Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet (2 March 1926 – 7 March 2014), better known by his
pen name Thomas Hinde, was a British novelist.
Life
Thomas Chitty was born in
Felixstowe
Felixstowe ( ) is a port town in Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, container port in the United Kingdom. Felixstowe is approximately 116km (72 miles) northea ...
,
Suffolk, England, the son of
Sir Thomas Henry Willes Chitty, 2nd Baronet, a barrister, and his wife Ethel Constance Gladstone, daughter of Samuel Henry Gladstone. He was educated at
Winchester College
Winchester College is a public school (fee-charging independent day and boarding school) in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It was founded by William of Wykeham in 1382 and has existed in its present location ever since. It is the oldest of ...
and
University College, Oxford
University College (in full The College of the Great Hall of the University of Oxford, colloquially referred to as "Univ") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It has a claim to being the oldest college of the unive ...
. After service in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
, he worked briefly for the
Inland Revenue
The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation t ...
and then for the
Shell
Shell may refer to:
Architecture and design
* Shell (structure), a thin structure
** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses
** Thin-shell structure
Science Biology
* Seashell, a hard o ...
Petroleum Company, before becoming a full-time writer. He became a
baronet
A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14t ...
on the death of his father in 1955.
Chitty married
Susan Hopkinson (1929-2021), daughter of the novelist
Antonia White
Antonia White (born Eirene Adeline Botting; 31 March 1899 – 10 April 1980) was a British writer and translator, known primarily for ''Frost in May'', a semi-autobiographical novel set in a convent school. It was the first book reissued by Virag ...
, in 1951; the couple remained wed until his death in 2014; they had four children. Hinde and his wife, also an author writing under the name Susan Chitty, lived at Bow Cottage,
West Hoathly
West Hoathly is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, located south west of East Grinstead. In the 2001 census 2,121 people, of whom 1,150 were economically active, lived in 813 households. At the 201 ...
,
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...
, a village on the edge of
Ashdown Forest
Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. It is situated some south of London in the county of East Sussex, England. Rising to an elevation
o ...
in the
High Weald.
Pseudonym
The surname Hinde belonged to Chitty's family history on his mother's side. Samuel Henry Gladstone (1853–1932) was son of Robert Gladstone, the younger (1811–1872), of Highfield, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, a member of the Liverpool Gladstone family. Robert Gladstone married in 1852 Anne Mary Hinde, daughter of Samuel Hinde of Lancaster; and after her death another Miss Hinde, a cousin of his first wife.
Works
His first novel, ''Mr Nicholas'', was published in 1953.
His second, ''Happy As Larry'', the story of a disaffected, unemployable, aspiring writer with a failed marriage, led critics to associate him with the
Angry Young Men
The "angry young men" were a group of mostly working- and middle-class British playwrights and novelists who became prominent in the 1950s. The group's leading figures included John Osborne and Kingsley Amis; other popular figures included Jo ...
movement.
An excerpt from ''Happy As Larry'' appeared in the popular paperback anthology, ''Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men''.
Hinde published thirteen further novels before turning to non-fiction. After 1980, he also published books on English stately homes and gardens, English court life, and the forests of Britain, as well as histories of English schools.
Bibliography
Novels
*''Mr. Nicholas'' (1953)
*''Happy as Larry'' (1958)
*''For the Good of the Company'' (1961)
*''A Place Like Home'' (1962)
*''The Cage'' (1962)
*''Ninety Double Martinis'' (1963)
*''The Day the Call Came'' (1964)
*''Games of Chance: The Interviewer, The Investigator'' (1965)
*''The Village'' (1966)
*''High'' (1968)
*''Bird'' (1970)
*''Generally a Virgin'' (1972)
*''Agent'' (1974)
*''Our Father'' (1975)
*''Daymare'' (1980)
Nonfiction
*''Spain A Personal Anthology'' 1963 (Newnes)
*''On Next to Nothing: A Guide to Survival Today'' (1976, with Susan Chitty)
*''The Great Donkey Walk'' (1977, with Susan Chitty)
*''The Cottage Book: A Manual of Maintenance, Repair, and Construction'' (1979)
*''Sir Henry and Sons: A Memoir'' (1980)
*''A Field Guide to the English Country Parson'' (1983)
*''Stately Gardens of Britain'' (1983)
*''Forests of Britain'' (1985)
*''Just Chicken'' (1986, with Cordelia Chitty)
*''Capability Brown: The Story of a Master Gardener'' (1987)
*''Courtiers: 900 Years of English Court Life'' (1986)
*''Tales from the Pump Room: Nine Hundred Years of Bath: The Place, Its People, and Its Gossip'' (1988)
*''Imps of Promise: A History of the King's School, Canterbury'' (1990)
*''Paths of Progress: A History of Marlborough College'' (1992)
*''Highgate School: A History'' (1993)
*''The Martlet and the Griffen: An Illustrated History of Abingdon School''(1997, With Michael St John Parker)
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinde, Thomas
1926 births
2014 deaths
People from Felixstowe
People educated at Winchester College
Alumni of University College, Oxford
Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom
English male novelists
20th-century English novelists
20th-century English male writers
Chitty family