Thomas Hughes and Tom Brown

Thomas Hughes was a Victorian author who was born in 1822 – and who is famous mostly for writing the famous novel of boys’ school life “Tom Brown’s Schooldays.”  His father was an author, and he was born in Berkshire…

He was sent to Rugby Public school, where the headmaster was the famous Thomas Arnold.

Like Tom Brown, he was fond of sports and enjoyed his school life.  After school, he qualified as a barrister….

Like many Victorians he was a reformer, and one of his interests was the Working Men’s College…This was founded in 1854 and Hughes was its principal from 1872-94.  He was eager to help working men to secure the education that had been denied most of them as children.   He was sympathetic to Christian Socialism and the Trade Union movement which was extremely controversial in the Victorian era.  Business owners and landowners did not wish for their workers to be able to combine together to fight for their own interests.  Hughes was elected as a Liberal MP in 1865, and tried to assist the cause of Trades Unions and Cooperatives.

 He was also involved in the founding of a settlement in Tennessee, called Rugby.  It was meant to be an idealistic project where the younger sons of British gentry families could take up and farm land... (Since they were often unable to find useful work in England and usually would not inherit their family’s estates) -and where American craftsmen could also work in a healthy and egalitarian environment. However for various reasons, the American “Rugby” was not a success… there were problems about hostility from local people, business problems… The land was poor and many of the settlers were not expecting the life of hard physical labour that was necessary to make a living…

Like his father Thomas Hughes was a writer, and in 1857, he wrote his most famous work….

end Part I

James Herriot Part II

After his time in the RAF Alf returned to Thirsk and the veterinary practice.  Donald Sinclair married soon after and had found a rich wife... So while he was still eager to work as a vet, he tended to depute a lot of hard labour to Alf. Alf too had married, in the early years of the War, and was in the RAF when his first son, Jimmy was born.  His wife, Joan was portrayed as Helen in the books... In the Books she was depicted as the daughter of a well to do farmer but actually Joan’s father had an office job. The couple would later have a second child, a daughter Rosemary. 

Brian did serve in the War, as a veterinary officer and when the war was over, he went into the Ministry of Agriculture.

Alf went on working, doing a large share of the work.  The practice had short term assistants, but Donald Sinclair was not keen to take on other partners.  As time Passed Alf developed health problems... Like many country vets at that time he contracted brucellosis, through contact with infected animals.  This often left him ill and feverish.  As he grew older he became prone to bouts of depression.

However he did not complain about his ill health and found that often the best cure for his depression was his never ending work.  He also enjoyed various hobbies, particularly reading and music.   In the 1960s he turned 50 and his wife challenged him to try and write something -.   He started to experiment with writing a novel.  

James Herriot author Part I

James Herriot was born In Sunderland in 1916... but he was raised in Scotland.  His real name was Alfred James Wight. And he is of course the author of a series of comic novels... based on his life as a veterinary surgeon in Yorkshire, in the 1930s to the 50s.  (James Herriot was the pen name he adopted when he started to write).

 His parents moved to Glasgow when he was a baby, and were not very well off... His father worked in the shipping industry and his mother was an amateur singer. His father was also musical and worked part time as a pianist in a cinema.

Although the family were not well to do, they paid for him to train as a vet. At the time, veterinary colleges were glad to get students, provided the fees were paid and it wasn’t unusual for some students to take many years to qualify.  However Alf did his training in the 1930s and qualified at the age of 23... in 1939. He took a job in a veterinary practice, but within a year or so, he moved to Thirsk, in Yorkshire, to the job he would have all his working life. He joined the practice of Donald Sinclair... who would be portrayed as Siegfried Farnon in the books... Sinclair who was an eccentric and very “eager for action” kind of man…was anxious to find someone to run his practice while he joined the RAF.

Alf loved the countryside, and was very happy to work in the beautiful landscape of the Yorkshire Dales... At the time, small animal work was not a big part of veterinary practice...  so his job was mainly working with horses and farm animals.  However by the 1930s, the days of farm horses were almost over and tractors were now being used on farms…Donald Sinclair was a “horse lover” who enjoyed working with horses and enjoyed equestrian sports. 

Brian, Donald’s younger brother - was still a veterinary student at the beginning of Alf’s time in Thirsk.

 He is portrayed as Tristan in the books and was, like his comic incarnation, something of a prankster. He loved to enjoy himself and to play jokes... and while he was intelligent he did not apply himself to his studies.  He took several years to qualify as a vet but he did work in the practice in the early years – acting as driver, assistant and sometimes treating animals.  However for a time the burden of the very hard work of country practice landed on Alf, until he too joined the RAF.  Donald was let go from the RAF because he had lied about his age and his reflexes were not as good as he had hoped.. He was in any case in a reserved occupation.  Alf spent a year in the RAF but he was also invalided out because of medical problems which made it impossible for him to serve…

Evelyn Waugh

Evelyn Waugh is probably the nearest thing to a great British writer of the 20^th century.  However because of his strongly Conservative views, he has not been all that popular except when his novel Brideshead Revisited was televised in the 1980s and was admired as a well done costume drama and the sort of period piece that often appeals to viewers abroad.  He was also an old fashioned and traditional Roman Catholic..

Like his narrator of Brideshead, (Charles Ryder) Evelyn was not born into the aristocracy, but to an upper middle class family who lived in Hampstead... in 1904.   He was a clever child and did well at school, but in 1917, his older brother Alec had written a novel about boarding school life... portraying homosexual relationships... and because of this, the Waugh family sent Evelyn to Lancing College, rather than Sherborne, which Alec had attended.  He settled down at Lancing and developed artistic interests, and made friends.   He was mildly rebellious; taking no interest in conventional pursuits, such as the officers training corps.  He won a scholarship to Oxford, and when he went there in 1922, he enjoyed the freedom of University life.  Like Charles Ryder, he enjoyed drinking, and had a group of friends who were interested in the artistic life...

He was also involved in some homosexual relationships, and gradually did less and less academic work, and lost his scholarship.   Like Charles he did not take his degree.. Again like Charles he decided to study art, and enrolled in an art school in London.  However (unlike Charles who went on to art school in Paris) Evelyn  grew bored with the study, and dropped out - He ended up taking a teaching job... as he needed the money.   He disliked teaching and went on writing a novel he had started... but found that it seemed unlikely to get published.  Upset, he burned the manuscript and having lost a teaching job, made a halfhearted attempt at suicide.  In spite of his aggressive persona, he was always more sensitive and prone to nervous tension than he appeared on the surface…