s Directories, who lived in The Cedars in Burlington Lane; Sandra Lousada, a distinguished photographer, who has published and illustrated several books; Ralph Edwards who was head of furniture at the V&A and wrote books on furniture; and Clive and Ann Bingley,
publishers.
Susan Stanley-Carroll, known to many parents and pupils at Chiswick & Bedford Park Preparatory School as an inspiring English teacher, suggested several names, including Helena Coggan and Isabella Hammad. Helena published her first novel The Catalyst at the age of 15 and at the age of 20 has published two more. Isabella’s first novel The Parisian came out this year, to acclaim in the New York Times and elsewhere. Susan encouraged both authors and appears on the Timeline in her own right, under her penname Susan M. Stanley. Other authors under the age of 30 on the list include the Young Adult novelists Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison and playwright Sophie Swithinbank, who is writer in residence at the Bodleian Library in Oxford.
Several authors came to the list via this year’s Chiswick Book Festival, including Marthe Armitage, Joan Smith, Peter Hanington (who went to Chiswick School), Professor Robert Hewison, Dr Sara Lodge and some who spoke at the local authors party: Kristina Bill, Jerramy Fine, Dr Josephine Perry, Maggy Pigott, Clare Cassy, Annette Duckworth and Martin Godleman.
“Marthe Armitage has lived and worked by the river in Chiswick for most of her life” Douglas said. “Her new book, The Making of Marthe Armitage, Artist and Patternmaker, was launched at this year’s Festival and her ‘Chiswick House’ wallpaper is displayed on the Chiswick Timeline mural, which inspired the Timeline of Writers and Books.”
The Guardian’s theatre critic Michael Billington, who also lives locally, is the biographer of Harold Pinter, who wrote The Caretaker when he was living in a flat in Chiswick High Road. Pinter is one of Chiswick’s two winners of the Nobel Prize for Literature, and one of 21 great playwrights, poets and novelists featured on the Chiswick Timeline ‘Writers Trail’ map.
“Michael Billington and Harold Pinter are part of Chiswick’s great theatrical heritage, which we recently highlighted to mark the Tabard Theatre’s relaunch as the Chiswick Playhouse” said Douglas.
“I knew there were distinguished writers with W4 connections, and famous residents who’d written their memoirs, as well as less well-known authors, poets and dramatists. But I never suspected we’d find 175 – let alone 350!”
The Festival is now asking local residents for help in finding the roads with the most writers. This relates to former residents, not current, for privacy reasons. These will be listed on a new page: ‘Chiswick Timeline of Writers: Road by Road’. If you have suggestions for this - or for other names and stories to be included on the Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books - please email: admin@chiswickbookfestival.net.
Early front-runners include Strand on the Green, where residents have been catalogued by the Brentford & Chiswick Local History Society and Chiswick Mall, featured on the Panorama of the Thames project, including Walpole House, home to several notable writers.
The 12th Chiswick Book Festival will take place from September 11th to 15th 2020.
Writers By Subject
November 6, 2019
