FORTUNE PRESS WRITERS : TERENCE GREENIDGE : 1902-1970

 

Waugh people at Lundy Island in 1925. Pictured from left to right are Olivia, Gwen and David Plunket-Greene and  Terence Greenidge

FORTUNE PRESS WRITERS ON FRIDAY

Terence Lucy Greenidge (1902–1970)

Poet, novelist, playwright, film-maker and actor. A native of Oxford and product of Rugby Public School. He was a close friend and contemporary of Evelyn Waugh at Oxford. and was a founding member of the infamous Hypocrites Club. He collaborated with Waugh in producing “ The Scarlet Woman: An Ecclesiastical Melodrama” a silent movie of note. More on this if you Google it.

Among the works by Greenidge published by Fortune Press are:

The Magnificent. A story without a moral (Fortune Press, 1933)

Brass and Paint: A Patriotic Story (Fortune Press, 1934)

Tinpot Country: A story of England in the Dark Ages (Fortune Press, 1937)

Philip and the Dictator. A romantic story (Fortune Press, [1938])

Girls and Stations, etc. [Poems.] (Fortune Press, [1952])

See Timothy D’Arch Smith 243-247

Greenidge’s first two novels were seized and banned by the powers that be. Police confiscated “ The Magnificent” and “Brass and Paint” under the Obscene Publications Act of 1857. Both books were destroyed. However, RA Caton at Fortune Press, failed to comply with the destruction order and a handful of copies were still available for several years. All of Greenidge’s titles are now very hard to find.

Terence’s first publication was "Degenerate Oxford" (1930) , this is a curious defence of the varsity of youth. One copy is currently on sale on Abe Books for £250. Will would be most happy to accept it as an early Xmas present.

As an actor Greenidge was occasionally seen in the West End of London shows and overseas and regional tours organized by the British Council and playing Shakespeare at Stratford. On film he appeared in Larry Olivier’s production of “Richard III”.

Famously, as a protest Greenidge withheld paying his income tax for 10 years, citing the BBC payments systems to actors as “ mean and cruel”. He was later declared bankrupt.

Greenidge married but exact details of his wife ( Nora ) are sparse.

A remarkable and recent summary of Terence Greenidge’s life and his mental health struggles, deliciously written by Hannah Minton, can be gleaned on this web link. A MUST READ!

https://substack.com/home/post/p-156712472

WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

CONTACT WILL FOR MORE INFORMATION

williecross@aol.com

 

 

Fortune Press Writers : Hugh Ulric Swinscow Nisbet ( or Nisbit)

 

Fortune Press Writers

Hugh Ulric Swinscow Nisbet ( or Nisbit)

1897-1987

Author of Fortune Press title " SPREAD NO WINGS"

Nisbet for a writer and scholar.

A determined sleuth in search of the identity of the person to whom William Shakespeare dedicated the intriguing “ Sonnets”, concluding that the bard's dedicatee was one William Herbert, a member of the Earl of Powis’s lineage. [ The debate there still rages.]

Fortune Press published Nisbet’s novel “Spread No Wings” ( 1937).

A curious tale of a marriage.

See Timothy D’Arch Smith 401

Among Nisbet’s other works are:

Thoughts on the purpose of art (1934),) “ Old school tie: recollections of Marlborough before the First World War” (1964). Under the pseudonym Hugh Callaway he published “The onlie begetter”(1936), “ Bridge to world man” (1960), “Super-sense: a beginning” (1967) and “The new consciousness (alternative to chaos)” (1971).

He married the American artist Christine Bacheler (1902-1991)

They settled in Salcombe, Devon.

WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

CONTACT WILL FOR MORE INFORMATION

williecross@aol.com

 

 

 

FORTUNE PRESS WRITERS ON FRIDAY : NICHOLAS MOORE: 1918–1986

 

FORTUNE PRESS WRITERS ON FRIDAY

A short glance by William Cross, FSA Scot

Nicholas Moore

1918–1986

Publisher, Author, Editor, Poet, and Jazz Man.

‘Expansive, Eloquent, Self-conscious’ and Life-Affirming’ says Mark Ford.

Moore was a remarkable and eccentric fellow with a sizable poetry output and much input into the 1940s New Apocalyptics movement. From his schooldays Moore wrote poetry every day and submitted it to various magazines. During his years as an undergraduate at St Andrews and Cambridge Universities, Moore began his own literary review, “Seven”, working there as both editor and co-founder. After his graduation he continued to live in Cambridge, publishing pamphlets as part of the famous “Poetry London” imprint sweeping in the works of Dylan Thomas, George Scurfield, G S Fraser and Anne Ridler. His later collaborators included well known literary figures of the day including John Bayliss, Douglas Newton. Wallace Stevens Alfred Perlès, Julian. Maclaren-Ross, Conrad Aiken, Lawrence Durrell, Christopher Fry Henry Miller,. Saul Bellow, Paul Goodman, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Allen Tate.

Nicholas Moore, pictured above, with his book " The Island and the Cattle" holds a ubiquitous presence in the annals of the Fortune Press volumes including acting as the editor of several important anthologies:

MOORE’S FORTUNE PRESS TITLES INCLUDE

“The New Apocalypse: An Anthology of Criticism, Poems and Stories”

Fortune Press. 1940

“ The Island and the Cattle”

Fortune Press. 1941

“ A Wish In Season”

Fortune Press. 1941

“The Fortune Anthology - Stories, Criticism and Poems.”

Fortune Press. 1942

“The Cabaret, the Dancer, the Gentleman”

Fortune Press. 1942

“Thirty-five anonymous odes”

Fortune Press. 1944

“New Poetry”

Fortune Press. 1944

Design front cover is by Lucien Freud

NB Moore’s “ The Glass Tower”, ( Published by Nicholas & Watson), a selected poems collection from 1944, also appeared with illustrations by the young painter, Lucian Freud – it is a very much sought after and expensive work.

“Atlantic Anthology: New Voices”

Fortune Press, 1945

Moore also wrote as Guy Kelly

“The War of the Little Jersey Cows

Fortune Press, 1945

See Timothy D’Arch Smith 14, 22, 23, 26, 29, 325, 391-393

One contemporary comments that Moore “ faded into obscurity through a series of misfortunes and mysterious circumstances.” Another adds "Amid the scrambled history of neo-modernist revivals, the case for rediscovering Nicholas Moore recurs. Although prominent in the 1940s, Moore was subsequently neglected. Interest revived, along with new publications, in the late 1960s and early 1970s."

Many of his poems are addressed to his first wife Priscilla Craig, with others dedicated to jazz musicians. Moore had a shambolic, nomadic and chaoic home life over several decades from the late 1940s, into the 1950s, with a mixture of family deaths, poverty, martial and work bumps and serious publishing failures, he was also in very poor health, disabled and ultimately, despite some clever attempts aimed to bounce back, he was left in bits, failed and lost. A very sad epitaph to a natural born poet and an imaginative mind.

The Island and the Cattle

Because he sent a head of cattle on

Further than they should go, over the dykes,

Driving them with a switch and a dog beside him:

They sank in the quag, and he,

Frightened because of his sin, disappeared,

Never to be noticed again in that country:

Because he told them, in a letter,

That it was not his fault, he had gone mad,

Driven towards the sea by a vision of birds

Who whistled over his head in the wind,

Leading to a qujet island. He found a girl there,

Lay with her in the rushes, her beauty

Like a star being too much for him.

The wind rose, the morning was grey, his vision gone:

There was no girl, there were no cattle, and it was day.

—Nicholas Moore

Questions/ enquiries etc - contact Will by email

williecross@aol.com

150th ANNIVERSARY OF THE BIRTH OF ALMINA, COUNTESS OF CARNARVON

 

THE MANY FACES OF ALMINA CARNARVON

SUBJECT OF TWO BIOGRAPHIES

Today, 14 April 2026, is the 150^th anniversary of the birth of Almina Wombwell, later 5^th Countess of Carnarvon, chatelaine for almost 30 years of Highclere Castle, famous as the backdrop to film and TV’s Downton Abbey.

There are  two biographies of the extraordinary Almina, my book “ The Life and Secrets of Almina Carnarvon”, and  “Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey”, from Highclere’s stable.

The two works are polls apart in terms of sources used, in content and the years covered. The books stack up for closer scrutiny and integrity. One book was produced under the auspices of a worldwide kingdom of a major publishing house, whilst the other was compiled single-handed over three years, by me,  an experienced historical researcher, antiquarian and a Fellow of the Antiquaries of Scotland.

I was refused access to the Herbert family sources at its stately home at Highclere and the files hidden and forbidden that lie within the Archives of Highclere Castle, Hampshire, England, a place now a veritable shrine, an iconic a structure that television has turned into a glorified biscuit- tin image in adverts and programme breaks.

My book is  culled from devouring everything almost ever written about Almina and her first husband, George Herbert,  the 5th Earl of Carnarvon, the famed discoverer, with Howard Carter of Tutankhamun.

That assault course involved delving into numerous British, European and American Archives, The Royal Archives at Windsor Castle, the Rothschild Archives, London, the National Archives at Kew and the British Library among them- as well as papers and diaries held in private hands.

Testimonies were gathered far and wide from many people who knew Almina, or knew about her. This was an epic process which began long before television, press or public made Highclere a universal phallus. Importantly,  my book draws on the personal testimony about Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon from her late godson, Anthony ( Tony ) Leadbetter ( 1938-2019). Tony actually lived with Almina for almost thirty years of her very long, colourful life.  His Aunt Alice Butler and his mother, Anne Leadbetter, were Almina's housekeepers from 1935 until 1969. If anyone knows what Almina was like it is Tony Leadbetter. There is no one in the Herbert family who has this experience of living under the same roof,  for the same duration with Almina over a number of the decades of life, and now, reliably, lovingly  recalling her voice, her memories and from a time when she was finally free at last to speak out candidly and frankly about her life and about those she knew, and loved and some whom she hated.

A writer and a publisher should always strive for indisputable accuracy and objectivity. The unvarnished truth about Almina, 5th Countess of Carnarvon is much too big to be suppressed, and that's why one of these books about her whole life, not a half life, half told, but all her life, told with a sense for seeking out the truth, will endure, with integrity, as her definitive biography, whilst the other will surely only be a minor accompaniment to a highly overrated television fiction.

The Life Secrets of Almina Carnarvon, Third Edition, is still available on ebay .

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/204794598968

For further details please contact William Cross, by e-mail, williecross@aol.com

William Cross, FSA Scot

14 April 2026, Newport, South Wales

Charlie Cross - Our Dear Brother 1955-1995

 

 CHARLIE CROSS : BORN 1 APRIL 1955:  DIED 18 JUNE 1995

 Our dear brother Charlie Cross would have been 71 today.

He was born at the William Smellie Maternity Hospital, Lanark, on 1 April 1955,  to John and  Daisy Cross,  a second son.­

Our Mother said that " he was like a leopard " when born, covered in spots, owing to some blood disorder.

My first memory of  my brother Charlie is seeing him in his pram with a pretty white hat, made of cotton, tied round his neck in a bow.­ He was just so tiny, and he cried a lot.­ It must have been his first or second summer and my third or fourth.­

Daily ( our  Mother)  got us ready to go out. I was expected to walk, reigns attached.­ I couldn't grasp who this other little chap was, but soon got used to him.

 Our Mother took us out regularly down the Wishaw Low Road. ­Another favourite jaunt was down the High Road, towards the Calder Water and Swinstie, where there were always a nest of swans. ­

Somehow, I remember the sun was always shining, the pavements were hot to walk on, the tar on the roads even melted sometimes. There was also a peacefulness in the air.­ The traffic was lighter and slower, the Calder Water was clean and free of smells and effluent. ­This was a 50s childhood, in a small village in Lanarkshire where coal and iron ore mining had been the principal occupation for over a hundred years.

Charlie had a reputation as a singer and his rendering of old gospel hymns was very moving.­ As a party piece he did a marvellous take on  Zena Zavaroni  " Ma, he's makin' eyes at me..." We did try a few duets together, we disappeared at the seaside to make a record in one of the record booths that were popular in the 60s & we repeated our " Someone " in later years, at New Year parties, in London.

Charlie had the chance to go to agricultural college when he was 11, it was regretted later that he did not go there. ­As_it was he transferred from Cleland and Omoa JS School  to Coltness High School and ended up leaving school at 16, in 1971.­ He joined our father then, who had started his own central heating business in 1970, and the running joke for years was that Charlie was the very oldest_apprentice in Scotland. ­The two of them became inseparable as Oil Heat Services Lanarkshire.­They didn't always agree and much­ of their work was dirty and spent out in all weathers.­ But they were both good engineers and very reliable.

Charlie looked forward to his weekends off and this was spent in the company of a small crowd.­ Saturday night was club night, for years with best pal, Frank Keenan. ­He developed a  very skilful singing  act on the clubs circuit, taking the micky out of TV adverts& helped raise money for many good causes.

­Dear Charlie suffered a great deal through his long illness after kidney failure, and the dialysis  ordeal took its toll. ­But, he could be amusing & witty & sometimes impossible,  but always brave. Charlie remained close to our brother Keir, they had been in the house together with our parents after I left Scotland in 1972.­ Keir moved South in 1983, but they had memories and experiences that I didn't share and they both had a interest in sport, both played together in the Bellside football  Team, usually overseen by Bellside weans. Charlie, like Keir was a good goalie.

 ­He had a rigorous regime of having to attend the Royal Infirmary in Glasgow three times a week, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, he ­was on a dialysis machine for   5 hours at each visit and he­ did this for 8 years. In between he had numerous operations and repairs including two horrendous, failed kidney transplants. Charlie’s life was full of illnesses. He  died on 18 June 1995, aged 40.

There is a good word for Charlie that sticks in my mind and it was in fact the word used by Rev Mr Wilson, of Cleland Parish Church, to sum him up  in his  funeral address.­ That word is EXTROVERT.

He is still very much loved  and missed.

Happy Birthday, Charlie.

 

With Charlie ( right) at Holytown Churchyard at the grave of our Pettigrew grandparents - c1991. 

Charlie is also remembered in other anecdotes in my book " BEECHWOOD : A STORY OF CHILDHOOD"

William Cross, FSA Scot

email

williecross@aol.com

 

REVIEW OF NICHOLAS BOOTH'S "LUCIFER RISING" : A LESSON TO SLOPPY HISTORIANS

          BOOK REVIEWS BY WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

LUCIFER RISING 

British Intelligence and the Occult in the Second World War

NICHOLAS BOOTH

The History Press ( 2016)

Evan Morgan and Blue Boy

Sloppy History on Evan Morgan, Viscount Tredegar of MI14

As Evan Morgan’s only published biographer and the author/ co-author of several books on the Welsh peer, occultist and eccentric also known as Viscount Tredegar, I feel obliged to draw attention to some inaccuracies in the book.

Tredegar- as Evan Morgan- is indexed at pages 92-4,171-2 and 337.

My comments arise from research over many years at the National Archives, Kew. Clearly Mr Booth has not consulted the primary documents there as his claims about Viscount Tredegar’s war service do not match the official papers.

The back up of evidence to Viscount Tredegar’s war in a book entitled “ Hush Hush, The Peculiar Career of Lord Tredegar” is also unsound - that book has never appeared anywhere.

Compounding these flaws the result of allying his existing text with genuine official sources makes a mockery of the important service readers, authors, students, researchers and bibliographers depend for veracity’s sake in identifying the contents of relevant files in National Archives and other archives to validate claims made and so merit citation elsewhere.

Mr Booth highlights at page 373 various National Archives files in his research. WO 71/1078 - does mention Viscount Tredegar - but I will cover the factual part of its contents below. He also refers to three KV ( Secret Service) files KV4/229 KV 4/230 and KV 4/231.

I am well acquainted with the KV files series that liberally appear in the text and sources pages. Having checked the original files and my extracts again including one downloadable file from NA’s website, none of these above files mention Viscount Tredegar. This is not surprising as the papers relate (for the period 1945-1953) to proceedings on the “Control and Maintenance of Pigeons” by the Security Services years after Viscount Tredegar had left the army and indeed long after he was dead.

A colleague and I transcribed file WO 71/1078 for ‘Aspects of Evan : The Last Viscount Tredegar’ … a book we wrote about Viscount Tredegar. The book details Tredegar’s Court Martial verbatim, and was published in 2012. At the time of release a copy of the book was given both to the Tredegar House library in Newport ( the seat of the Tredegars now managed by the National Trust) and personally to Mr Booth’s joint collaborator in compiling Viscount Tredegar’s war service.

The WO file 71/1078 relates to the Court Martial of Evan, Viscount Tredegar in 1943 for three offences under the Official Secrets Act. It makes clear that he was held on open arrest at Chelsea Barracks, tried there and found guilty on two of the three charges and “severely reprimanded”. The great advocate Sir Walter Monckton defended Tredegar’s corner making a plea of mitigation saying the Viscount was a product of a dysfunctional family.

Before WO 71/1078 was released for public access in the 1990s no one was certain about Viscount Tredegar’s wartime service.

In 1981 Nigel West, the celebrated spy author, wrote the book “MI5: The British Security Services Operations 1909-1945.” Mr West cautioned that in writing his 1981 book he did not have access to the actual Security files but relied on the testimony of former Secret Service Officers..

Competent historians pride themselves on keeping their findings updated with new emerging information. The same applies for a new book such as this – its sources need to be new or current if the work is to be taken seriously.

Below I offer the facts for the record that quashes most of the erroneous, antiquated references to Viscount Tredegar’s war history in Booth’s book.

The Morgans of Tredegar House, Newport were always a family of characters in search of an author. In the years when Tredegar House was in the ownership of Newport Council, guides relied on snippits from books, gossip and their own invention to tell the story of the House and the family – but things have changed and primary research discredits some of these albeit amusing yet wild, inaccurate tales.

The National Trust who now manage Tredegar House, say they are concerned about misrepresentations and have a plan to stamp them out with a “myth- busting” initiative. I welcome and applaud this.

Because of space and continuity I will confine matters in the remainder of this review to addressing the primary material about Viscount Tredegar’s war using NA file WO 71/1078 and others.

First, it should be noted that Tredegar only spent a few months as the “Officer Commanding Special Section (Carrier Pigeon) Service” based at Wing House, Piccadilly where he had risen to “substantive Captain, Acting Major” in a part of the Intelligence Service known as MI 14.

According to the Court Martial record of April 1943 Viscount Tredegar was appointed to MI 14 in November 1942 and he left the army in May 1943. Mr Booth’s narrative gives the impression that Viscount Tredegar’s war heroics lasted much longer.

However, true to form Viscount Tredegar’s war service in the Second World War was eclipsed – as it was in the Great War - with illness and incompetence. In the World War 2 Evan’s service for King and Country ended in humiliation.

Before November, 1942 Evan is officially recorded in an MI5 surveillance file note in file KV 2/2869 – from 7 October 1942. This gives details of his perverted life style and the dubious personal contacts surrounding him and his Russian wife, Princess Olga. Tredegar is said to be involved “….in connection with carrier pigeons” at Wing House but the informant adds “ He is at present on sick leave” . Tredegar took up duties in MI14 at Wing House a month later.

Booth’s claim is that Tredegar was “ training pigeons to carry secret messages. As a result, he [ the Viscount] was the most exotic employee for MI8....” This is wildly drawn. WO 71/1078 reveals that Tredegar had a lowly job in MI 14. Based on a scrutiny of the Unit’s War Diary file WO 165/38, for MI8, Tredegar was not serving there, although for the sake of being thorough in investigating Tredegar’s dates and postings I discovered the true position when examining file KV 4/10. A few pages there relate to the so called ‘ Falcon (Interception) Unit ’ - that Nigel West first mentioned and claimed a link to Tredegar as being a ‘ keen falconer’. Booth repeats this at page 171.

Tredegar loved birds, he sought to secure legislation in Parliament against killing animals, there is no evidence of falcons at Tredegar House, I conclude he indulged in no such sport as falconry. His name does not appear in file KV4/10, one man only who stands out is the famous Flight Lieutenant Richard Melville Walker – ( incorrectly cited here at page 171 as a “Wing Commander”) whose story is very well told in Ben MacIntyre’s book “ Double Cross” an infinitely better researched work about the use of pigeons, and falcons in war as well as coverage of the goodies and baddies involved in the run up to D- Day.

It is also clear from file WO 71/1078 in Sir Walter Monckton’s interrogation of Sir Russell Wilkinson ( Tredegar’s doctor ) that Tredegar was a patient under Sir Edmund Spiggs at Ruthin Clinic in North Wales in the summer of 1942. This corroborates MI5’s account of Tredegar’s ill health and confirms he was only ever involved in anything within Intelligence circles from November 1942 onwards.

The next silly claim by Booth is that “ Viscount Tredegar actually spent time in the Tower [of London] for an indiscretion that he always claimed came about thanks to Lady Baden-Powell. [and] ..he was arrested after talking about his work to Lady Baden-Powell over lunch and was overheard.”

Tredegar was never held as a prisoner in the Tower of London, such cases of detainment are well documented and his name is absent. Indeed in a published memoir he was to be seen socialising the night before his trial with Richard Buckle (later a notable dance critic), also stationed – as was Viscount Tredegar- at Chelsea Barracks, where according to Sir Russell Wilkinson Tredegar was medically examined on his fitness to plead.

Nor did Viscount Tredegar inform Lady Baden- Powell of anything secret nor is it true to say she ‘ sought to see him brought to account’.

All this is tittle- tattle copied from Nigel’s West book on MI5, written some 35 years ago in 1981 before the Freedom of Information Act and the liberated release of personal and Security files.

These fossilised offerings in the book are therefore more than three decades old, they have been embellished too but more to the point the material has been superceded. West’s text was also overtaken in the 1990’s by the release of the true events in Viscount Tredegar’s Court Martial evidence and our books on Lord Tredegar from 2012 onwards that have sold hundreds of copies, and are available for researchers in the legal deposit libraries.

The Court Martial file shows Viscount Tredegar’s main wartime responsibility was to ensure that pigeons were bred and available for use by MI 14 including in operations abroad, the actual direction of the home and foreign operations being the responsibility not of Viscount Tredegar but of others in MI 14. Tredegar was also involved in the development of the so called ‘questionnaire’ that was put inside the message containers that were attached to the carrier pigeons. It was all otherwise work that although essential and secret was not operational.

In the case of the reference in the book to “..an indiscretion….a couple of years later [ to] a Group [of Girl] Guides on a tour of his office when he showed them various items from his safe which he shouldn’t have done..”

This is out of time and at variance with WO 71/1078. On the charge sheet – and Court transcript there is only a mention of Lady Baden -Powell watching a pigeon display from the rooftop of Wing House, Piccadilly on 15 March 1943 and the file records “then she went away”.

The reference in the book to Tredegar revealing “far too much about his war work during a talk he gave at a hotel in London “ is also spurious. The basis of the charge for careless talk were remarks made by Tredegar to a group of pigeon breeders in Ipswich.

There were two Girl Guide ‘Leaders’ Viscount Tredegar met on the same day as Lady Baden -Powell was visiting Wing House. The disclosures to these two young ladies are the subject of another charge allied with two female subalterns ( who were witnesses) but were not named in Tredegar’s charge sheet. The Guides are named in the statement by Tredegar to the Court :

“I told the Girl Guide leaders [ named Nora McIntyre and Helen Margaret Isherwood ] on 15 March 1943 that the green message containers were used in connection in the pigeons bringing back information from occupied territory.

Incidentally these containers were not in a safe but a drawer in Viscount Tredegar’s Office he shared with another officer who had operational duties.

The Guides, their leaders and other influential ladies in the Guide movement were being given a special treat in part to encourage their fathers to consider breeding pigeons for the war effort and as a ‘thank you’. Guides were amongst those trained nationwide to rescue injured or stray pigeons ( especially those found with small canisters/containers attached to their legs– carrying messages) and to ferry these to Police Stations. The Police then contacted MI 14 for retrieval of the bird and its precious container.

Turning to the references about the map in Tredegar’s office. The actual map referred to in the book can be examined in National Archives file WO71/1078 as it was an exhibit in the Court Martial.

The description in the book is absurd of “ a gigantic map of Europe ( Bomber Command –style) with pins which indicated where pigeons was being dropped, which also in another account, revealed where the Dieppe landing was being planned.”

The last point first. The famous raid on Dieppe of August 1942 took place several months before Tredegar joined MI14 He did meet Signalman Taylor, the famed Canadian hero of Dieppe who released two carrier pigeons with news of the ill- fated raid in which over 900 of his countrymen lost their lives and many more wounded or captured. In February 1943 Taylor was invited to join an MI14 Public Relations exercise at Wembley Stadium ( during an England v Wales soccer match) when the RAF “ released six containers [ of pigeons ] in parachutes. Once the containers had fallen to the ground, Taylor released the birds, which carried messages supporting the Wings for Victory campaign.”

Otherwise for truth and history’s sake WO71/1078 records the fact in Tredegar’s own statement to the Court when he declares :

“I have in my office a map showing England and part of the continent. This map has a number of coloured pins affixed to it. Those in England indicate the pigeon lofts in this country and those on the continent were affixed by a Dutchman a Mr Ray who had recently escaped Holland.”

Although there are numerous other points I could make towards correcting inaccurate, contrived and far fetched statements on Tredegar and his family’s personalities and his relationship with the Great Beast, Aleister Crowley, this review is already long enough.

The history of Viscount Tredegar’s war may or may not be essential to the general reader. It will I hope have some value to good researchers who follow this subject and those who expect accuracy, truth and integrity in historical works.

As for Mr Booth and his publisher if they are concerned enough to present the precise history of Evan Tredegar’s war then should they have any further edition of    “ Lucifer Rising…” planned including a paperback they may gain some respect by expunging the devil’s work in the current hardback edition.

William Cross, FSA Scot

Enquires - email Will

williecross@aol.com

Copies of  " Aspects of Evan: The Last Viscount Tredegar" are available from Will.

  

 

Forgotten Scribes : John Keir Cross : 19 August 1914 - 22 January 1967

 

Writer & Scriptwriter

John Keir Cross

A Forgotten Scribe 

1914-1967

John Keir Cross was an author of adult fantasy and horror stories. He also wrote many books especially for children. In addition he wrote and adapted stories for radio, famously working for several years as the  main scriptwriter  on “ The Archers” – for  BBC Radio- a programme still going strong today.

John also wrote the script for the first episode for Dr Finlay’s Casebook for TV and was a regular name as an adaptor of  Stevenson’s children’s classics, “Treasure Island”, and “Kidnapped”, for radio and TV. 

Born in Carluke, his childhood years were spent there and in Perth  in Scotland where  he became a well- kent children’s entertainer , with a remarkable feat for ventriloquism. But his job was in insurance and he soon tired of its boredom and routine. 

Son of Hugh Anderson Cross ( a school dentist)  and Lizzie Birch, there was a brother Harry who was lost at sea in WW2 and a brother David who established a large Cross clan in Glasgow and Dunbartonshire.

In 1937 John famously walked from Perth to London, with rucksack and frying pan dangling  from his back,  to seek fame and fortune and wrote an early autobiography telling of this  eventual trip, called “ Aspects of Life”, later appearing on the radio’s popular show, “ In Town Tonight”  to repeat the story of his epic journey where he was arrested en route for a murder.

John was  an  early pioneer of radio for the BBC and helped set up  the BBC studios in Glasgow in WW2 , where he became a regular Saturday night broadcaster, whilst secretly working for the Ministry of Information and was an unsung amongst  many scribes who hit hard  for the war effort behind a typewriter or a microphone.

John also wrote under the name of Stephen Macfarlane.

His fantasy titles include “ The Man in Moonlight” (1947), “The White Magic” (1947) and “The Dancing Tree (1955).  His historical tales include “ The Owl and the Pussycat (1946), “ The Other Side of Green Hills ( 1947).

As Macfarlane John  produced a series for younger children including “ The Blue Egg” (1944, “Lucy Maroon, the Car that Loved a Policeman” (1944, “Mr Bosanko and Other Stories” ( 1944) and “The Strange Tale of Sally and Arnold” (1944).

His stories for adults include  “ The Other Passenger: 19 Strange Stories ( 1944). Look out for the  1961 reprint with surreal full-colour illustrations by Bruce Angrave (1912-1983).

One reviewer says  "The Other Passenger" is an excellent Doppelgänger tale, and "The Glass Eye" one of the better Ventriloquism tales, though only "Clair de Lune" and "Esmeralda", both Ghost stories, are unequivocally supernatural…”

The Glass Eye”, was adapted for the Alfred Hitchcock TV series with Jessica Tandy as a lonely woman smitten with a ventriloquist, and also starring a very young William Shatner.

John anthologies include “Best Horror Stories” (1957), Best Horror Stories 2 ( 1965) and Best Black Magic Stories ( 1960).

Some of his other television work includes two episodes of the series “Sir Francis Drake” in 1962, a couple of “made for television” movies as well as adaptions of John Wyndham's “The Kraken Wakes”; Charles Dickens' “A Tale of Two Cities” and “The Mystery of Edwin Drood” and Robert Louis Stevenson’s adult romp,  “The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde”.

John Keir Cross died  today, on 22nd January, in  1967 . He had a  working farm called “Brushford” in Diptford, Devon, where he authentically wrote his work for BBC's “ The Archers”.  59 years ago this week many of  his BBC colleagues descended on "Brushford" to see how John intended the storylines of " The Archers" to pan out.

He was the sole writer. A lesson was learned that scripts for programmes should be generated by a team of people. 

John's  widow Audrey survived him and there were several children.   

William Cross, FSA Scot

( A cousin )

More information : contact williecross@aol.com

SOME COVERS  ETC OF JOHN'S BOOKS