Ralph Hale Mottram
Ralph Hale Mottram (30 October 1883 – 16 April 1971) was an English writer, known as a novelist, particularly for the Spanish Farm books,[1] 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.[2]
Mottram went from being a bank clerk in Norwich before the war to becoming lord mayor there in 1953. The Spanish Farm won the 1924 Hawthornden Prize. He also wrote a biography of John Galsworthy.
He was a defender (i.e., a conservationist) of Mousehold Heath[2] - a large open space in the heart of Norwich. On St. James' Hill, there is a sculpture, dedicated to him, which depicts the skyline of Norwich.[2]
He is buried in the non-denominational Rosary Cemetery, Norwich.[1][2] Being a non-member of the established Church of England, Mottram once said that 'I knew, when I was four years old, exactly where I could be buried.'
Works
- Repose and other verses (1907), as J. Marjoram[3]
- 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)
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Cameron Self, Mousehold Heath, Norwich in Literary Norfolk, 2011. Accessed 24 February 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Cameron Self, Ralph Hale Mottram (1883-1971) in Literary Norfolk, 2011. Accessed 24 February 2013.
- ↑ Authors Mos-Moz, New General Catalog of Old Books and Authors. Accessed 24 February 2013.
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