Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books Now Lists 175 Writers
Writers with local links range from 17th Century travel writer to the Who's Roger Daltrey
Val Bott being presented with her copy of Vanity Fair by Stephen Foster
A total of 175 writers who have lived in Chiswick or written about the area have been entered on the new Chiswick Timeline of Writers and Books, which was launched online last month to mark the 10th Chiswick Book Festival.
They range from the 17th Century travel writer Sir John Chardin, born in 1643, to Roger Daltrey of The Who and LBC’s James O’Brien, who have books out in the next few weeks.
The writers are listed by genre and include non-fiction books on Chiswick architecture and history; stage, screen and radio; music, art and literary criticism; diplomacy, politics and the military; horticulture; business and economics; as well as several by historians, journalists and diarists. These include memoirs by actors such as the Redgrave family, TV stars Eamonn Andrews and Tommy Cooper, and rock stars like Phil Collins; as well as specialist books by William Hogarth, Field Marshall Viscount Montgomery of Alamein and Joseph Paxton.
There are also many novelists, poets, dramatists, screenwriters and comics. They include Alexander Pope, WM Thackeray, WB Yeats, EM Forster, GK Chesterton, Patrick Hamilton, Harold Pinter, Anthony Burgess, John Osborne, Nancy Mitford, Sir John Betjeman and Sir Arthur Pinero, who are featured on the Chiswick Timeline Writers Trail. This map can be picked up in Chiswick bookshops and at St Michael & All Angels Church Bedford Park, or downloaded from the Chiswick Book Festival
Many of the authors were identified following an appeal on ChiswickW4.com for suggestions of writers, books or scenes that should be included. Stephen Foster of Foster Books in Chiswick High Road kindly donated a 19th century edition of Thackeray’s Vanity Fair for the person who provided the best response.
Torin Douglas, director of the Chiswick Book Festival, who has compiled the Timeline, said: “We were delighted with the response from ChiswickW4.com readers, who gave us names and Chiswick links we might never have thought of, and helped us add many more writers than we expected.
“Perhaps not surprisingly, the most comprehensive information came from the local historian and museums consultant Val Bott, former chairman of the William Hogarth Trust. She came up with 40 names stretching back to the 17th Century and we had no hesitation in giving her the copy of Vanity Fair.
“The second prize – a book of the Chiswick Timeline History of Art and Maps – goes to Jim Lawes, who gave us the names of several well-known people who went to Chiswick schools, including Jimmy Young, Phil Collins, Frank Field MP and the playwright Don Taylor. His Flickr photo stream is a treasure trove of memorabilia about Brentford and Chiswick!”
Further names and information will be added to the Timeline in the coming
weeks and months. All suggestions and comments are welcome – email admin@chiswickbookfestival.net.
October 5, 2018