Patrick Philip William Braybrooke

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820, by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV, to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, th ...

(1894–1956) was an English

literary critic Literary criticism (or literary studies) is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature. Modern literary criticism is often influenced by literary theory, which is the philosophical discussion of literature's goals and methods. Th ...

who largely concentrated his attention on English writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. He is best remembered for his biographical study, ''Gilbert Keith Chesterton'', which assesses the writing of Chesterton and describes his literary relationship to such writers as Dickens, Thackeray and Browning. It also offers a view of Chesterton the man. Braybrooke, who was a relative of Chesterton, met the older writer many times from his teens onwards. It is possible that Chesterton's move towards

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

culminating in his conversion in 1922, was influential in Braybrooke's shift in interest away from his Anglican roots. Catholic writers were a frequent subject of his writing. Two of his biographies – ''The Life and Work of Lord Alfred Douglas'' (1931) and ''The Amazing Mr Noel Coward'' (1933) – were the first to tackle their subjects. He was a student at King's College, London. During the First World War, he served as a second lieutenant in the

Royal Fusiliers The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. It was known as the 7th Regiment of Foot until the Childers Reforms of 1881. The regiment served in many wars ...

. He was wounded and gassed, and invalided out of the army in April 1915.

Early life and family

Braybrooke was born in 1894 in Reading, Berkshire to William Alfred Rossi Braybrooke and Alice Charlotte Chase. He was the eldest of three brothers, with Micheal Knollys (1899–1991) the middle and Arthur Rossi (1902–1989) the youngest. Both his father, William, and his brother, Arthur, were priests in the Church of England. Braybrooke was also a great-great-grandson of the Honourable and Reverend Francis Knollys, Vicar of

Burford Burford () is a town on the River Windrush, in the Cotswolds, Cotswold hills, in the West Oxfordshire district of Oxfordshire, England. It is often referred to as the 'gateway' to the Cotswolds. Burford is located west of Oxford and southeas ...

from 1771 to 1826. Rev. Francis Knollys was the son of Charles Knollys, 5th

Earl of Banbury Earl of Banbury was a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1626 for William Knollys. He had already been created Baron Knollys in 1603 and Viscount Wallingford in 1616, both in the Peerage of England. However, the paternity of hi ...

. Braybrooke was also a great-great-grandson of the prominent sculptor John Charles Felix Rossi RA (1762–1839), whose work can be found in

St Paul's Cathedral St Paul's Cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in London and is the seat of the Bishop of London. The cathedral serves as the mother church of the Diocese of London. It is on Ludgate Hill at the highest point of the City of London and is a Grad ...

Buckingham Palace Buckingham Palace () is a London royal residence and the administrative headquarters of the monarch of the United Kingdom. Located in the City of Westminster, the palace is often at the centre of state occasions and royal hospitality. It ...

and The Royal Opera House Covent Garden. Braybrooke was married three times, firstly to Lettice Marjorie Bellairs in 1921, secondly to Ida Cooper in 1929, and thirdly to Rita Ellen Constance Rivers Cripps (née Hatherell) in 1937. His son by his first marriage, Neville Braybrooke, also a writer, edited ''The Letters of J. R. Ackerley'' (1975) and wrote, with his wife June, ''Olivia Manning: A Life'' (2004).

Works

* ''Oddments'' (1921) * ''Suggestive Fragments'' (1922) * ''Gilbert Keith Chesterton'' (1922) * ''Some Thoughts on Hilaire Belloc: Ten Studies'' (1923) * ''John Morley'' (1924) * ''J M Barrie: a Study in Fairies and Mortals'' (1924) * ''Considerations on Edmund Gosse'' (1925) * ''The Genius of Bernard Shaw'' (1925) * ''Kipling and His Soldiers'' (1926) * ''Novelists: We Are Seven'' (1926) * ''Cruelty: Being the Story of a Peculiar Young Man'' (1926) * ''The Short Story: How to Write It'' (1927) * ''Peeps at the Mighty'' (1927) * ''Some Goddesses of the Pen: Studies of Eight Women Authors'' (1927) * ''The Man Who Arrived'' (1927) * ''Thomas Hardy and His Philosophy'' (1928) * ''Some Aspects of H G Wells'' (1928) * ''A Chesterton Catholic Anthology'' (1929) * ''A Child's R L Stevenson'' (1929) * ''The Wisdom of G K Chesterton'' (1929) * ''Great Children in Literature'' (1929) * ''The Subtlety of George Bernard Shaw'' (1930) * ''A Child's Charles Dickens'' (1930) * ''Celebrities in Verse'' (1930) * ''Oscar Wilde: A Study'' (1930) * ''Some Catholic Novelists'' (1931) * ''Philosophies in Modern Fiction'' (1931) * ''The Life and Work of Lord Alfred Douglas'' (1931) * ''The Young Folk's Sir Walter Scott'' (1931) * ''The Robert Louis Stevenson Book'' (1932) * ''Some Victorian and Georgian Catholics: Their Art and Outlook'' (1932) * ''The Amazing Mr Noel Coward'' (1933) * ''Moments With Burns, Scott and Stevenson: Selected Quotations'' (1933) * ''I Remember G K Chesterton'' (1938)

References

External links

* * * Patrick Braybrooke
''Gilbert Keith Chesterton''
at Project Gutenberg. * Patrick Braybrooke
Thoughts on Hilaire Belloc''
at Internet Archive.
''The Writers' Arms''
for a description of Braybrooke's life and writing. {{DEFAULTSORT:Braybrooke, Patrick English literary critics 1894 births 1956 deaths Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature Alumni of King's College London British Army personnel of World War I Royal Fusiliers officers English male non-fiction writers 20th-century English male writers