Eileen Heming (born Marsh) and Africa

Just going off Goodreads.com since they do not recognize books without ISBN numbers, which is about half the books I read. So here is what I might have said about some books I am finishing from the 1930s. All are nom de plumes of Eileen Hemng (born Marsh). She lived near Lymphne airport, Romney Marsh and though could not fly was fascinated by it. She wrote 120 books in 15 years under 18 different names. She mentions her village Aldington as a kind of signature, which happens in both of these books.
1. Secret of the Desert by Guy Dempster, Lutterworth. 1939 A flying tale set in Sudan in 1939 about a crazed westerner trying to clear white folk out of Africa then attack Europe. I wonder who inspired it? Side story of a young boy rediscovering his father. The villain has an underground factory supported by African slave labour building a wide range of aircraft, the one's illustrated looking like Defiants.
2. Flying for Ethiopia by E Martin Shard, Popular Press, no date stated. A not dissimilar story of building up the Ethiopian air-force for Haile Selassie. This is an unusual pen-name for Marsh/Heming

Both stories have high adventure, inspired by W E Johns of Biggles and Worralls fame. Some sentiments would be declared not politically correct today, but were typical of the time.

I am reading a similar story by someone else, David Lindsay. Wings over Africa. It is not formally dated but there is an internal date of 1935 (not proof of the year of writing). The Italian campaign against Haile Selassie in Ethiopia/Abyssinia was clearly causing some excitement. This was part of "The Ace Series" which include some of W E Johns' early Biggles stories. The Lindsay book features a WW1 flying ace helping out the Ethiopians. Despite this the story is full of negative racial/racist stereotypes and black African lives are clearly regarded as of little or no value, hundred mowed down with a machine gun with unseemly rejoicing. The attitudes as well as the biplane were relics of the first world war as middle aged former fliers tried to place their memories into contemporary conflicts.

Isla Mitchell

I have come across a book for young teens written in 1944 but set in 1938 called The Beginning Was a Dutchman (Faber and Faber). A Roman Catholic family with intriguing names (Mark, Bede, Eusebius, Damian) take a trip by boat up the Grand Union Canal. The family buy a boat from a Dutch scientist, but it turns out he has invented a new explosive and the formula is missing. There is war reference (rather light on plausibility) in which the children are kidnapped and interviewed by the Gestapo. They encounter good Germans (that is a pious Roman Catholic captain) and readers are left in no doubt that good Germans do not approve of the war. There is a good description of the Grand Union as a working canal.
Here is the title page:

and pencil drawing on the front board of the boat and older children Mark and Bede (a girl):

My copy has this inscription "from the Mitchells and Isla" to an unclear family name.

Isla also wrote a book on Ireland in 1952 called Irish Roundabout with illustrator Benedict Mitchell. Saints names seem to have a fascination for this family!  According to the blurb, "Story of a happy and often hilarious visit of a young brother and sister to the land of their forefathers--Ireland. For ages 12 & up."   I have only seen American editions (Dodd Mead of New York). 
I would love to learn and further details of Isla and any other works.

Henry Clarence Harridge, 1930s artist.

© Stephen Bigger.

I possess a small collection of the artwork of Henry Clarence Harridge..There is no biography anywhere, and little on the web, so I would be pleased for any information.  I bought a few pieces in nearby Highworth near where he then lived: his etchings were being sold in a local art shop, where I bought The Prospect of Whitby, and The Ouse Near Kings Lynn. He had been emptying his garage prior to moving away. Since then I have found and purchased a few more, including an original pencil and wash drawing of the Thames from Bankside, and a related etching. Harridge’s favoured medium was etching, learned at  Hornsea School of Art under John Moody and Norman James in the early 1930s. A few oils and pencil drawings have also appeared in auction.  His grandfather was also Henry Clarence H-, his father Frederick William H- (1881-1954), and mother May (Osborn, b. 1884). Our Henry Clarence was born in Edmonton, London on 23 Feb 1908, and married Hilda (Weir) in December 1935: Hilda died in 2005. HC lived in Swindon till 2005, then Melksham  and I understand that he now lives in Stoke Newington, the oldest living English artist. I have not come across any post 1940 work, so his active period was only four or five years.

A postcard etching  indicates on the back that this was self-published from 9 George Street, Hastings, in all likelihood the artist’s flat above the commercial premises below (now a restaurant). The card is undated, the signature in small block capitals is the same as on an original drawing by him I possess dated 1938.

His etching prints are ‘limited edition’ signed with a flowing pencil autograph from a later date, giving the date of the original etching. I presume they were printed later from the old plates since the prints are crisp and fresh. Of the first pair I bought, the Ouse near Denver, looked towards Kings Lynn (1936, 150 x 100 mm) sketched whilst the artist was on honeymoon (detail pencilled on the back).

My second purchase was the Prospect of Whitby public house from the Thames (200x150mm).  The front of the pub is on Wapping Wall, (a street in Wapping, London). I have a much larger impressed etching of the Thames from Bankside (410x325mm, dated 1937), showing the river, boats and Wapping warehouses opposite, drawn in great detail. Using artist’s licence, he has placed St Paul’s dome as the background. In the original pencil and water-colour I possess, this is replaced by Puddle Dock

 If you have any further information, please leave a comment.

© Stephen Bigger.  With thanks to Keith Taylor.

David T. Lindsay wrote 1936-1941

Borrowing with thanks from http://desturmobed.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/david-t-lindsay.html I am asking now for information about the writer David T Lindsay who wrote aviation books for boys as well as adult novels. These cover similar ground to other writers I am studying. Any information about the author will be thankfully received. I have just read Inspector Jackson Goes North, an improbable police sleuthing story based in Scotland (Fife) where the author may have come from (see the link above). Ace books on flying are fetching a high price at the moment. Also have just read Wings Over Africa, a rather unpleasant story of support for Heile Selassie's Ethiopia in the Italian campaign in which too many natives are machine gunned or bombed to death. Features a plane with a silent engine. A parallel story to the much better Flying For Ethiopia by E Malcolm Shard, aka Dorothy Eileen (Marsh) Heming/Dorothy Carter /Guy Dempster, on which see the discussion in an earlier post..

A full chronological list of David T. Lindsay’s books is given below, with brief notes on series and recurring characters. All titles were published by John Hamilton of London.

The Ninth Plague  [March 1936]
            Part of The Sundial Mystery and Adventure Library. Richard Monroe.

The Two Red Capsules [May 1936] 

            Richard Monroe; Inspector Jackson

Wings over Africa [July 1936]  Ace Series

Inspector Jackson Investigates [September 1936] 

            Inspector Jackson

Air Bandits [February 1937]  Ace Series

Masked Judgment [March 1937]  Ace Series

The Black Fetish [May 1937]

The Flying Crusader [May 1937]  Ace Series

The Green Ray  [July 1937]  Ace Series 

Wings over the Amazon [November 1937]  Ace Series 

Another Case for Inspector Jackson [January 1938]   

            Inspector Jackson

The Flying Armada [April 1938]  Ace Series

The Temple of the Flaming God [May 1938]  Ace Series 

The Man Nobody Knew [September 1938]

            Inspector Jackson

Inspector Jackson Goes North [February 1939] 

            Inspector Jackson

Vengeance Rides North [May 1939]

Stranglehold [September 1939]  Ace Series

Mystery of the Tumbling V  [January 1940]

Lawrence R Bourne books

© Stephen Bigger.
Red-haired Coppernob Buckland (1925) is a doughty Boys Own Paper style story. Walter Buckland is in boarding school, about to go up to Oxbridge on a scholarship. After a false accusation, he is expelled and runs away to sea. I am not telling the blow-by-blow story, but in brief he does well as a first tripper, sails an abandoned boat single handed back to Southampton (has he drowned the captain should have been arrested for criminal negligence and manslaughter), finds a link to his bank manager father, gets involved with alcohol running into prohibition USA, is captured by pirates and finally solves the mystery so that a thief from his father's bank is arrested. Not bad for a teenager. By the end, he is no longer accused, has his scholarship, but decides on a sea career. A few points of interest in a story that is able to name and describe ports and sea journeys with apparent accuracy. It curiously starts at Lydney, a tiny port for carrying timber and coal up the Severn from the Forest of Dean, showing local knowledge. Despite accurate naming of destinations, his ship picks up barrels of whisky from an unnamed port on the Mull of Kintyre (actually, Campbelltown, and not a bad whisky). He clearly did not know the port's name in this case. The first three Coppernob books appeared as a Coppernob Omnibus in 1933 to accompany the fourth in the series. One later story was rejected by the publisher but still exists in manuscript.

A few examples of Bourne covers and dustjackets

Stamped boards: the gold stamp will be a library stamp

This title had at least one other board decoration (see previous post)

© Stephen Bigger.

Lawrence R Bourne, again

© Stephen Bigger.
I asked in April for information about this writer active in the 1920s and 1930s. 
Thanks to his grand-daughter Kathy for much of the information below. His real name was Lawrence Harbourn, born 10.10.1879 (from his passport) and died in 1941. The family possess this obituary:

Mr L H A Harbourn passed away on Nov 16^th [1941] after a brief illness   He was born in London where his father was Minister of the Regent's Park Congregational Church and a contemporary of Dr Parker of the City Temple who was a frequent visitor to their home. Mr Harbourn's grandfather had been a missionary and his father subsequently took up the same work.  As a youth Mr Harbourn was active in Christian work in London, preaching in mission Halls, speaking in the open air and assisting the Salvation Army in the slums.  He took a keen interest in the Boy Scout Movement in its early days and was the Leader of a Troup.

He came to Newport in 1915 and was introduced by Mr Holbrook to the Mission at Penylan.  He became the organist there and conducted the services on many occasions and by his zeal enthusiasm and his experiences was able to forward considerably the work of the Mission.  It was fitting therefore that the last service he conducted before his illness should have been at Penylan, and that his funeral should have been held there.

Through all the years he continued to serve with the Lay Preacher's Association, and his delight was to visit the country churches throughout the county.  They will miss his genial presence and his homely words.  Mr Harbourn was a gifted musician and artist and his work in the literary world was widely recognised.  He wrote under the pen-name of Lawrence R Bourn upward of a score of books - some of them text-books of the sea, upon which he was an authority - but most of them were boys sea stories and were deservedly very popular.  He was on the staff of a London Newspaper for a period of 43 years, and the tributes paid to him by his colleagues reveal the high esteem in which he was held.

To Mrs Harbourn and the four children we extend our loving sympathy in their great loss.

A Lawrence Harbourn attended Brigg Grammar School as a boarder from 1889: boarding school was a common experience for the children of missionaries.  See http://www.briggensians.net/thelibrary/BGSTO1969.pdf.

He lived in Chesterfield Road, St Andrews,  Bristol  in February 1910, was discharged as unfit from the Army in 1917, and moved to Clevedon Road Newport in August 1918, where he lived until his death.

Published works (Oxford University Press unless stated)

Seamanship (Handicraft Books for Scouts, with numerous diagrams  by the author and R.H. Penton, paper card covers, ca. 1923) The Channel Pirate - A West Country Sea Story (1923) The Treasure of the Hebrides (1924) Coppernob Buckland (1925)

The Radium Casket (1926) Coppernob - Second Mate (1927)

Well Tackled - A Story of a Shipyard (1928) Captain Coppernob - The Story of a Sailing Voyage (1929)

The Adventures of John Carfax - A Story of the Press Gang (1930) Copppernob - Ship Owner (1931)

Copperknob and the Cryptogram (rejected but manuscript exists, 1932)

Eastward Bound - A Story of Modern Smuggling (1933) The Fourth Engineer (1934) Stark Naked (published by Frederick Muller, London, 1934) reviewed  favourably  by Dorothy Sayers in The Times 6.1.34  The Chronicles of Jerry (1935) Radium Island (1936)

Mixed Cargoes (short stories, 1938),

Saving His Ticket (1939)

 There is a French translation of Coppernob Buckland, Les aventures de Buckland "boule de cuivre"!  Also, The Voyage of the Lulworth: A Story of the Great Days of Sail, Oxford UP (info on back cover of Saving His Ticket). It also notes that Radium Island was sequel to The Radium Casket. There was a Lawrence R Bourne Omnibus (of Coppernob stories) in 1933, and a 1936 omnibus of The channel pirate, The treasure of the Hebrides and The adventures of John Carfax.

Short stories published in the Boys Own Annuals

Straight Sea Stories

Haunted in Mid-Atlantic

Adrift in the Atlantic

Paying a debt

The Race Home

On the Overdue List

Scouting Stories

Strange Affair at Porthlesky

Broken Glass

The Black Beacons

A Knife and a Piece of String

Musholme

Brazendial Stories

Under the Cromlech

The Mammoths's Leg

Smuggled Goods

Captain Black Yarns

The Yarn of the Waggoner

In Tow

In Dock on an Iceberg

Black Cat for Luck

Story of the Pageant ?title

Old Bosun Yarns

The Yarn of the Bullfrog

Captain Ashore

Pilots

Smuggling

A Motor Trip

Nerve

Speed

Miscellaneous

Dye

Ship Aground Manuscripts existing Ghosts Ridiculous  (Professor Brazendial short story 1930) Memory (Nagna Sansrcit short story 1933) Copperknob and the Cryptogram The Tie Alma Mater Murder at the Altar (short story) The Troubles (Chronicles) of Jerry (1935) Captain Copperknob (1929) Copperknob Buckland (draft)

I have just finished Well Tackled! - A Story of a Shipyard (blue boards, 1930, price 1/6d), illustrations (dust jacket and frontispiece) by Victor Cooley. It has a BOP feel of daring do. Benson Wilsthorpe, a young man about to go to university, finds himself owner of a small Birkenhead shipyard at Ellersley after his uncle's death. After settling in, he wins respect and has a chance meeting with an old friend Paget who has invented a new fuel (a mix of petroleum and TNT explosive!) and a new steel which is tough enough to withstand the power of internal combustion. Together this means ships can be built, even battleships, that can go at 100 knots. After refusing to be cheated, he and Benson amicably agree to develop the new boat. The Admiralty take the development under their wing. A mysterious organisation wants to steal the secrets and take them to Russia. Paget is kidnapped apparently to be taken to Russia, but rescued by the new speedy craft.  A cross-Atlantic new ship is taken over by pirates, and is given a new course for Russian waters... Anything else will be a spoiler, but rest assured all is well in the end. 
Note these blue boards are beautifully embossed (Oxford University Press).























© Stephen Bigger.

The Pirate Island by D E Heming, 1938.

A chance find in the local Oxfam Bookshop. I shall review it gradually, so this is a brief stub to get started. My copy has blue boards, no dust-jacket - if anyone can supply photo, please do via comments.Size 81/4 by 6 inches, 13/4 thick, 248 pages. There is an embossed four-armed propeller. The title page attributes authorship to D.E. Heming.  In saying "author of The Phantom Wing" by way of advertisement, D E Heming is identified with "Guy Dempster", the author's name given in that book in this series, a popular Heming 'brand' when writing gory war stories for boys. The name "Dempster Heming" was used for the popular Peter Clayton books. The name D E Heming was also used for The Girls Book of Heroines and The Boys Book of Heroes, two books best forgotten.

A further advertisement lists "other books in the Air Adventure Series - three by husband Jack (Heming) and three others by Eileen  as Dorothy Carter (Flying Dawn), James Cahill (Flying with the Mounties) and Guy Dempster (The Phantom Wing). The other books are by other writers John Grant (a story of India), M.E. Miles and Michael Cronin. The latter's son-in-law Peter Nethercot writes (for which I am very grateful):  Michael Brendon Leo Cronin 1907-1987 was my father in law. He also wrote under the names of David Miles and M.E. Miles (his wife's maiden name). He was educated at Queens College, Dublin and after graduating joined the Royal Air Force as a school teacher. On the outbreak of the second world war he transferred into the provost branch, and from there to special branch. Most of his writing took place after the war which is well documented.