Julian MacLaren-Ross

Julian MacLaren-Ross (7 July 1912 - 3 November 1964) was a British novelist.

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Background

Born James McLaren Ross in South Norwood, London in 1912, his father John Lambden Ross was of mixed Scottish and Cuban blood, and his mother, from an Anglo-Indian family, was described as "a magnificent Indian lady and the obvious source of his male beauty". MacLaren-Ross was largely educated in the South of France, though his memoir The Weeping and the Laughter (1953) principally concerns his boyhood in a Bournemouth suburb. In 1943 he was discharged from the army, having been found at home with a female acquaintance while AWOL.

MacLaren-Ross was a frequent contributor to literary journals, such as the London Magazine and Horizon. He was known to be a sympathiser of the Labour Party and though he never dealt with explicitly political themes in his stories, the backdrop of inter and post-war social strife was always intimated. MacLaren Ross was fictionalised as novelist X. Trapnel in Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time and as Prince Yakimov in Olivia Manning's The Balkan Trilogy and was the subject of a 2003 biography Fear and Loathing in Fitzrovia by Paul Willetts. John Betjeman described him as "One of our very best writers".

His reputation as a dandy in post-war London bohemia to some extent exceeds the actual stature of his recognised works. His turbulent life and pivotal role in the Fitzrovian milieu has ensured iconic status and a constant interest in his work. Debt, alcoholism and a love of debauched living all featured heavily in his life. His biographer referred to him as the "mediocre caretaker of his own immense talent".

Works

Further reading

References

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