William Pett Ridge (22 April 18592 October 1930) was an English fiction writer, born at

Chartham Chartham is a village and civil parish in the Canterbury district of Kent, England. It is situated on the Ashford side of the city, and is in the North Downs area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, south west of Canterbury, England. The Great St ...

, near

Canterbury Canterbury (, ) is a cathedral city and UNESCO World Heritage Site, situated in the heart of the City of Canterbury local government district of Kent, England. It lies on the River Stour. The Archbishop of Canterbury is the primate of ...

, Kent, and educated at

Marden, Kent Marden ( or ) is a village and civil parish in the Kent borough of Maidstone approximately south of Maidstone. The civil parish is located on the flood plain of the River Beult, and also includes Chainhurst and the hamlet of Wanshurst Green. Th ...

, and at the

Birkbeck Institute , mottoeng = Advice comes over nightTranslation used by Birkbeck. , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £4.3 m (2014) , budget = £109 ...

, London. He was for some time a clerk in the Railway Clearing House, and began about 1891 to write humorous sketches for the ''

St James's Gazette The ''St James's Gazette'' was a London evening newspaper published from 1880 to 1905. It was founded by the Conservative Henry Hucks Gibbs, later Baron Aldenham, a director of the Bank of England 1853–1901 and its governor 1875–1877; the ...

'' and other papers.

Writings and character

His published first novel was ''A Clever Wife'' (1895), but he secured his first striking success with his fifth, ''Mord Em'ly'' (1898), which showed his ability to draw humorous portraits of lower-class life. In 1924, fellow novelist Edwin Pugh recalled his early memories of Pett Ridge in the 1890s: Pett Ridge was a compassionate man, giving generously of both his time and money to charity. He founded the Babies Home at

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It li ...

in 1907 and was an ardent supporter of many organisations that had the welfare of children as their object. This charitable zeal, and the fact that he established himself as the leading novelist of London life and character, led to him being marked as a natural successor of

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian er ...

. On 7 January 1914, in King's Hall, Covent Garden, he was a member of the jury in the mock trial of John Jasper for the murder of

Edwin Drood ''The Mystery of Edwin Drood'' is the final novel by Charles Dickens, originally published in 1870. Though the novel is named after the character Edwin Drood, it focuses more on Drood's uncle, John Jasper, a precentor, choirmaster and opiu ...

. At this all-star event, arranged by The Dickens Fellowship, G.K. Chesterton was Judge and

George Bernard Shaw George Bernard Shaw (26 July 1856 – 2 November 1950), known at his insistence simply as Bernard Shaw, was an Irish playwright, critic, polemicist and political activist. His influence on Western theatre, culture and politics extended from ...

appeared as foreman of the jury. All his friends considered Pett Ridge to be one of life's natural bachelors. They were rather surprised therefore in 1909 when he married Olga Hentschel. Four of his books, including ''Mord Em'ly'', were adapted as films in the early 1920s, all with scripts by

Eliot Stannard Eliot Stannard (1 March 1888 – 21 November 1944) was an English screenwriter and director. He was the son of civil engineer Arthur Stannard and Yorkshire-born novelist Henrietta Eliza Vaughan Palmer. Stannard wrote the screenplay for more ...

. Pett Ridge's great popularity as a novelist in the early part of the century declined in the latter years of his life. His work was considered to be rather old fashioned, though he still wrote and had published at least one book in each year in the final decade of his life. His last work, ''Led by Westmacott'', was published in the year after his death. William Pett Ridge died, aged 71, at his home, Ampthill, Willow Grove, Chislehurst, on 29 September 1930 and was cremated at West Norwood on 2 October 1930. His ashes were taken away by his surviving family, his wife, a son, and his daughter Olga, a pianist and teacher who married the composer

Norman Fulton (Robert) Norman Fulton (23 January 1909 - 5 August 1980) was an English-born composer, broadcaster and teacher of Scottish ancestry. Life and career Fulton was born in London but educated in Scotland at Glasgow High School. From 1929 until 1933 ...

in 1936. His headstone in St Nicholas Churchyard, Chislehurst describes him as a ‘Novelist and Friend of the Cockneys’.'William Pett Ridge' at ''billiongraves.com''
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Legacy

Pett Ridge completed over sixty volumes of novels, short stories, and two memoirs. But by the end of his life his popularity had waned. George Malcolm Johnson has said that he:

Works

His books and stories include: *''Eighteen of Them'' (1894) (Under the pseudonym of Warwick Simpson.) *''Telling Stories from St. James Gazette'' (1895) *''Minor Dialogues'' (1895) *''A Clever Wife'' (1895) *''An Important Man and Others'' (1896) *''Second Opportunity of Mr Staplehurst'' (1896) Online *''Secretary to Bayne M.P.'' (1897) *''Three Women and Mr. Frank Cardwell'' (1897) *''Mord Em'ly'' (1898) *''Outside The Radius. Stories of a London suburb'' (1899) *''A Son of the State (1899)'' Online *''A Breaker of Laws (1900)'' Online *''London Only. A Set Of Common Occurrences'' (1901) *''Lost Property'' (1902) Online *''Up Side Streets – Short Stories'' (1903) *''Erb'' (1903) *''George And The General'' (1904) *''Next Door Neighbours'' (1904) Online *''Mrs Galer's Business'' (1905) Online *''On Company's Service'' (1905) *''The Wickhamses'' (1906) *''Name of Garland'' (1907) Online *''Nearly Five Million'' (1907) *''Speaking Rather Seriously'' (1908) *''Sixty Nine Birnam Road'' (1908) *''Thomas Henry'' (1909) *''Table d'Hôte. Tales'' (1910) *''Splendid Brother'' (1910) *''From Nine to Six-Thirty'' (1910) *''Light Refreshment'' (1911) *''Thanks to Sanderson'' (1911) *''Love at Paddington'' (1912) Online *''Devoted Sparkes'' (1912) *''The Remington Sentence'' (1913) *''Mixed Grill'' (1913) Online *''The Happy Recruit'' (1914) *''The Kennedy People'' (1915) *''Book Here – Short Stories'' (1915) *''Stray Thoughts from W. Pett Ridge'' (1916) *''On Toast'' (1916) *''Madam Prince'' (1916) *''The Amazing Years'' (1917) Online *''Special Performance'' (1918) *''Top Speed'' (1918) *''Well-To-Do-Arthur'' (1920) *''Just Open. Short Stories'' (1920) *''Bannerton's Agency'' (1921) *''Richard Triumphant'' (1922) *''Lunch Basket – Tales'' (1923) *''Miss Mannering'' (1923) *''Rare Luck'' (1924) *''Leaps And Bounds'' (1924) *''A Story Teller – Forty Years In London'' (1923) *''Just Like Aunt Bertha'' (1925) *''I Like To Remember'' (1925) *''Our Mr Willis'' (1926) *''London Types Taken From Life'' (1926) *''Easy Distances'' (1927) *''Hayward's Fight'' (1927) *''The Two Mackenzies'' (1928) *''The Slippery Ladder'' (1929) *''Affectionate Regards'' (1929) *''Eldest Miss Collingwood'' (1930) *''Led by Westmacott'' (1931) William Pett Ridge also wrote a play titled "Four small plays"; one of the originals is in the ownership of direct descendants of his.

References

*Vincent Brome, ''Four Realist Novelists: Arthur Morrison, Edwin Pugh, Richard Whiteing, William Pett Ridge'' (1965), 'Writers and their Work'

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pettridge, William 1859 births 1930 deaths 20th-century English novelists Alumni of Birkbeck, University of London People from Chartham Burials at West Norwood Cemetery English male novelists 20th-century English male writers