Mottram, R H
Entry updated 28 April 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1883-1971) UK banker, poet and author, in active service during World War One; he published in 1907 and later some early poems as by J Marjoram, but effectively initiated his long and prolific writing career with the famous Spanish Farm trilogy beginning with The Spanish Farm (1924), a fictionalized chronicle of his World War One experiences upon which his reputation stands, though all his work shows the profound effect on him of four years of service. Some of his later works are fantasy, including The Old Man of the Stones: A Christmas Allegory (1930 chap), The Ghost and the Maiden (1940), The Gentleman of Leisure: A Romance (1948), in which the Gentleman travels to Heaven, and To Hell, with Crabb Robinson (1962), which takes its protagonist elsewhere; The Headless Hound and Other Stories (coll 1931), contains some fantasies.
In Mottram's Scientific Romance, The Visit of the Princess: A Romance of the Nineteen-Sixties (1946), a joyless Dystopian Near Future UK is galvanized by the visit of the eponymous Mysterious Stranger, who has journeyed from the otherwise unknown Island which she rules. [JC/PN]
Ralph Hale Mottram
born Norwich, Norfolk: 30 October 1883
died King's Lynn, Norfolk: 16 April 1971
works
- The Ghost and the Maiden (London: Hutchinson and Co, 1940) [hb/]
- Visit of the Princess: A Romance of the Nineteen-Sixties (London: Hutchinson and Co, 1946) [hb/nonpictorial]
- The Gentleman of Leisure: A Romance (London: Hutchinson and Co, 1948) [hb/N Mainwaring]
- To Hell, with Crabb Robinson (London: Hutchinson and Co, 1962) [hb/]
collections and stories
- The Old Man of the Stones: A Christmas Allegory (London: The Lindsey Press, 1930) [story: chap: hb/]
- The Headless Hound and Other Stories (Chatto and Windus, 1931) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
links
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