Warwick Deeping

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Does anyone have any information on the War service of the author, Warwick Deeping. He was one of the most popular and prolific authors of the first half of the last century - his best known novel being Sorrell & Son. He studied medicine before the War and served in the RAMC. I’ve just bought a copy of his novel, No Hero - This, from 1936 which tells of a doctor’s War service, so probably based on his own experiences. Can’t find anything else online.

[busterfield]

According to his obituary in the BMJ

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25356959?seq=1

He reached Major and served in Gallipoli, Egypt, and France.

[Dust Jacket Collector]

11 minutes ago, busterfield said:

According to his obituary in the BMJ

https://www.jstor.org/stable/25356959?seq=1

He reached Major and served in Gallipoli, Egypt, and France.

Thanks, Busterfield, that’s perfect. I think he used that experience in several of his books.

[Guest]

Well, here he is:

 

 

     He has an entry  on the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, which can be accessed in most of the UK with your local municipal library ticket.  I think his most successful work "Sorrell and Son" was on TV a few years back- again, about a doctor shaped by the war and also probably semi-autobiographical.  The ODNB entry for him says:

 

"Deeping had joined the Royal Army Medical Corps in April 1915; he saw active service in the Gallipoli campaign, and afterwards in Egypt, France, and Belgium. He stated later: 'The war, as a great human experience, launched me on deeper seas. Inevitably Sorrell and Son was a product of the war. One realized that a nice culture was less important than courage and character'

[Dust Jacket Collector]

Thanks. He looks a jolly decent chap. Looking through his bibliography there are several titles that could be War related. I may have to start collecting him!

[Guest]

2 hours ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

I may have to start collecting him!

 

    Anything Great War related- except Biggles      (The old adage "Try everything once except sodomy and Morris Dancing can,therefore be dated to before 1932-the first appearance of B. in "The Camels are Coming"-otherwise it would be "Try everything once except sodomy or Morris Dancing (Choose ONE) and Biggles")

 

    Collecting Great War related Warwick Deeping novels should not be expensive- until Harrington become aware of your interest. For that matter, fictionalised accounts of the Great War-with heavy autobiographical undertones may well be a worthwhile collecting area- it still seems a "Cinderella" compared to the factual stuff,though,of course, still very under-researched. We can all laugh at Blackadder- "the blood, the horror, the endless poetry...." but I suppose with Great War fiction the main problem is getting past the endless Lit.Crit. industry

[rolt968]

A really useless piece of information. But I can't resist. He is a character in Michael Frayn's (alas) little known play, Balmoral. (I confess to knowing very little about him.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balmoral_(play)

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/fraynm/balmoral.htm

RM

Edited 16 November , 2020 by rolt968

[Guest]

7 minutes ago, rolt968 said:

A really useless piece of information. But I can't resist. He is a character in Michael Frayn's (alas) little known play, Balmoral. (I confess to knowing very little about him.)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balmoral_(play)

http://www.complete-review.com/reviews/fraynm/balmoral.htm

RM

 

    And he came from Southend- which is probably more surreal and farcical than even "Balmoral"

[Dust Jacket Collector]

 

    Anything Great War related- except Biggles      (The old adage "Try everything once except sodomy and Morris Dancing can,therefore be dated to before 1932-the first appearance of B. in "The Camels are Coming"-otherwise it would be "Try everything once except sodomy or Morris Dancing (Choose ONE) and Biggles")

 

    Collecting Great War related Warwick Deeping novels should not be expensive- until Harrington become aware of your interest. For that matter, fictionalised accounts of the Great War-with heavy autobiographical undertones may well be a worthwhile collecting area- it still seems a "Cinderella" compared to the factual stuff,though,of course, still very under-researched. We can all laugh at Blackadder- "the blood, the horror, the endless poetry...." but I suppose with Great War fiction the main problem is getting past the endless Lit.Crit. industry

‘Anything Great War related’ just about sums up my collecting areas. I’ve always included novels as many soldiers thinly disguised their memoirs as fiction but inevitably I’ve embraced all War themed novels from between the Wars (extended, with discretion, to allow in Henry Williamson - the old fa****t).

Never actually read any Biggles, as a youngster I read Eric Leyland. But if I chanced upon a jacketed group of the early ones for a fiver I’d probably let them in.

[Guest]

21 minutes ago, Dust Jacket Collector said:

But if I chanced upon a jacketed group of the early ones for a fiver I’d probably let them in.

 

       You would probably be badly injured in the rush.....   My erstwhile colleagues can be a tad robust in their pursuit of the bargain.......  public school educations and "issue points",etc go out the window- their elbows are sharp and their shoe leather even more robust. ("Oxfords Sir?  Very long lasting when kicking the plebs...")