John Muriel (7 April 1909 – 1975), also known as "John St. Clair Muriel", was a British countryman, teacher,
novelist
A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others asp ...
, and biographer from a middle-class
East Anglian background who wrote as "Simon Dewes" and "John Lindsey".
Muriel drew on his own life for material and completed four volumes of autobiography that relied heavily on his youth in Suffolk and Essex. His biographies were reviewed as more readable than authoritative and his three works of London topography were an entertaining wander through London's history and lore. His fiction encompassed the thriller as well as novels with more serious themes, at least two of which were
banned in the Republic of Ireland.
He wrote some poetry and short stories. The son and grandson of physicians, his last book was a
true crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 pe ...
work titled ''Doctors of Murder'' (1962).
Early life and family
John Muriel was born in
Hadleigh, West Suffolk,
[ on 7 April 1909,][John Muriel England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007.](_blank)
Family Search. Retrieved 12 December 2019. to John and Lois. He had a brother Charles, a sister Angela, and in 1911 the family employed two servants. His father and grandfather were both physicians in East Anglia, where the family had a long history that included a mayor of King's Lynn, an archdeacon of Norfolk
Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...
, and a mayor of Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a College town, university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cam ...
.[
]
Career
John Muriel wrote under the pen names of "Simon Dewes" and "John Lindsey", with works of fiction and non-fiction appearing in both names throughout his career.
Among his earliest works was ''Youth in Bondage'' (1933) which '' The Socialist Review'' felt was a "...young novel. It is a very just novel and the world it creates is a true world". The book was summarised by ''The Librarian and Book World'' as the story of "...the loves, illicit and ridiculous, of the schoolmaster's wife - and two schoolmasters." It was at one time banned in the Republic of Ireland.[''List of the Books Prohibited and the Register of Prohibited Periodical Publications'', Department of Justice, Republic of Ireland, 1948, p. 41.] ''Vicarage Party'' (1933) had a modernist dust jacket and a bookseller and shop based on the real life anarchist bookseller Charles Lahr.["Counter-Space in Charles Lahr's Progressive Bookshop"](_blank)
by Huw Osborne in
Muriel was a teacher of English at Wisbech Grammar School
Wisbech Grammar School is an 11–18 mixed, Church of England, independent day school and sixth form in Wisbech, Isle of Ely, Cambridgeshire, England. Founded by the Guild of the Holy Trinity in 1379, it is one of the oldest schools in the co ...
in the Isle of Ely
The Isle of Ely () is a historic region around the city of Ely in Cambridgeshire, England. Between 1889 and 1965, it formed an administrative county.
Etymology
Its name has been said to mean "island of eels", a reference to the creatures th ...
, one of his pupils was John Gordon.
There were four volumes of autobiography, starting with ''Still Eastward Bound'' (1940) which was followed much later by three volumes about Muriel's youth. His very early years were described in ''A Suffolk Childhood'' (1959) and his schooling and later childhood in ''Essex Schooldays'' (1960).[Dewes, Simon. (1960) ''Essex Schooldays''. London: Hutchinson. Cover notes.] This was followed by ''When all the World was Young'' (1961). All three were illustrated by John Strickland Goodall. Jeremy Brooks in ''The Observer
''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
'' described Muriel and his writing in ''Essex Schooldays'' as too well-behaved as he moved in a world of country rectories, hunt-meets, and private schools, the book only livening-up when Muriel finally realised his revulsion by blood sports
A blood sport or bloodsport is a category of sport or entertainment that involves bloodshed. Common examples of the former include combat sports such as cockfighting and dog fighting, and some forms of hunting and fishing. Activities charact ...
during an otter hunt. Andrew Leslie in ''The Guardian'' identified a "passionate countryman", nostalgic for the East Anglia of his youth, and a mass of detail that would best please those of a similar inclination.
His fiction encompassed the thriller and the popular novel, sometimes drawing on his own life for material. ''Cul-de-Sac'' (1941), published when the author was in his early thirties, told of a young novelist and his troubles with women but was felt unsatisfactory by Frank Swinnerton
Frank Arthur Swinnerton (12 August 1884 – 6 November 1982) was an English novelist, critic, biographer and essayist.
He was the author of more than 50 books, and as a publisher's editor helped other writers including Aldous Huxley and Lytton S ...
who described the author as "too ingenious for so high a flight". In ''"At the Feet of Gamaliel"'' (1944), Muriel drew on his background as a privately educated child of a middle-class family in what Charles Marriott of ''The Manchester Guardian'' described as the story of the "demoralisation and redemption" of a teacher in a preparatory school, told with "insight and humour". The book was banned in the Republic of Ireland.[
Muriel's biography of ]George Eliot
Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
(1940) was described by Basil de Sélincourt
Basil de Sélincourt (19 August 1876 – 16 February 1966) was a British essayist and journalist.
In 1902 he married the orientalist Beryl de Zoete, but the marriage failed, and in 1908 he married the writer Anne Douglas Sedgwick (1873–1935). ...
as "as readable as it is risky", with the author a lover of the "broad truth" and strong on human sympathy, confidently describing the vicissitudes of Eliot's life but lacking the finer judgements required by the more discriminating reader. Gertrude Woodthorpe enjoyed the story but noted the lack of a bibliography, the neglect of Eliot's novels, and the lack of quotation from her letters or journals. In her review of Muriel's biography of Mary Delany (1940), from whose sister Anne, Muriel claimed descent, Woodthorpe found an account that did not paint Delany in as warm a light as her contemporary reputation suggested.["Mrs. Delany", Gertrude Woodthorpe, ''The Observer'', 15 September 1940, p. 4.]
There were three London topographical books, ''Temple Bar Tapestry'' (1948), ''Piccadilly Pageant'' (1949), and ''Soho'' (1952), which combined stories of London's history and romance with maps and illustrations to provide a tour of a well known part of the city. In the account of Temple Bar, for instance, Muriel used the device of a narrator talking to a U.S. Army sergeant as they walked from Temple Bar to St. Paul's Cathedral along the bomb-damaged streets.
In 1962 he published an account of murders by physicians titled ''Doctors of Murder'', which analysed eight famous medical murders of the previous 100 years.
Muriel also wrote poetry and a number of short stories. He contributed to John Hadfield's ''East Anglian Heritage'' in 1964.[Hadfield, John. (1964) ''East Anglian Heritage''. Ipswich: Anglian Publications.]
Death
John Muriel died in Ipswich in 1975.
Selected publications
As Simon Dewes
Biography
* ''Marian: Life of George Eliot''. Rich and Cowan, London, 1939.
* ''Mrs. Delany''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1940.
* ''Sergeant Belle-Jambe: The Life of Marshal Bernadotte King of Sweden''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1943.
Fiction
* ''Youth in Bondage'' Jarrolds, London, 1933.
* ''His Little Kingdom: The Story of Thesiger, Headmaster of Stayne''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1939.
* ''Reluctant Revelry''. Jarrolds, London, 1939.
* ''Cul-de-Sac''. Rich and Cowan, London, 1941.
* ''"At the Feet of Gamaliel"''. Rich and Cowan, London, 1944.
* ''Panic in Pursuit''. Rich and Cowan, London, 1945.
* ''Death Stalks the Waterway''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1946.
* ''A Sound Fellow''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1947.
* ''A Just Man''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1948.
* ''Lucy Carter''. London, 1949.
* ''Poems''. Simon Dewes, Kettleburgh, 1959.
Memoirs
* ''A Suffolk Childhood''. Hutchinson, London, 1959.
* ''Essex Schooldays''. Hutchinson, London, 1960.
* ''When all the World was Young''. Hutchinson, London, 1961.
Non-fiction
* ''Temple Bar Tapestry''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1948.
* ''Piccadilly Pageant''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1949.
* ''Soho''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1952.
* ''Doctors of Murder''. John Long, London, 1962.
As John Lindsey
Biography
* ''Charles II and Madame Carwell''. Andrew Melrose
Andrew Melrose (5 February 1860 - 6 November 1928''The Times'' obituary; 7 November 1928) was a British publisher. Although he was noted for publishing theological works, he was also active in promoting new fiction, and offered a substantial ca ...
, London, 1937.
* ''The Ranting Dog. The Life of Robert Burns''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1938.
* ''The Tudor Pawn. The Life of the Lady Jane Grey''. Jarrolds, London, 1938.
* ''The Lovely Quaker (Hannah Lightfoot)''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1939.
* ''Suburban Gentleman. The Life of Thomas Griffiths Wainewright, poet, painter and poisoner''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1942.
* ''The Shining Life and Death of Lord Edward Fitzgerald''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1949.
* ''Wren: His Work and Times''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1951.
Fiction
* ''Molten Ember''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1930.
* ''"The Voice of One"''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1930.
* ''The Lady and the Mute''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1931.
* ''The Bull Calf, etc.'' Joiner & Steele, London, 1932.
* ''Stricken Gods''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1932.
* ''Peacock's Feathers''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1933.
* ''Vicarage Party''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1933.
* ''Tenderness. A novel''. Chapman & Hall, London, 1934.
* ''April Fool''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1941.
* ''The Above Have Arrived. An Adventure''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1942.
* ''A Month in Summer''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1944.
* ''The Bay Filly''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1945.
* ''White Socks''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1948.
Memoirs
* ''Still Eastward Bound''. Rich & Cowan, London, 1940.
References
Further reading
* Muriel, J. H. L. (1968) ''A Fenland Family. Some notes on the history of a family surnamed Muriel &c.'' Ipswich.
External links
*http://www.murielfamilyely.co.uk/
{{DEFAULTSORT:Muriel, John St. Clair
1909 births
1975 deaths
English novelists
English non-fiction writers
English biographers
English autobiographers
People from Hadleigh, Suffolk
English thriller writers
English short story writers