R. H. Mottram

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Ralph Hale Mottram (1883 – 1971) was an English writer, known as a novelist, particularly for the Spanish Farm books, and as a war poet of World War I.

His father was the chief clerk of Gurney's Bank in Norwich and Mottram had an idyllic childhood growing up in 'Bank House' - a magnificent George II mansion on Bank Plain - which was later Barclay's Bank and is now a youth centre. The Mottrams were non-conformist and worshipped at the Octagon Chapel, Norwich in Colegate.

Mottram went from being a bank clerk in Norwich, before the war, to becoming mayor there in 1953. The Spanish Farm won the 1924 Hawthornden Prize. He also wrote a biography of John Galsworthy.

He was a defender of Mousehold Heath - a large open space in the heart of Norwich. On St. James' Hill, there is a sculpture which depicts the skyline of Norwich which is dedicated to him.

He is buried in the Rosary Cemetery, Norwich. Mottram once said that 'I knew, when I was four years old, exactly where I could be buried.'

[edit] Works

  • Repose and other verses (1907), as J. Marjoram
  • New Poems (1909), as J. Marjoram
  • The Spanish Farm (1924), a trilogy with Sixty-Four, Ninety-Four and The Crime at Vanderlynden’s
  • Sixty-Four, Ninety-Four (1925)
  • The Crime at Vanderlynden's (1926)
  • Our Mr. Dormer (1927), a trilogy with The Boroughmonger and Castle Island
  • The Apple Disdained (1928)
  • Ten Years Ago. Armistice and other memories (1928)
  • The English Miss (1938)
  • A History of Financial Speculation (1929)
  • The Boroughmonger (1929)
  • A Rich Man’s Daughter (1930)
  • Europa’s Beast (1930)
  • The New Providence (1930)
  • Poems Old and New (1930)
  • Three Men’s War (1930), with John Easton and Eric Partridge
  • The Lost Christmas Presents (1931)
  • Castle Island (1931)
  • John Crome of Norwich (1931)
  • The Headless Hound and other stories (1931)
  • Dazzle (1932)
  • At the Sign of The Lame Dog (1933)
  • East Anglia (1933)
  • Bumphrey’s (1934)
  • Flower Pot End (1935)
  • Journey to the Western Front Twenty Years After (1936)
  • The Westminster Bank 1836-1936 (1936)
  • Portrait of an Unknown Victorian (1936)
  • Old England (1937)
  • Time to Be Going (1937)
  • Autobiography with a Difference (1939)
  • Miss Lavington (1939)
  • You Can’t Have It Back! (1939)
  • Trader's Dream The Romance of the British East India Company (1939)
  • Visit of the Princess - a Romance of the 1960s (1946)
  • Hibbert Houses, A Record (1947)
  • Norfolk (1948)
  • The Glories of Norwich Cathedral (1948)
  • Come to the Bower (1949)
  • East Anglia, a new guide book (1951)
  • The Broads (1952)
  • The Part That Is Missing (1952)
  • If Stones Could Speak (1953), social history of Norwich
  • John Galsworthy (1953), biography
  • The Window Seat or Life Observed (1954)
  • For Some We Loved (1956), biography of John Galsworthy and his wife
  • Another Window Seat (1957)
  • Buxton the Liberator (1958), biography of Thomas F. Buxton the abolitionist
  • Vanities and Verities (1958)
  • Time’s Increase (1961)
  • To Hell with Crabb Robinson (1962)
  • Behind the Shutters (1968)
  • 12 Poems (1968)

[edit] External links