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| More on Yorkshire's most prolific writer, ever | More on Yorkshire's most prolific writer, ever |
| (about 1 month later) | |
| Readers of the Guardian Northerner will have seen our recent piece on North Country Theatre's production of The Lighthouse on Shivering Sands, adapted from a novel of 1911 by Halifax-born and Wakefield-educated J.S.Fletcher. | Readers of the Guardian Northerner will have seen our recent piece on North Country Theatre's production of The Lighthouse on Shivering Sands, adapted from a novel of 1911 by Halifax-born and Wakefield-educated J.S.Fletcher. |
| While many other Yorkshire writers have enjoyed continuing popularity - think of Charlotte Bronte and her sisters or JB Priestley - Fletcher has rather faded from public consciousness. Indeed, on being asked to write this piece, this outpost of the Northerner believed that she had never previously heard of him, until she chanced on a battered copy of his Nooks and Corners of Yorkshire while dusting the bookshelves, itself a rare event... | While many other Yorkshire writers have enjoyed continuing popularity - think of Charlotte Bronte and her sisters or JB Priestley - Fletcher has rather faded from public consciousness. Indeed, on being asked to write this piece, this outpost of the Northerner believed that she had never previously heard of him, until she chanced on a battered copy of his Nooks and Corners of Yorkshire while dusting the bookshelves, itself a rare event... |
| In the pages relating to my own home of the Calder Valley, Fletcher writes: | In the pages relating to my own home of the Calder Valley, Fletcher writes: |
| In places like Ripponden, Mytholmroyd and Barkisland, any discerning traveller will see things which he will not find elsewhere in England | In places like Ripponden, Mytholmroyd and Barkisland, any discerning traveller will see things which he will not find elsewhere in England |
although annoyingly, he does not state what these things might be, going straight on to discuss the Halifax Gibbet, and not returning to the villages. He does, however, give a helpful list of inns and hotels nearby; the two listed for Halifax, the White Swan and the Old Cock, are still there. | although annoyingly, he does not state what these things might be, going straight on to discuss the Halifax Gibbet, and not returning to the villages. He does, however, give a helpful list of inns and hotels nearby; the two listed for Halifax, the White Swan and the Old Cock, are still there. |
| Fletcher was an immensely fast and prolific writer, which may be why he forgot to go back to the Calderdale curiosities. He wrote 237 books, more than any other Yorkshire person ever, which leaves me, as a fellow writer, exhausted simply thinking about it. His oeuvre spanned fiction, history, dialect and poetry. | Fletcher was an immensely fast and prolific writer, which may be why he forgot to go back to the Calderdale curiosities. He wrote 237 books, more than any other Yorkshire person ever, which leaves me, as a fellow writer, exhausted simply thinking about it. His oeuvre spanned fiction, history, dialect and poetry. |
| Born in 1863, the son of a clergyman who died when his son was only eight months old, Joseph Smith Fletcher went on to become one of the leading exponents of crime-writing's 'Golden Age'. Among his creations was the clerical detective Rev. Francis Leggatt, vicar of Meddersley, a place described in shorthand familiar today as being located 'away in the North.' Another creation was private investigator Ronald Camberwell, who features in several of Fletcher's books. | Born in 1863, the son of a clergyman who died when his son was only eight months old, Joseph Smith Fletcher went on to become one of the leading exponents of crime-writing's 'Golden Age'. Among his creations was the clerical detective Rev. Francis Leggatt, vicar of Meddersley, a place described in shorthand familiar today as being located 'away in the North.' Another creation was private investigator Ronald Camberwell, who features in several of Fletcher's books. |
| Loyally, Calderdale libraries still hold 131 of his titles, among them such enticing works as Cobweb Castle and Dead Men's Money, each one taking only a few weeks to polish off. Thanks in part to President Woodrow Wilson's admiration for his work, especially his best-known title Murder in the Middle Temple, Fletcher became better known in the United States than in Britain. | Loyally, Calderdale libraries still hold 131 of his titles, among them such enticing works as Cobweb Castle and Dead Men's Money, each one taking only a few weeks to polish off. Thanks in part to President Woodrow Wilson's admiration for his work, especially his best-known title Murder in the Middle Temple, Fletcher became better known in the United States than in Britain. |
| Originally a student of law, Fletcher switched to journalism for its greater excitement and worked on the Leeds Mercury and the Yorkshire Post. His wholly inappropriate byline for an urban child who continued to live and work in cities was 'Son of the Soil'. His plots often revolve around clever swindles, rather than murder, and he is quoted as saying: | Originally a student of law, Fletcher switched to journalism for its greater excitement and worked on the Leeds Mercury and the Yorkshire Post. His wholly inappropriate byline for an urban child who continued to live and work in cities was 'Son of the Soil'. His plots often revolve around clever swindles, rather than murder, and he is quoted as saying: |
| I believe I got my interest in criminology right from the fact that a famous case of fraud was heard at the Quarter Sessions at a town where I was at school - its circumstances were unusual and mysterious and the truth hard to get at; oddly enough, I have never yet used this as the basis of a story. Then, when I left school, I meant to be a barrister and I read criminal law and attended a great many queer trials for some time. But turning to journalism instead, I knew of a great many queer cases on famous murder trials. Also, I learnt a good deal about criminology in conversations with the late HB Irving the famous actor, who was an expert. | I believe I got my interest in criminology right from the fact that a famous case of fraud was heard at the Quarter Sessions at a town where I was at school - its circumstances were unusual and mysterious and the truth hard to get at; oddly enough, I have never yet used this as the basis of a story. Then, when I left school, I meant to be a barrister and I read criminal law and attended a great many queer trials for some time. But turning to journalism instead, I knew of a great many queer cases on famous murder trials. Also, I learnt a good deal about criminology in conversations with the late HB Irving the famous actor, who was an expert. |
| Another of his singular traits was creating a setting for his financial whodunnits which comprised a bank with bedrooms attached which helped the plots to rattle entertainingly along. Such arrangements were not uncommon in northern cities, where bankers and accountants liked to stay close to their work during times of crisis or major audit or not infrequently didn't just stay late at the office, but slept there. | Another of his singular traits was creating a setting for his financial whodunnits which comprised a bank with bedrooms attached which helped the plots to rattle entertainingly along. Such arrangements were not uncommon in northern cities, where bankers and accountants liked to stay close to their work during times of crisis or major audit or not infrequently didn't just stay late at the office, but slept there. |
| Fletcher married the Irish writer, Rosamond Grant Langbridge, with whom he had a son. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and died in 1935. It is time for a revival of interest in his work and perhaps North Country Theatre's choice of play will get that under way. | Fletcher married the Irish writer, Rosamond Grant Langbridge, with whom he had a son. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, and died in 1935. It is time for a revival of interest in his work and perhaps North Country Theatre's choice of play will get that under way. |
| Michael Nunn, who reviews plays at Lancaster for the Northerner from time to time, adds: | Michael Nunn, who reviews plays at Lancaster for the Northerner from time to time, adds: |
| I was delighted to see your kind mention of my relative by marriage Joseph Smith Fletcher. His son, Rev Valentine Fletcher, married my late father's cousin, Phyllis Muriel (Mary) Hinckley, the daughter of a Birmingham schoolmaster, Arthur Hinckley MC MSc. The Hinckleys, including my grandmother Emily Jane, were originally from Altofts and Normanton, West Riding. Mary Fletcher went to Oxford in the 1920s and worked as a teacher and examiner. Valentine himself was at Oriel, Oxford, and served as an Anglican priest in Elland, Bradford, Duxford in Cambridgeshire, Dundee Cathedral and Littlemore in Oxfordshire. He published a monograph, Newman's Oxford, in the 1970s. I am of course delighted (not least as a mere journalist but as one who's just had a newly-devised evening of rehearsed readings performed in Lancaster's Grand Theatre) that JSF's work is being reappraised and indeed performed. He certainly was a leading figure in early C20 detective fiction, owing not a little to Dickens and Conan Doyle. He also published guidebooks to his beloved North, including historical city guides to Leeds and Sheffield. Since a recent downsizing move I've given my Fletcher collection to our local Oxfam Bookshop, but I'm sure there are still plenty of his works available if one looks in the right places. | I was delighted to see your kind mention of my relative by marriage Joseph Smith Fletcher. His son, Rev Valentine Fletcher, married my late father's cousin, Phyllis Muriel (Mary) Hinckley, the daughter of a Birmingham schoolmaster, Arthur Hinckley MC MSc. The Hinckleys, including my grandmother Emily Jane, were originally from Altofts and Normanton, West Riding. Mary Fletcher went to Oxford in the 1920s and worked as a teacher and examiner. Valentine himself was at Oriel, Oxford, and served as an Anglican priest in Elland, Bradford, Duxford in Cambridgeshire, Dundee Cathedral and Littlemore in Oxfordshire. He published a monograph, Newman's Oxford, in the 1970s. I am of course delighted (not least as a mere journalist but as one who's just had a newly-devised evening of rehearsed readings performed in Lancaster's Grand Theatre) that JSF's work is being reappraised and indeed performed. He certainly was a leading figure in early C20 detective fiction, owing not a little to Dickens and Conan Doyle. He also published guidebooks to his beloved North, including historical city guides to Leeds and Sheffield. Since a recent downsizing move I've given my Fletcher collection to our local Oxfam Bookshop, but I'm sure there are still plenty of his works available if one looks in the right places. |
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