JAMES EDWARD TURNER

 

JAMES EDWARD TURNER:
NOVELIST, POET, LECTURER, BROADCASTER
BY
BARRY VAN-ASTEN

 

 

My first encounter with the name James Turner, poet and gardener, was when reading ‘The Ghosts of Borley: Annals of the Haunted Rectory’ by Paul Tabori and Peter Underwood (1973) and since then Borley and Turner have become a delightful obsession.

James Edward Turner was born in the village of Foots Cray in Kent on 16^th January 1909; his father was the architect and surveyor, Hamilton Hall Turner, who had once been a Quantity Surveyor in the Admiralty, born in Bridport in Dorset in 1869; he published his volume: ‘Architectural Practice and Procedure’ in 1925 (1) and his mother was Dora Isabel Bertha Hardy, born in 1876 in Aston, Warwickshire. Hamilton and Dora were married in Yeovil, Somerset on 27^th July 1899 and after settling in Carshalton, then in Surrey, their first child, Dorothea Isabel Turner was born in Wandsworth, London on 13^th June 1900 (2). The next child was John Hamilton Turner, born on 13^th December 1901 in Epsom, Surrey – John became a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors (FRICS) and was awarded an M.B.E.; he became a Quantity Surveyor and was a consultant in his father’s firm: Hamilton H Turner & Sons, Chartered Quantity Surveyors which had their central office in Maidstone, Kent. John died in Paddington in 1974. The next child was Ernest Hall Turner born in Bromley in 1905 who sadly died the following year aged around 18 months. James was the next child in 1909 followed by Philip Hall Turner, born like James, in Footscray, Kent, on 19^th April 1910 – Philip was educated at Denstone School and Wykeham House School in 1919 and also became a Chartered Surveyor; he married Eileen W. Sperring in Bromley in 1930; Philip died in Pontefract, Yorkshire in 1974, the same year as his brother John. The last member of the Turner family was Mary Dionissia Turner born in Bromley in 1913 while the family were living at 9, Carlton Road, Sidcup. She was educated at St. Michael’s School, Bognor and married Rowley Arthur Denis Lascelles (born Midhurst, Sussex in 1911) in Bromley in 1938 and went to live in South Africa. Mary died in 1988.

James Edward Turner was educated at Wykeham House School, Worthing, Sussex, from the age of 9 in 1918; that same year the family moved from 9, Carlton Road in Sidcup, a short distance to Westburton, The Park, which had previously been a girls’ school. James was brought up in an Anglican household and confirmed by the Bishop of Rochester at St. Mary’s Church, Kemsing, Kent, in an evening service during the spring of 1920 when he was 11 years old. It was always his intention to go into the Church and do missionary work. He went from Wykeham House to Lancing College and in his last two years there he was a ‘sacrastan’ being prepared to enter Cuddesdon College and the clergy. At Lancing his Housemaster was Captain Whitworth and he was also in Field House with Desmond Flower (1907-1997), later author and publisher at Cassell’s. James left Lancing in 1927 and went up to Queen’s College, Oxford the same year aged eighteen, to read English. His rooms were on the top floor, number 9 staircase, Back Quad, Queen’s College. After two years at Oxford, where he’d also attended lectures by Professor Tolkien in Old English, James realised that he did not want to enter the Church, in fact, he was losing his faith and belief in God. He was beginning to live a bohemian and literary life and smoked his first and only opium pipe in rooms at Drawda Hall. He left the Back Quad for lodgings in the Iffley Road and failed to take his degree. After Oxford James took on some small work as a schoolmaster at a prep school in Sheringham, Norfolk for half a term and then lived in London for a year and half-starved; he worked as an assistant at Foyle’s Bookshop for a short time while living in a small room in Cambridge Terrace off Edgeware Road before entering his father’s office, 19, Queen Anne’s Gate, and almost burning the place down to the ground with a discarded cigarette! The hapless young man who showed such promise for the Church moved from Cambridge Terrace to a room near Victoria Station and filled his spare time attempting to write novels.

 

CATHERINE

 

It was while recovering from pneumonia at Homestead Nursing Home in Seaton, Devon, during November 1933 that he met and fell in love with one of the nurses there – Lucie Alice Porter. After his recovery, in the summer of 1934, he found unpaid work in Sompting, Sussex, working for Mr. Russell’s tomato nursery where he learnt the art of growing. In the last weeks of January 1935 he moved to Church Hill cottage in the village of Angmering and did unpaid work at Orchard Nursery in East Preston, near Littlehampton. The nursery was owned by Richard Plunket Greene and he was there for six months before he had the idea to grow his own mushrooms at the family holiday home in Staplehurst, the Limes; James had spent his summer vacations from Oxford there and was now there by himself for a year from April 1935, attempting to grow mushrooms in the sheds and cellars which did not prove successful.

James married Lucie Alice Porter whom he always referred to as ‘Catherine’ (from ‘Wuthering Heights’) at 9 a.m. on 4^th March 1936 at St. Barnabus Church, Eltham; it was a foggy morning and the service was conducted by James’s Uncle, the Reverend John Gwynne Pryse Hardy (3). Turner tells us very little about his in-laws in the two volumes of his autobiography, although he does sprinkle a few clues as to their identity; he mentions Lucie (Catherine) being born in London a year after him, so 1910, (actually, from her registration of death in January 1993, we get her birth as: 9^th April 1910) and Catherine’s father’s name being Tom and that he was in the ‘Household Cavalry’ before they moved to a farm in Ledbury, Shropshire. He also informs us that after Catherine’s father died about 1951, Catherine’s mother lived with James and Catherine; she herself died, he tells us in ‘Sometimes into England’, at the Royal Cornwall Infirmary in Truro on 13^th April 1964, aged 82. With a little bit of detective work in the style of Turner’s character, Rampion Savage, I am able to deduce from the deaths during the April-June quarter for 1964 that Catherine’s mother’s name was Daisy Porter, who died in Truro aged 83 (not 82). Further, looking at the marriages prior to Lucie’s birth, so about 1900-1910, we find Thomas Porter, marrying Daisy Horten in the April-June quarter of 1908 at St. Pancras, London.

After the wedding James and Catherine rented River Farm in Boughton Monchelsea, Kent till Christmas 1936 before moving to The Limes – James was now facing bankruptcy. Throughout all this time James had been busy trying to write a novel: his first attempt was rejected by Basil Blackwell and his second by Constable, now, his third attempt, ‘Mass of Death’ was accepted by Fortune Press and published in October 1937.

After a few weeks in a flat in Worthing, James and Catherine went to London on 7^th March 1938 to live at 53, Cambridge Terrace before moving to 129a, King’s Road, Chelsea on 24^th May. James began reading manuscripts for his old Lancing College friend, Desmond Flower at Cassell (4) and Cathy worked at University College Hospital. In October James was working as a secretary-chauffeur near Olympia until around May 1939, but during that October the inevitable happened and proceedings were brought against James for non payment of debts – James made his petition for bankruptcy on 7^th November that year and his bankruptcy period lasted until his discharge on 15^th August 1940.

Turner’s first short story, ‘Red King’ was published by the Star evening newspaper on 30^th March 1939 and on 27^th May, he and Catherine left London and began renting a bungalow, Little Weedon, in North Lane, East Preston, near the Orchard Nursery. Turner’s second short story, ‘Traffic Lights’ had appeared in the Tatler on Wednesday 5^th April 1939 and now a third, ‘River Farm’ was also accepted by the Star. On 5^th June 1939, James began paid work at Orchard Nursery. On 31^st December 1941, James and Catherine moved to the first in a series of haunted properties, Layer Marney Rectory in Essex and James began working at Malting Green Nursery. The Turner’s left the Rectory and its poltergeist in November 1942 and went to live at Sunnyside cottage in Malting Green, a place of strange foreboding, rich in suicides. James had by now bought shares in a nursery at Layer-de-la-Haye, and subsequently bought the business outright and they moved to Denstone cottage, near Mill House, Malting Green on 10^th June 1943. The following year, Catherine had surgery for a toxic thyroid at Colchester Hospital on 9^th September 1944 and returned home on 20^th September. The Turner’s dreamt of a house of their own and plans were drawn up to build a bungalow on their nursery site at Layer-de-la-Haye, which began in March 1946. The bungalow was completed and they moved in on 4^th September 1946 but felt that the property was soulless; following a fire there caused by a paraffin stove on 1^st February 1947, they sold it and the nursery in April.

 

BORLEY

 

‘Nowadays you cannot hope to track a ghost
without being an expert electrician. How the
ghosts must laugh!’

[introduction. The Unlikely Ghosts. James Turner. 1967]

 

 

James and Catherine Turner went to Borley on Wednesday 22^nd January 1947 to view the remains of the Rectory which had been destroyed by fire in February 1939.James and Catherine had visited the site in the summer of 1943 when they went with friends to watch until dawn for signs of the ghostly nun. James now saw that the site had great potential as a nursery business and they bought the site, which included four acres of orchards; they had now sold their bungalow and nursery business at Layer-de-la-Haye and moved into the old stable cottage on Tuesday 29^th April. The Suffolk and Essex Free Press of Thursday 29^th May 1947 (p. 1) reported on the Turners’ acquiring Borley Rectory, saying that Mrs’ Turner’s comment on the location on Friday morning (23^rd May) was that it’s ‘heavenly’ – ‘It was, indeed, glorious, with the sun glowing over the rich landscape and that scene made memorable by the writing of Mr. Harry Price.’ It was certainly a ‘fit place for a poet and mystic; excellent spot for a fruit grower, as is Mr. Turner. A Kentish man, he has come to Borley – that pretty Essex village near Sudbury – from Colchester where he had a nursery business. Mr. Turner has already published two volumes of poems, “Pastoral” and “The Alien Wood”, and a third, “The Hollow Vale” Cambridge University Press is being issued shortly.’

On Saturday 17^th May 1947, the author and investigator, Peter Underwood came to Borley and stayed overnight to investigate the church and the cottage.

The controversy and mystery surrounding the hauntings at Borley continued throughout the Turner’s tenure at the cottage and sensational stories appeared in the press, such as this one from the Chelmsford Chronicle of Friday 23^rd May 1947 (p. 1) under the title ‘Borley Rectory Ghost “Pinches” Cap Off Poet’s Petrol Tank’ which states that ‘James Turner, the poet, has been living at the cottage at Borley Rectory (the Most Haunted House in England) for just a month, and reports that on three occasions when he left his car under a certain walnut tree the cap of the petrol tank vanished and has not been found since. Apart from that he has seen or heard nothing, although sightseers are constantly exploring the Rectory and grounds, and parties arrive to spend the night in the ruins. Last week-end two young clerks from Letchworth (Herts) stayed at the Rectory, where they carried out experiments by constantly investigating the house to make sure nothing was moved. They heard only peculiar scuffling. Mr. Turner’s latest book of poetry, The Hollow Vale, will be published by the Cambridge University Press next week. He hopes to write poetry while at Borley Rectory cottage…’

In the Bury Free Press of Friday 30^th May 1947 (p. 1) we see another humorous attempt to sensationalise the hauntings: ‘Borley Ghost Stages Mild “Come-Back”’ which says that ‘Mr. James Turner, 38 years-old poet farmer, and his wife are taking up residence. They think it’s heavenly. Mr. Turner intends to restore the grounds as near as possible to their former design, and reconstructing the summer house in the famous “Nun’s Walk”, hopes to persuade the lady to return. So far they have seen nothing. But others claim to have heard in recent days swishing sounds as someone in a long dress was passing, and footsteps. Nothing was seen. And then, a few days ago, a BBC man came down to Borley to make a recording song of the nightingale. It was he who heard the tapping noise coming from the “Cold Spot”.’

On Whit Monday 26^th May 1947, Turner with the Reverend Henning, his wife and a local Sudbury resident, John Durrant were in the church and they opened up the flooring to find a black marble tombstone, that of the Reverend Humphrey Burroughs, Rector of Borley from 1722-1757; that same day, Turner broke through into the vault and found three skeletons – ‘the hole was closed again and now, of course, the new floor covers the place, leaving the black tomb slab’. [Haunted Borley. A. C. Henning. 1949. p. 29]

In June the same year, Turner was clearing away overgrown brambles on the ‘Nun’s Walk’ and heard the sound of talking and laughter which desisted when he stopped work, only to begin again when he took up the task. His wife, Catherine, also heard the sounds in the same location with her husband on several occasions. Publicity in the press brought two men from the B.B.C. to Borley, Alan Burgess and Peter Eton, who helped Reverend Henning with some of the digging and interviewed several local people for a broadcast which was aired on Sunday 29^th June that year on the Home Service (5). In the broadcast, Turner quipped that ‘the sight of three B.B.C. chaps stripped to the waist and neck-deep in Mother Earth was a sight for sore eyes, a psychic phenomenon of the highest order.’ The Suffolk and Essex Press of Thursday 3^rd July 1947 (p. 18) reported on the radio broadcast, saying ‘”Ghosts? Nonsense”. Mt. J. Turner, the poet-farmer, now resident at the Rectory cottage, whom we interviewed recently rounded off the broadcast with a reference to the beauty of the surroundings in which he is fruit farming, and the probability of peace henceforth! But you never know – with a ghost!’

On Saturday 2^nd August 1947, Turner went to the churchyard across the road just after midnight and sat for a while, around 45 minutes, no doubt enjoying his pipe of tobacco. At about one o’clock, after the Sudbury clock struck, he heard the sound of footsteps and a swishing sound coming towards him up the path to the church porch.

A Séance was held at the Cottage on Tuesday 8^th June 1948 in which the Turners, along with the Rev. John Dening, Mrs. Gay Taylor of Chelsea and Tommy Frankland, an eccentric young man at Trinity College, Cambridge, sat around a table after midnight with a planchette; little happened except Catherine feeling disturbed by the fact that they should not be doing such a thing.

It was while James and Catherine were living at Borley that news of his father’s death came: ‘my brother Jack rang up at eleven o’clock at night to say that my father had died that day at five-thirty… apparently my father rushed into the garden to stop some Sidcup boys breaking down the palings, felt suddenly ill and only managed to reach a couch in the drawing-room before he collapsed and died.’ – Hamilton Hall Turner, son of John Turner (1830-1878) and Elizabeth Dionysia Hall (1827-1901) who were married in Bridport on 23^rd December 1862, died at the family home in Westburton, The Park, Sidcup, on 5^th October 1949 aged 80 and following a service at St John’s Church, Sidcup his cremation took place at Streatham crematorium and his ashes were placed in the family grave in Sidcup. (6)

The constant trespassing on the site was wearisome to the Turners and newspaper reports made no secret of this: ‘Ghost Hunters Drive Owners Away. Borley Rectory, Most Haunted Spot, For Sale’ read the Suffolk and Essex Free Press of Tuesday 26^th September 1950 (p. 13) which went on to say that ‘Mr. James Turner, poet and writer, who has lived there for the past four years, has moved to Belchamp Walter and advertised the famous Rectory in a national newspaper personal column. Only a low wall built round the site it formerly occupied now remains of the original Rectory which forms the garden of the present residence, “The Priory”, constructed by Mr. Turner four years ago from the old stable building… we made rather a habit of haunted houses. But it is not the ghosts which have compelled Mr. Turner to move after so short a stay at the Rectory. Rather it s the hundreds of sightseers, amateur psychic investigators and those out for a cheap thrill. Obliged to paint a large notice on the Rectory gates announcing that the property was private, Mr. Turner has still been besieged with people.’

In a letter to the editor of the Suffolk and Essex Free Press (Tuesday 26^th December 1950, p. 4) Turner expresses his vision of the emancipated woman under the heading ‘United Women get Slap in the Face’ which begins: ‘Sir, - In suggesting women unite for the purpose of banning war, one can only hope that Berry Perkins (7) has not set sail upon some unchartered sea of idealism. If women had not abrogated their power, in the last fifty years, by wishing to lower themselves to equality with men their present influence would be great enough to achieve the most noble of ideals. I have long advocated a matriarchy but, before such a state is possible, women must overcome four obstacles. 1. To keep (even the most intelligent) to the point. 2. To direct their hate of other women into a hate of war and fighting. 3. To disprove the observation, “No-one can make even two women unite over anything”. 4. Regain control of their own affairs (and thereby of the world’s) so want only sacrificed on the altar of equality. James Turner. The Priory, Borley.’

The Turners left Borley on Saturday 1^st November 1950 and went to Mill House in Belchamp Walter and Borley was sold in March 1951. In an article in the Suffolk and Essex Free Press of Tuesday 14^th November 1950 (p. 6) under the heading: ‘Borley Publicity Annoying Rector’ in which the Reverend A. C. Henning was upset over the publicity causing ‘noisey people’ to arrive at Borley, the article stated that ‘several weeks ago Mr. Turner, poet and writer, vacated “The Priory” – the present residence which he constructed from the old stable buildings – and offered it, together with the scant remains of the famous Rectory, for sale. But according to his wife, the property had not been disposed of.’ A week previous to this on Tuesday 7^th November 1950, the same newspaper (p. 9) published the headline: ‘Borley Ghost Site is Setting for Racy Tale’ after Turner’s novel, ‘My Life with Borley Rectory’ was published by Bodley Head.

 

‘The wicked yews,
pranked in skirts,
hem in our path
to the church, a patch
of improbable warmth
where so much fear was.
 
But the Rectory spooks
Have gone – pouf!’*

 

 

CATS AND CORNISH COTTAGES

 

‘books, cats and gardening, the sea,
visiting lonely places and looking
at country churches.’

 [things James Turner enjoys (after his wife and 

friends),‘British Books’, January 1962, p. 27]

 

 

James and Catherine Turner left Borley and moved into the old (c. late 1600’s) Mill House in Belchamp Walter on 11^th April 1950; while living at The Mill House James worked as a gardener at Belchamp Walter Hall and not long after the death of Catherine’s father, Tom Porter, her mother, Daisy, whom James referred to as ‘Ma-in-law’, moved into the mill with them in 1951. Following another spell of pneumonia in the summer of 1955 and two weeks at St. Michael’s Hospital in Braintree, James, Catherine and her mother left the Mill House in October and moved to a small house, ‘Hillcot’ in the village of Grundisburgh, Suffolk, near Woodbridge.

Four years later, on 5^th April 1959, James, Catherine and her mother, left East Anglia and made the move to North Cornwall where they found the delightful and picturesque location of Primrose Cottage in the hamlet of Trethias, near Padstow. As with all the locations the Turner’s lived at, James created a beautiful garden at Primrose Cottage situated on the North Cornish coast and it was where several of his poems, such as ‘Wardmaid’ and ‘Bull in my Garden’ were written. During Christmas 1960, James and Catherine returned to East Anglia and spent a week at Ronnie Blythe’s cottage in Debach, near Woodbridge. They arrived on 16^th December and it was a fraught and tense time in which their friendship was sorely tested and almost ended beyond repair.

In an interview for ‘British Books’ (volume 176, number 4878, January 1962, pp. 26-28) we are informed that James Turner has ‘made some eighty broadcasts on the European, Midland, East Anglian, Home Service and West of England programmes concerning poetry, book reviews and country matters’ and that ‘last year he wrote and narrated a fifteen minute programme called “The Eighth Month”’ – Turner became a member of the B.B.C. Advisory Council for the South West of England; the article also goes on to say that Turner is ‘full of quiet kindly humour’ and he ‘enjoys the odd pint and with a small bent pipe rarely out of his mouth he faces life philosophically. Only last year he was in Barts. for three weeks after an accident in Fleet Street that crushed the heel of his right foot. Characteristically he makes light of this mishap that has resulted in a distinguished limp…’ (p. 28); in the same article, he puts his approach to writing thriller novels down to his ‘skill at chess’ and amongst the Turner’s friends could be counted, the brilliant novelist, Norah Burke (1907-1976) and the horse painter Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) and his wife, Lady Violet (1886-1971).

On 3^rd September 1962, James and Catherine left the charming Primrose Cottage for a holiday and they visited Ledbury and the village of Ledington where Cathy lived as a child before going on to mid Wales – Clyro, Builth, Neubridge-on-Wye and Hafod. Back at home in Primrose Cottage James began writing several novels: ‘The Crimson Moth’ (1962), ‘The Long Avenues’ (1964), ‘The Slate Landscape’ (1964) and editing his ‘Book of Gardens’ (1963); they returned to Wales once more in September 1963 and James was particularly disappointed in meeting the cleric and poet R. S. Thomas (1913-2000) who was not very affable and showed no interest in James, seemingly quite dismissive and rude.

After Catherine’s mother, Daisy died on 13^th April 1963, James and Catherine spent a week in Dartmoor and after the funeral they decided to sell Primrose Cottage; later that year, on 23^rd September 1964, Primrose Cottage was sold and they moved to Treneague, St. Breock, Wadebridge. Presumably, the Turners moved again, some time after 1971, for James died in May 1975 and they were living at St. Teath, three miles from the coast between Camelford and Wadebridge.

 

 

 

JAMES TURNER – THE POET

 

‘The straight road is the road of the dead
and Roman with a silver shield
stood silent in an alien wood.’

[The Alien Wood. p. 11]

 

 

James Turner’s first published collection of poetry was his volume ‘Pastoral’ (1942) which he divides into the four seasons beginning with summer. Written in blank verse, the poem realises a profound vision of nature and the relationship with mankind; a depth of beauty which strays into the realms of Blake and John Clare in its awakening to the marvels of nature – ‘Summer is icumen in with / day in wonder and a summer sky / cleared for death. Death will pass us by, / murmur of death touches us. / In the valley is life. / Yet there in the blue is life / and longing and misunderstanding.’ (summer, p. 6)

Turner tells us in his first volume of autobiography, ‘Seven Gardens for Catherine’ (1968) that it was while he was in a neglected orchard in East Preston during a morning of September 1940 that he saw a ‘whitethroat’s deserted nest in the fork of one of the apple trees. It is absurd to suggest that the bird’s nest created a poet. Yet it had something to do with it.’ (p. 179). Turner saw the perfect symmetry of nature in that whitethroat’s nest and it seemed so fragile, just as humanity is fragile now in the midst of war – he saw the beauty of the commonplace in the extraordinary weariness of war. It is true to say that Turner experienced a vision and that same evening he began writing his long poem, ‘Pastoral’. It was as if Turner was exorcising the ghosts of his past, particularly his bankruptcy in 1938-39. The poem was completed in the last few weeks Turner and Catherine spent at Little Weedon and there is an almost haunting and primeval sense of awaiting death amidst the summer blooms where ‘dark hands of sleep spin an ageless fantasy of dreams, / and Time and Memory once were bordered by the / cooling streams / of Lethe and all forgetfulness.’ (pp. 7-8) Turner touches on aspects of the war also, bringing the death machine of destruction into his verse, with ‘squadrons in echelon braved the clouds’ (p. 6) and ‘sky laminated / by eager searchlights’ (p. 7); he invokes the ‘deadliest bird of all, / the bomber’ on page 11 as ‘over night air wails the siren’ on page 19. He recalls how the ‘sunflowers were open in the garden’ and that ‘in Oxford, too, the lilac, the laburnum / died to seed.’ (p. 7). With the approach of autumn we encounter the grim reality of ‘tractors with iron teeth’ turning the land into a ‘wilderness of seeded nettle, / hogweed, dock and couch.’ (p. 18) The poet beckons to his love who ‘came to me from autumn shadows, / her offering the sieve of memory / from the oriel window of night-folded sea…’ (p. 20) which is a beautiful image as she comes to him, her eyes ‘sad and forlorn’ and her hands ‘weary with endless beseeching.’ The enchanting melancholy of autumn fades softly into winter where the ‘wind whistles in hollow trees’ and ‘spears a phantom to the woods, / a stranger without name in decaying lanes, / and on hills the dark shadow / of a pale walker.’ (p. 33) Like thunder come the words – ‘Dig, dig / into the earth that / sweetness of fruit may come forth.’ (p. 39) and we recall Turner’s poem ‘Winter Digging’ with its strenuous turning of the soil. And like a sudden flash upon the poor poet in the wilderness comes the pure vision:

 

‘O humanity
O fair body of men
O lovely features without blemish
O strength and glory of white bodies
To come to this!’ (p. 39)

 

With the death of winter returns the spring and the renewal of life as the poet recalls that he has ‘lived in these empty rooms, / seen them at night with the moon / flaking walls of their old paper, / or cracking the floorboards or winking / into eyes of rat.’ (p. 53) He asks himself if lilac will ‘bloom so purple, / or laburnum / so yellow as in that last sad spring / in Oxford?’ (p. 54) for spring is the healer of ‘death’s wounds’ and ‘we children of death, acclaim the Spring, / unconsummated flowers, the livening seed / brothers our benches, and stench / of work, boredom of long hours / is haloed by the single thrush; / primrose, violet, and plane tree / caracole even in the din.’ (p. 55) The poet assumes a new cycle and resigns the ‘dead days’ of winter ‘into the dark place / where the heart sorrows’ as he beseeches his love to ‘forget the past’ in this one short season where ‘all is made afresh’. (pp. 58-59) And so like a birth we, as is the poet, are uplifted:

 

‘I will lift up my heart and sing,
For in that other shadow (now pierces
The sun in golden mist, shifting
Its hollow tubes of light)
Is also my life.
In both I hold a part.
I am because in each I am engrained,
They are because I am.
 
In this silence I am created.’ (p. 63)

 

Turner’s next collection of poetry was ‘The Alien Wood’ (1945), a series of twenty elegies mostly in blank verse ranging from four to eight stanzas. As in ‘Pastoral’, the poet again invokes nature and the indefinable wilderness of the woods and the fields through a melancholic reverie of inhabiting and passing through the landscape. Turner writes with wonder and inspiration that weaves an almost medieval rich tapestry from the first elegy where the ‘weeping torrent of the willow / dropping green tendrils to the water’ finds that the moonlight is ‘raking / a cavernous mouth with dark shadows, / and rocks are ghosts there / with secrets for the grinning skull.’ (pp. 5-6), and lovers in the second elegy, in a glade ‘met / to give the living flesh its kiss / or raise an autumn’s lingering lament.’ (p. 7) He paints his verse in the woodland colours rich in sadness where loneliness seeks its companion, where flowers are ‘bestowing fragrance on the empty lawns’ (p. 9) and the ‘moon is fingering the long pale wall.’ The softens the straight lines and edges by the glow of moonlight, where ‘sharp corners / melt into mist and from the woods / folds down the cloth of night like gossamer.’ (p. 18) In the eighth elegy he asks: ‘But who has not heard the stalking foot of death / along the passage and within the hall?’ and contemplates that a ‘skeleton within the breast-plate moans, / he knew thy darkening image on the field / of Agincourt.’ (p. 17) The dead, are those souls ‘bedded with the earth’ beneath the ‘secret night’ and the church tower wears its ‘halo of ravens’. In the penultimate elegy he confronts his fear of loneliness and says that his ‘companion is the one hiding in hedges / and the secret places of an old attic, / waiting to spring a trap or to appear / with hideous face from out the cupboard dark.’ (p. 36) which suggests a childhood troubled by nightmares, but it is the final elegy which attains the summit of Turner’s elegiac beauty which begins: ‘Leaving my love is binding freedom / in chains, and the burden of spring / into the overheated summer ovens.’ (p. 38) he continues, suggesting that ‘leaving my love is the closing of hatches, / and to be lost’, before he asks ‘who has betrayed?’ and ‘where is the meaning of such freedom / and the heart of happiness?’ Turner is obviously reflecting upon the dying embers of the war and its end and the return to normality; the opportunity of freedom once more and he concludes that: ‘Leaving my love is an open wound / handwide in my breast and a heart / of blood sucked dry and of throat / burning with unslaked thirst. / Leaving my love is a life spent.’ (p. 39)

In his next collection, ‘The Hollow Vale’ (1947), also written in blank verse, the mood is much the same as the poet returns to the same theme that inspired Pastoral, the quest to find nature in its deepest, darkest and purest expression. In the Prologue the poet conjures the strength to begin the journey in the form of a simple incantation: ‘Fiery liquid burn in me / with a fierce intensity, / burn my eyes and burn my brain, / burn my lips with fearful pain.’ And so the conjuration continues – ‘Fiery liquid burning bright, / burn my taste and burn my sight, / sear my flesh and sear my hair, / consume with flame me everywhere. / That of the fire I be a part, / burn, at last, within my heart.’ And thus the quest which shall ‘hold magic’ begins, as he seeks ‘a place for the lonely heart, / a little earth to cover nakedness.’ (p. 7) Once again Turner writes with descriptive beauty such as in the ‘shadows’ that have ‘put their tongues / along the hedges. The hills turned over, / falling with a slow deep fall / down to the lowlands.’ (p. 8) Again the traveller has sought a ‘companion’ to accompany and assist him on his journey, ‘under the shelter of his cloak.’ (p. 16) and later, finds that he has ‘beheld him by my side, the fair flower / on the lonely heath under night, / under the starred window of night above the streak / of the midnight river.’ (p. 24) and his ‘Beloved was the opalescent light, / the high beacon, and the low / consuming fire of the Flower transfixing / the scrubland bush on the heath.’ Later he says that ‘upon my lips rested the fair blazing Flower / of my Beloved; of my Beloved, the Rose of Blood.’ (p. 27) Following the Dark Night of the Soul, he contentedly reflects upon the question – ‘who would not come home / to see the vale at his feet; / here from the hill with the wood at his back, / to see the river flow into the sea / and the wheat gild the valley shields, / the peaceful lanes taking their way / to the harbour…’ Thus ends the poet’s journey:

 

‘And in the clouds I saw God
Heard the colour of His speech,
Its golden liquidity, and with my fingers
Did I touch the dulcet sounds
Of all His radiance.’ (p. 36)

 

In reading the poetry of James Turner one cannot help but noticing the importance of nature in his verse and the deep connection he has with the soil; we get a sense of this relationship with the earth in his poem ‘Winter Digging’ which takes us straight into the vibrant link with the natural world: ‘What a burden is Winter earth! / I did it. It is on my fork, / a great weight to be lifted, / and turned and turned / with the muscles of arm and back.’ Turner then invokes the spiritual connection between being and nature: ‘O my Mother! / Why call me to your rape? / I serve it, bending to it, / my boots in it, my eyes of it. / Where else can I look but down?’ before chiming and imploring – ‘Earth for the flower, / Earth for the marrow…’ (8) Turner conveys a similar relationship between animals and the world around us as in the poem, ‘Suffolk Stallion’ which ‘came marching through / Dogrose and honeysuckle, shouldering / dawn back over the horizon’ cracking his ‘horseshoes on the flint lane, / spinning pebbles into the ditches and frog homes…’ The poem was inspired by a real event when Turner saw the stallion being led past the nursery at Malting Green (see ‘Seven Gardens for Catherine’, p. 209). Later in the poem we are informed that the horse in his ‘bunting’ and burnished ‘brass plates’ is being led to his ‘mare waiting impatiently’ in the ‘lone meadow’; Turner reinforces the image of the proud stallion in all his finery, his ‘marriage harness’ and his ‘massed nuptial ribbons’ with his ‘eyes rolling his burning desire, / his wide neck arched with cardinal pride, / crashing into nature like Bucephalos / the battle behind him.’ And so we are left with this grand image of the powerful horse, ‘emboldening the birds / in their dawnsong to see him go so royally, / square-limbed over earth, majestic haunches / enveloped on his mighty seed.’ (9)

James Turner’s mother, Dora, was admitted to the Marsden Hospitalin Fulham around the end of March 1955 with cancer of the spine; she died in Chelsea aged 78 on Easter Monday 11^th April 1955. Her body was taken to Westburton on the 13^th where she lay in her coffin, as her husband had done previously, before the 10.45 a.m. church service and funeral at Norwood Crematorium which took place a few days later on 15^th April

In his collection, ‘The Interior Diagram’, Turner introduces us to the phantom characters who inhabit his world, such as the Dark Queen,  whose ‘lily hands held all / sad and splendid things’, and the Dwarf, whose ‘garments turned / from black to shining white, / his clawlike hands / took on the shape of comely queen’s, / his eyes discovered cells / of tenderness.’

There are recognisable patterns to his poetry, for example, the beginning of his poem ‘Summer Day’ (p. 22) begins: ‘Lie here in the sharp grass / and over look the fern-tongued cliff, / the mauve rock downfalling / to the summer sea, the deep rift / of the mouth of caves.’ We can compare this with another poem, ‘Summer Afternoon’ (10) which begins:

 

Afternoon was in maidenhair
And hang-tongued fern,
With lemon weed
Fingering moon sand,
Combing in rocket holes.

 

Summer Day recalls a time spent lying ‘in the spear grass’ watching the ‘calm pools’ and invoking ‘the sorrow of drowned / men’s voices’ from the sounds around, the cormorant, the gull; the tern ‘is the cry / of ladies who wept, / drinking the sea’s death.’ Summer Afternoon has a similar tone in which the tide is going out and revealing ‘crabs in sea salt ponds… and jellyfish melting.’ The poet watches the tide coming in and ‘infusing life’ again, the ‘ferns thirsting tongues’ and ‘the cuttle fish shrinking’; and ‘empty bottle and half shoe / washed towards the land’ and the salt water replenishes life to the marram and rye grass which the land seems to drink within its jaws; the poem, Summer Day depicts the sea as a destructive force, the bringer of death, while Summer Afternoon shows the same powerful force of nature, as the giver of life. We can also note the repetition in both poems: fern, tongue, pools… the ‘lie here’ in ‘Summer day’ and ‘afternoon was’ in ‘Summer Afternoon’. Turner often uses the repetitive phrase or word in his verse as can be seen in such poems from The Interior Diagram as: Love (p. 27) with its ‘call back’ refrain, Pheasant (p. 31) whose three verses begin – ‘struts he’ (11), Dying Gull (p. 34) with its ‘come no more’ (12) and the word ‘curl’ in the poem Kynance Cove (p. 35), and the phrase ‘last land’ which recalls another poem, one I am not particularly fond of, titled Last Land (p. 29) which similarly repeats the phrase ‘God blaze’(13). The poet can also turn his gaze away from the landscape towards the people who inhabit it as in the poem ‘Who is she?’ (p. 21) in which he goes beyond the mere inhibitions of love and physical nakedness, which ‘of the body was natural’ to reach a ‘bitter nakedness’, a ‘nakedness / of heart which knows not / this disguised continent, asking / ‘who is she?’; the perpetual question of what lies beyond the known flesh and sits within the soul of each of us. This unknowable darkness is also found in the poem ‘Zones of the Dead’ (p. 15) in which he says often he has seen the spectral shapes of ghosts, the shadows of those that once were living, ‘by the house trees they congregate, / unmoving’, becoming ‘clearer’ and multiplying by the light of the moon with ‘stars caught in their eye-sockets.’ The fear intensifies when in the next verse he predicts the phantoms ‘will move inwards… till their cracking bones impress the house’. Is Turner perhaps recalling his time spent at the cottage at Borley near the site of the old haunted rectory, the ‘most haunted house in England’? (14)

In the poem, ‘Combine Harvester’, (Interior Diagram. p. 30) Turner draws us to the machine with a ‘million sickels’, a ‘giant’s harvest womb’ that eats its way across the field of wheat, grown and ‘consumed by cropping spikes, / devoured and threshed, divided / in dark night of iron womb’; the ‘patient wheels / overrolling the wide acres’. (15) We can see a similar imagery in the poem ‘Straw’(16) in which there is a ‘field of straw / open to the baler / up and down behind the tractor,/ jerking out its oblong cubes / the field over.’ The following and final verse gives us the picture of the great cropping machine, after it has left the scene of its destructive massacre:

 

Then there was a field of straw bales
Like Ur or Petra piled,
Yellow-haired and dead under insects,
When the machine had gone.

 

The final poem before the sequence called The Interior Diagram: Birth, the Five Senses and the Five Wounds, is ‘Death’ (pp. 41-43) where repetitive expressions such as: ‘Red is the horned wind’ and ‘Shall we know the cold of the grave’ and ‘Shall we know the bones of the grave’ anchor the reader to its dark subject matter of the figure of Death upon his stallion, a monstrous entity to whom perhaps we all must encounter.

Turner’s fifth book of poetry, ‘The Accident and Other Poems’ published in 1966, has some very fine poems which show a slight departure from his previous fascination with the soil. The volume opens with the impressive poem ‘Foxlight’ (17) which is rich in the scent of fox and its nature – ‘moon-muzzled’, which ‘break man’s loneliness, / his high hunting arrogance’; we see the majestic yet tormented fox in its nocturnal wandering with its ‘foxteeth and foxscent / in the plantation / by owlcry’ (p. 9). Turner’s imagery is infused with the sounds and scents of nature beneath the bright somnolence of the moon – ‘Tastes, / when the moon spins cartwheels / on the spines of the hedgehog.’ (Hunger. p. 10); his expertise in connecting words together to create a notion of place or time is quite remarkable, as in the poem ‘Autumn’ (p. 13) with its ‘lizard fruits’, ‘lazy toad / milks / juice of juniper’; ‘leopard marrow’ and ‘wasp noon’; and in the poem ‘The Pike and the Lady’ (p. 14) where we find ‘mothlight’ and ‘pike-eyed moon’ – ‘grind your unsalted fangs at her command, / hunt with the moon, a sword swollen with roach.’ Or the poem ‘Winter’ (p. 15) with its ‘coffins ancient summer / and long-legged spring, / nightfall’s fingers buried deep / under deep’ or ‘old lover’s sunsets’ which has a particular charm. The poem ‘Bull in my Garden’ was written after a real event (see ‘Sometimes into England’, pp. 113-114) and I simply love the image of the bull ‘stood in the arena of beans and bold flowers / a boldness himself, with terror to aid’ as he ‘roared caverns into the moss roses / and shook the tantalus of poppies’; the poppy re-occurs with ‘the threat of poppy’ and I adore the picture of this strong, defiant beast, ‘his pride consumed by the narrowness / of this garden prison’ stamping Turner’s precious flowers into ‘oblivion’, but most of all I see the animal, misunderstood in his naked fury at being hemmed-in, with that most beautiful of descriptions – ‘the sun burning his poppy brain’ (p. 16). Once again we find elements of repetition in Turner’s phrases to give meanings of placement as in ‘over’ and ‘under’ (‘Death in the Hawksweed’, ‘Winter’ and ‘Birds in a Seascape’) and words as in ‘come where’ and ‘come here’ in ‘Bank Holiday in a Country Lane’ (pp. 37-38) and from the sequence, ‘The Accident’ (‘Wardmaid’, p. 42) the phrase, ‘more than the sun’ (18). The six poems in the sequence, ‘The Accident’ are based on an actual event in which Turner was injured on his way to a publisher’s appointment, the injury caused him to walk with a limp after spending time undergoing treatment in St Bartholomew’s Hospital (see ‘Sometimes into England’, pp. 115-116). The poem, ‘Physio-Therapy’ (pp. 46-47), Turner gives us an impression of the ‘steel leg-frames’ and ‘splinter jackets’, the ‘skeletal steel arm, meccano-strong’ and the ‘iron spring-viced ribs’ that he saw while undergoing his treatment there (19).

 

RAMPION SAVAGE

 

James Turner’s first novel was ‘Mass of Death’ published in October 1937 by Fortune Press. The book features Turner’s character, Rampion Savage as the young ‘painter hero’, a man who detests the artificiality of living in a town and what it does to people. Savage believes that there is ‘no strength but in beauty; no courage except the courage of loneliness; no triumph but in forcing a way through the thick cave-walls of Time.’ Turner colours the novel with his poetic flourishes and he seems yet to find his definite style in novel writing, perhaps why he turned to writing poetry. Over a decade later, the novel still draws his attention and ‘Murder at Landred Hall’ was published in 1954. The volume features his character, Rampion Savage, a man who, like Turner, lived at Mill House (Belchamp Walter) with his cats, but unlike Turner who lived with his wife, Catherine, Savage lived with his sister Deidre. The novel is set in Suffolk and distinguishes between the privileged world of those at the Hall of Mrs. Hedingham, and the lower class of the villagers in their cottages, such as the old poacher. Rampion Savage arrives at the Hall in terrible, freezing weather which coincides with a crime to be solved when the body of John Summers, the bailiff to Landred Hall estate is found on a woodland path with a kitchen knife in his back.

Savage, the brooding and sensitive architect and amateur detective, makes a re-appearance the following year in Turner’s next volume, ‘A Death by the Sea’ (1955) which finds the amateur detective puzzled over another murder. Set in the marshy coast of Suffolk, two children discover the naked body of a man in a derelict concrete pillbox and run to tell their artist father Robert. The body is that of a sailor whom the police and the local villagers know had been used by Robert as a model for several portraits and the knife in the sailor’s back belongs to Robert. It is also known that Robert quarrelled with the sailor and Robert’s devoted wife, Jane, in desperation after Robert is arrested, calls in Rampion Savage. And so the sleuth examines the case and interviews one suspect after another before a thrilling adventure in a secret tunnel.

The reader next encounters Rampion Savage in Turner’s volume, ‘The Strange Little Snakes’ (1956) and this time the setting is an old and lonely Victorian rectory near the East Anglian coast in which lives the austere bedridden incumbent, Reverend Rockliffe and his family. The rambling Rectory is enclosed by trees and overgrown shrubs which stops the sun penetrating its walls, filling the rooms with a sinister gloom. Only from the attics could one see across the marshes towards the river which flowed towards the sea at Southwold. The Rector had come to the Rectory with his five children after his wife’s death, from the Rector’s previous living at Strand, a mile away on the coast. The remains of the ancient Priory church stood upon crumbling cliffs above the marshes, its bell tower still intact. The sea crashes upon the rocks of the cliff which had already devoured the graveyard leaving the exposed bones of long-dead bodies lying beneath the cliffs. The Rector’s eldest child, Catherine Rockliffe had promised her mother to take care of the family upon her death and so the daughter has run the household but after the death of her bedridden father who is found with his skull crushed in the vestry, her siblings begin to break loose from the suffocating atmosphere of the Rectory. Disaster befalls the five children of the Rector in turn who had lived under his tyranny – daughter Edith dies following a fall from her horse; Tom goes swimming with Richard and never returns; Caroline, whom Catherine loved most of all, confides to her that she is pregnant and is later found strangled in the heart of the old Priory wood, until a family secret of their tragedy is uncovered. Rampion happens to be there on a visit connected to his studies of ancient tombs but it isn’t long before Rampion and Inspector Todd are on the case; along the way we meet Halfacre, the sexton and Mr. Wilson, the Rector’s warden. Savage’s next case, takes place in Turner’s volume, ‘The Frontiers of Death’ (1957) and the setting is Pentor, a tiny harbour village in Cornwall. For several centuries, the Donne family have owned Pentor and the island of rock in its bay and for centuries every member of that distinguished family have been taken to that island for their burial. The internment of Lancelot Donne was no different and followed the ancient traditions of his ancestors. Lancelot was a well-known poet and upon his death his London admirers and disciples descended upon Pentor. One of his friends, Rampion Savage, was also summoned by Lancelot’s daughter, Leonora. In this case, Savage is faced with ‘a murder to prevent’ and the discovery of missing cyanide which Lancelot, passionate about the past, kept in a ‘Borgia phial’ pointed towards murder. The case takes Savage from Cornwall to London and then to Suffolk, along a little railway line which passes through Marks Tey, Colchester and Haverhill, places Turner knows well, until he reaches a small Suffolk farm to discover the key to a secret. In ‘The Crystal Wave’ (1957), Savage is in East Anglia once more, particularly in the decaying forest of Staverton where two murders are investigated and a list of strange, neurotic characters are suspects, but there is no clear culprit for the crimes. Savage was there when the body of a youth was found bound to a tree in the forest clearing – will he discover the identity of the murderer? Savage’s next case, ‘The Dark Index’ (1959) takes place in the Fenlands where, during a performance of ‘Murder in the Cathedral’, in which Savage plays the role of First Tempter, in the church of All Saint’s in the village of Upper Fen, the naked and headless body of a girl, Sheila Thompson, is discovered in the de Wentworth tomb; it is also discovered that she was pregnant. Inspector Garrett believes the evidence points to Tim Bredfield but Rampion has his doubts and believes otherwise. The crime in ‘The Glass Interval’ (1961) takes Savage once more to Cornwall where we find a woman’s corpse discovered in a rock pool; the woman, Elaine Gibb, was murdered by a harpoon gun and she was the wayward wife of the architect, Christopher Gibb who had long been contemplating separating from her. The architect hosted a party at his cliff house at the time of the murder which was full of guests, such as Teresa, his secretary with whom he is in love; his personal assistant Martin Furnival, the objectionable yet talented artist – Austin, and his devoted mistress – Ruth; each guest has some secret affair, jealousy and intrigue. To help solve the problem, Savage finds that a Chinese number puzzle (which Teresa found in a rock pool in a secret cave) proves to hold a vital clue. Savage returns again to Cornwall for his next crime in ‘The Nettle Shade’ (1963) where we find him holidaying during September at the end of the holiday season; strolling along the beach with a local inhabitant, Sheila Stone, Rampion discovers the body of rich local resident, John King, lying dead on the sand with a knife in his back and his skull crushed by a rock. King’s young widow, Mattie, asks for Rampion’s assistance in the case as she believes suspicion will fall on her. After investigating several suspects – King’s second wife, his daughter Dotty, an American named Tom and Godolphin, a dealer in rare books who is searching for a stolen manuscript; Dotty is murdered and suspicion falls wrongly on the American, but Rampion finds a link with the said rare manuscript missing from John King’s collection, worth around £20,000. His next crime, ‘The Slate Landscape’ (1964) sees the beautiful body of a blonde au pair girl found at Quarry House, owned by old Mrs. Gallard who built her riches from former slate quarries. Opposing Inspector North, who believes no crime has been committed, Rampion is determined to prove otherwise and interviews every member of Mrs. Gallard’s family including her estranged husband and he weak son and a hysterical grand-daughter – it seems Mrs. Gallard was manipulating them and her motive was revenge. In ‘The Blue Mirror’ (1965), set in Cornwall, Carmella Wilson has been murdered during the Overbridge Carnival and her flower-strewn body, dressed in white, is found in a boat floating down the river like the Lady of Shallott; a hunchback is found dead in an artist’s studio with his body saturated with Devon violets perfume and a devoted wife becomes a wanton. Rampion, along with Inspector North, is perplexed by the case. After several suspects are interviewed, a picture of the beautiful Carmella, a strange and mysterious woman able to weave a spell of enchantment, is drawn which becomes fascinating and the motive points towards jealousy. In ‘Requiem for Two Sisters’ published in 1968 we find Rampion Savage enjoying his annual stay in Cornwall when his holiday is interrupted by the murder of Cathy King. Inspector North gives him all the information on the case at the local police station and tells him to get on with solving it. After seeing her young lifeless body on the mortuary slab he recognises her, having seen her a few days ago when she was full of vigorous life. Cathy King was a violinist who showed much promise in her musical career; ever year she attended the music festival of St. Mayoc where she made a special pilgrimage from London – the villagers welcomed her and loved her. But Rampion finds the same villagers reluctant to speak to him until Cathy, seemingly, returns from the dead which begs the question: if Cathy is alive, whose body was in the mortuary? Rampion Savage makes his final appearance in Turner’s ‘The Stone Dormitory’ in 1971 in which a man’s body is found on the summit of Rough Tor on Bodmin Moor; Inspector North establishes the cause of death as stab wounds to the body and he identifies the corpse as that of John Chapman, a practicing architect from Plymouth and the son of Sir John Chapman who had been missing from home for six months. Rampion was staying at Crestus, Sir John’s magnificent 18^th century house in Cardiganshire when the police arrived to inform Sir John of the discovery of his son’s remains. Rampion, who as an historian is known to have many interests in architectural features and design, had gone to Crestus to see its famous hanging gardens for a book he was writing; he had met Sir John’s daughter, Clare and her companion, Rosamunde. Clare had made a great impression on Rampion for she too had an interest and a devotion to the house and its garden – she seemed to be possessed by a close affinity to the first owner of the house’s long-dead daughter. Strangely, news of her brother, John’s death was remarkably disconcerting. Rampion is dispatched to Bodmin Moor to investigate the crime and the enquiry conducted by Inspector North.

Turner wrote many other thriller novels which did not feature Rampion Savage, such as ‘The Deeper Malady’ (1959) in which a grim secret troubles two members of an ancient and noble family, Constantine and Hilda Limgoes. Set in the East Anglia fens, the head of the family, Sir James Limgoes with all his financial concerns lives in the vibrant present world, while his mother, Lady Limgoes, harks back to the slower eighteenth century; although she hardly ever leaves her bedroom, Lady Limgoes has a secret ‘psychic’ knowledge of events and occurrences. This ‘instinctive’ gift is shared by Lady Limgoe’s maid, Crystal Paternoster, who comes from a long line of Paternoster servants to the Limgoes, and who is able to project her form one place to another. Crystal was unaware of how powerful this gift was and as a young girl believed everybody possessed the same powers. The characters that inhabit the small village have their own secret world which is quite sinister. In fact, there is a feeling of Wuthering Heights about the novel and Turner utilises the dramatic sense of atmosphere to his best ability. In ‘Condell’ published in 1961, we encounter a man named Condell, an English journalist who suddenly wakes up to find himself stranded on a tropical island with no memory of who he is or how he got there. The inhabitants of the island are distinctly European ruled by a dictator named Muller and Condell knows that he must escape from the island to survive. In contrast to the evil tyrant Muller, he has two beautiful daughters, one displays ‘sensuality’ and the other ‘pure goodness’ with healing powers. There is a ridge of mountains which separate one side of the island from the other which holds a strange secret; the natives appear both friendly and hostile but there is a sense that Condell has been sent there for some strange reason. In ‘The Crimson Moth’(1962) we are presented to a young boy, Nicholas de le Hays, who lives in an old house on the Kent marshes. Nicholas is very lonely, his father is dead and his mother is living abroad but he finds solace in the beautiful countryside around him; often he would wander the mysterious marshes to find refuge in the Martello tower, the disused well or the beach and people it with his own fantasies to escape the cruel clutches and watchful eyes of the Lambournes, the gardener and the housekeeper. To Nicholas, nature provided the cure to his loneliness and his pain; he loved a vixen and the gardener set a gin trap to kill the vixen. He found reality in the form of Pauline and later at school (like Turner) at Lancing College, found Alice and Tom Somersby who became his friend. We next meet Nicholas in Turner’s volume ‘The Long Avenues’ (1964) and we continue with his life as he becomes an undergraduate at Oxford University; and finally, once more in ‘Anna Chevron’ (1966) where we find Nicholas in Italy during the 1930’s and the time of Mussolini and in London.

James Turner is also a very proficient short story writer, particularly in the horror genre. In his story, ‘Mirror without Image’ we are in the familiar Suffolk territory of Landred Hall estate, that haunted Georgian house built on the remains of an earlier, Elizabethan mansion, owned by Beatrice Hedingham. The narrator, Charles Brook, is living in nearby Mill House to write his novel, and met Mrs. Hedingham in London who invited him to the house; he turns up unannounced to meet Beatrice’s daughter, Pauline, whose manner has changed since befriending the estate’s new tenant, Elaine, now living in the ruins of the castle and its moat. Pauline seems to be under the spell of the beautiful Elaine, who immediately takes a disliking to Charles upon being introduced to him at Pauline’s birthday party at the Hall. Charles senses the animalistic nature of Elaine and the talk between them is one of prey and predator, of life and death. Charles, who is in love with Beatrice, believes he is making love with her but realises it is Elaine, who can assume any shape, who is tearing at him and drinking of his blood, draining his life-force. In one scene, Charles, peering through the castle window, witnesses the naked body of Pauline upon a divan in the arms of Elaine, who is about to destroy her; the subtle lesbian overtone is beautifully drawn. At the climax to the story, we find Charles and Beatrice (and a man named Tom to assist) in the vault of the church where the Landred Hall ancestors lie and they open the coffin of Elaine Hedingham, died 1459, aged 28 – and Charles ends her centuries wandering as the undead with a stake as ‘the body of the woman we had known as Elaine, which once, centuries ago, had been Elaine Hedingham walking and talking in the groves and gardens of Landred, gave a little sigh… the fair face and body of the woman whose blood still ran thinly in Beatrice’s veins turned to dust and only the skull remained covered with midnight black hair. And it was as if the sun came into that dark, cold place. Even the other coffins glowed with a faint light. Yet her loveliness haunts me still.’

In another charming tale, ‘The St. Christopher Medallion’, which is set in Sussex in 1931, we are introduced to a lonely and intelligent boy named Hildrith who is being bullied at his boarding school, Lancing, at Shoreham-by-Sea. Hildrith is detested by the other pupils because of his effeminate manner and his liking for wearing lipstick; in fact, he is tormented so much he is driven to suicide on Wimbledon Common where he swallows cyanide from a killing bottle. His closest friend at the school, Bryant, also mysteriously drowns in the River Adur during the same school term. The narrator of the story visits the corpse of the young boy, Bryant, in the college chapel and finds a St. Christopher medallion around his neck. The strange thing was that the same medallion was buried upon the dead body of Hildrith – how did it find its way to Bryant? The story then takes a different turn and we are in a different time period, 1969, where the narrator, recently widowed, returns to Lancing to enrol his son Raymond in the college – after losing his wife, Raymond is all that he has left in the world but he has seen the ghosts of Hildrith and Bryant, whose seductive powers have not lain still and await the fair form of boyhood to disturb them and act out revenge. Will the ghosts pursue and claim another victim? Turner handles the homosexual element with great skill and compassion in this bitter-sweet tragedy of doomed boyhood.

 

RONALD BLYTHE

 

James and Catherine Turner had a long-lasting friendship with the author Ronald Blythe (1922-2023) since the time the Turners were living in Borley. Blythe lived in Sudbury and was working at Colchester Public Library when James first knew him.

Blythe says in the Introduction (pp. 7-9) to Turner’s volume, ‘The Countryside of Britain’ (1977) that they had been close friends for ‘just on thirty years’ and ‘we wandered about in many of the places to which he returns in this book.’ He goes on to say that ‘James Turner was the perfect explorer-companion on any outing. The botanizing, church-crawling, discursive forays we first made in East Anglia eventually extended themselves to the West Country and to Wales. His sprawling knowledge of the scientific and the abstruse, literary allusion and folklore, would come into play the minute we set off. He was also one of those lucky people who understood drift and leisure, silence and the virtues in just muddling about’…’like most creative people, he particularly loved associative places, and he would use a planned visit to Edward Fitzgerald’s grave at Boulge, a Celtic Shrine in south Cornwall, Baring-Gould’s rectory at Lewtrenchard, a medieval pilgrim-route or the habitat of some bird or plant as the raison d’etre for what would eventually prove to be a whole mass of ramified travel experiences which were centred upon the special spot.’… ‘He was a compulsive recorder’ and ‘turned everything that happened to him into poems, stories and essays.’

In his ‘Stour Season’ (Canterbury Press, Norwich. 2016), Blythe says in his chapter, ‘The Cornish Funeral’ (p. 67) that Turner was ‘my first writer-friend, mentor, and I suppose, hero. He looked unheroic in his determinate tweeds, and with his bonfire of a pipe.’ He goes on to say that ‘he and his wife, Cathy, had moved from Suffolk to Cornwall in the 1950’s’ and that ‘he wrote in a gothic hand or on a gothic typewriter. Publishers fell before him. Critics were consigned to hell. My own work was put through the mill. But he never lost his power over us, the youthful group of artists and writers he had left behind in East Anglia; and once a year, whether at Christmas or in summer, I would take the blissful Penzance train to stay with him in a series of stone houses near the Atlantic Ocean.’ About Turner’s death he says that the letters ‘ended abruptly in May 1975, when I once again travelled west, but to a funeral. Alone but for the youthful rector, I took James to Truro to be cremated. I read his poems in St. Teath’s.’ Blythe also tells us that he took Turner’s cremated remains to Bodmin Moor and ‘put it behind a rock so that it wouldn’t blow about,’ (p. 36). He also describes that time in May during a heatwave in his regular articles for the Church Times – ‘Word from Wormingford’ (17^th July 2015, p. 48) in which he mentions the Turner’s living at Parsonville, in the village of St. Teath and that Catherine never attended the funeral in Truro – ‘It had all been so sudden, that final Sunday: holy communion at the eight o’clock, coffee with the neighbours, a roast for lunch, a BBC concert at three, some of the new novel rattled off on the tall Remington, a letter to me in his Gothic hand, and then the pipe falling from his mouth at bedtime.’ (20)

Lucie Alice ‘Catherine’ Turner died in Bodmin towards the end of 1992 (her death was registered in January 1993).

 

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

 

Jono: A Collection of Prose and Verse (Temple Bar Miscellany umber 4). London, Lincoln Williams. 1932. pp. 32.

Sister Rosamund’s Temptation [short tale] London. Bellchi Press (Foyles). [illustrated with woodcuts by Mildred S. North] Limited to 300 copies. 1935. pp. 40. [a ‘new short story by J. E. Turner, formerly of Foyles Main Showroom’, the printer is Mr. F. Bell-Chambers, manager of Foyle’s Economic Department who was a keen amateur printer who published several volumes and pamphlets]

Mass of Death. (novel). [features Turner’s character Rampion Savage, a painter] London. Fortune Press. (October) 1937. pp. 234.

Pastoral. [poetry]. Contents: Summer p. 5, Autumn p. 17, Winter p. 33, Spring p. 51. Cambridge University Press. 1942. pp. 63.

The Alien Wood: Twenty Elegies. [poetry]. Contents (first lines): I. The hands of God reach to the tranquil bays p. 5, II. Swans have folded their wings into the lake p. 7, III. Flowers may open on a stricken world p. 9, IV. There is hemlock in the woods p. 10, V. And stood within an alien wood / a Roman with a silver shield p. 11, VI. The sea combs out the yellow sand p.12, VII. Deep under the water lie the ancient groves p. 14, VIII. The sun stood slanting to the western fields p. 16, IX. A gypsy has passed this way and held p. 18, X. It is not in this hour p. 20, XI. In the street is the harlot’s kiss p. 22, XII. In the void of night p. 24, XIII. Life is compulsion and a holy fire p. 26, XIV. The magpie has deserted the wood p. 28, XV. In the sunlight are the bright wonders of God p. 30, XVI. Over the hills is the white crown p. 32, XVII. Close my eyes upon the last days of summer p. 33, XVIII. Ere is built the City of God with wondrous music p. 34, XIX. Through the woods my companion has gone p. 36, XX. Leaving my love is binding freedom p. 38. Cambridge University Press. (November) 1945. pp. 39.

The Hollow Vale. [poetry]. Contents: Prologue p. 1, The Quest p. 4, The Loving p. 8, The Burning p. 13, The Gathering p. 18, Ecstasy p. 24, The Dark Night of the Soul p. 30, Epilogue p. 35. Cambridge University Press. (9^th September) 1947. pp. vi, 36.

My Life with Borley Rectory. Dedicated ‘To Catherine’. Contents: Foreword p. 9, I. I Buy What’s Left of the Place p. 13, II. A Visitor p. 25, III. What Happened at the Rectory p. 36, IV. Letters p. 46, V. An Old Trunk p. 59, VI. A Medium and Some Apparitions p. 72, VII. The Well p. 86, VIII. The Tunnel p. 101, IX Netta p. 114, X. A Slight Accident p. 125, XI. Ryan’s Triumph p. 134, XII. St. Patrick Gets In p. 145, XIII. Worst Night of All p. 160, XIV. Netta Gives In p. 181, XV. I Make Another Discovery p. 195, XVI. Tunnel p. 208, XVII. I Propose p. 221, XVIII. Twenty-Fifth of September p. 230, XIX. Séance p. 248, XX. Epilogue p. 266. London. The Bodley Head. 1950. [cover design by Bradley] pp. 272.

Murder at Landred Hall. (novel). [features Turner’s Oxford Historian and antiquarian, Rampion Savage] London. Cassell. [Dust jacket illustration by Edward Pagram]. 1954. pp. 192.

Rivers of East Anglia. [with frontispiece, map, and 90 photographs specially taken for this book]. Contents: Suffolk Rivers: I. the Ald and the Ore, II. The Blyth, III. The Brett, IV. The Deben, V. The Dove, VI. The Lark, VII The Orwell and the Gipping. Border Rivers: I. The Great Ouse, II. The Little Ouse or Brandon River, III. The Stour, IV. The Waveney. Norfolk Rivers: I. The Ant and the Thurne, II. The Bure, III. The Nar, IV. The Wensum, V. The Wissey, VI. The Yare. Three Pleasant Streams: I. The Tas, II. The Chet, III. The Stffkey. London. Cassell. 1954. pp. 242.

A Death by the Sea. (novel). Contents: Part One – I. The Fortifications p. 11, II. Drake p. 18, III. Happy Families p. 28, IV. Julian Crabbe p. 42, V. The Return p. 48, Part Two – VI, Good and Evil p. 69, VII, Seashore and Leopards p. 86, VIII, Bath Abbey p. 106, IX, Pat Seymour p. 117, X, Alarms p. 134, XI, Organ Music p. 142, XII, Waiting for Joe p. 150, XIII, Tunnel p. 162, XIV, The Redfern p. 175, XV, Finale p. 187. London. Cassell (Crime Connoisseur Book). [features Rampion Savage]. (April) 1955. pp. 192.

The Dolphin’s Skin: Six Studies of Eccentricity. [with eight pages of half-tone illustrations and dedicated ‘to my sister, Dorothea’] Contents: introduction pp. xiii-xxii, Margaret, Duchess of Newcastle (1625-1673/4) p. 1, Edmund Hickeringill (1631-1708) p. 39, William Jennens (1700-1798) p. 77, Scheming Jack Gainsborough p. 109, Richard Rigby (1722-1788) p. 141, Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1833) p. 179. London. Cassell. 1956. pp. 256.

The Strange Little Snakes. (novel). London. Cassell. [features Rampion Savage]. 1956. pp. 192.

The Frontiers of Death. (novel). London. Cassell (Crime Connosseur). [features Rampion Savage]. 1957. p. 192.

The Crystal Wave. (novel). Dedicated ‘To Tommy Frankland’. London. Cassell. [features Rampion Savage]. 1957. pp. 208.

The Shrouds of Glory: Six Studies in Martyrdom. [with eight pages of half-tone illustrations and dedicated ‘to Catherine’] Contents: Part one – The Shroud of Circumstance: The Champions p. 3, Saint Edmund the Champion p. 21, Thomas Becket the Artist p. 55, Sir Thomas More the Idealist p. 101. Part two – The Shrouds of Agony: The Adventurers p. 145, Rowland Taylor thye Arguer p. 163, Henry Walpole the Adventurer p. 203, James Parnell the Enthusiast p. 245. London. Cassell. 1958. pp. 312.

The Dark Index. (novel). Dedicated ‘To Peter Underwood’. London. Cassell. [features Rampion Savage]. 1959. pp. 192.

The Deeper Malady. (novel). [In 4 parts: 1. Craigs, 2. Constantine, 3. Crystal, 4. A Prospect of Summer] London. Cassell. (January) 1959. pp. 240.

The Interior Diagram and Other Poems. (poetry). Dedicated ‘To Desmond Flower’. Contents: The dark Queen p. 9, The Anniversary p. 11, To Peggy, Dying… p. 12, St Michael’s Mount p. 14, Zones of the Dead p. 15, Good Friday Music at Little Easton p. 16, Three Moons (Spring Moon, Autumn Moon, Lond Winter Moon) p. 18, Who Is She? P. 21, Summer Day p. 22, Autumn Beach p. 23, Autumn p. 24, Church Clock Winding p. 25, Love p. 27, High Sea at Sunset p. 28, Last Land p. 29, Combine Harvester p. 30, Pheasant p. 31, Revelation p. 32, Forfeits p. 33, Dying Gull p. 34, Kynance Cove p. 35, Housel Bay p. 36, Rocks p. 37, Rockpools p. 38, The Judges p. 39, The Question p. 40, Death p. 41, The Interior Diagram (Birth, The Five Senses, The Five Wounds) p. 45. London. Cassell. 1960. pp. 72.

The Glass Interval. (novel). [Dedicated to Delia and Bill Brown] London. Cassell. [features Rampion Savage]. [Dust jacket illustration by Eric Mudge-Marriott (1905-1972)] (March) 1961.  pp. 192.

Condell. (novel). London. Cassell. [Dust jacket illustration by Cameron Poulter]. (June) 1961. pp. 186.

The Crimson Moth. (novel). London. Cassell. [Dust jacket design: John Lawrence] 1962. pp. 165.

The Nettle Shade. (novel). London. Cassell. [features Rampion Savage]. 1963. pp. 193.

A Book of Gardens: A Collection of Original Essays on Some Aspects of Gardens and Gardening. (editor). Contents: Easy Exotics by H. E. Bates, The Charm of a Water Garden by Richard Church, Adam and Eve by Edmund Blunden, Reconstructing an Old Garden by Randolph Churchill, Small Garden Mammals by The Earl of Cranbrook, The Modern Rose Garden by H. L. V. Fletcher, The Herb Garden by Geoffrey Grigson, The Road to Roche by A. L. Rowse, Vineyards in England by Edward Hyams, The Beauty of Vegetables by James Turner, The Cottage Garden by C. Henry Warren, Gardening Where There’s No Escape by Ralph Wightman, The Garden by R. S. Thomas, Field Garden by Henry Williamson, A Note Against Gardening by Colin Wilson. London. Cassell. [illustrator: Gay Galsworthy]. 1963. pp. viii, 214.

Thy Neighbour’s Wife: Twelve Original Variations on a Theme of Adultery. (editor. anthology). Contents: Introduction by James Turner. The Woman of the Engine Driver by Denys Val Baker, The Church Mouse by Ronald Blythe, Singing ‘Where Have All The Graveyards Gone? Long Time Ago…’ by John Bratby, The Bitch by Ronald Duncan, The Lover by Edward Hyams, An Unposted Love Letter by Doris Lessing, The Cholmondleys by John Pudney, One Star, Two Crossed Knives and Forks and a View of the Sea by Frederich Raphael, The Green, Green Field by Jean Stubbs, The Long Walk Home by Rosemary Timperley, The Gay Gash Girls by Fred Urquhart, Kespar Kropp’s Mulatto by William Woods. London. Cassell. 1964. pp. 196.  [1^st U.S. edition: New York. Stein and Day. (April) 1968. pp. 196]

The Slate Landscape. (novel). London. Cassell. [features Rampion Savage]. [Dust jacket design: T. O. Elmes] 1964. pp. 200.

The Long Avenues. (novel). London. Cassell. 1964. pp. 224.

The Blue Mirror. (novel). Dedicated ‘To Esme and Tommy Pissarro’. London. Cassell. [featuring Rampion Savage]. 1965. pp. 192. [London, Panther paperback edition: (2244) 1967, cover photograph by John Claridge (born 1944) pp. 155]

The Fourth Ghost Book. (editor). [anthology of 23 ghost stories which includes Turner’s short story ‘The Guardian’, p. 257] London. Barrie & Rockliff. 1965. pp. 303.

The Accident and Other Poems. (poetry). Dedicated: ‘To Edmund Blunden’. Contents: Foxlight p. 9, hunger p. 10, Underrock p. 11, Autumn p. 13, The Pike and the Lady p. 14, Winter p. 15, Bull in My Garden p. 16, The Farming Year (spring, summer, autumn, winter) p. 17, Silage p. 19, Concrete Water Tower p. 20, The Temptation p. 21, The Great Stones p. 23, Old and New Gods p. 24, From Stoke Poges to Little Gidding p. 25, Forest of the Dead p. 26, Death p. 27, Death and the Thrush p. 28, To the Dead. Buda-Pest, 1956 p. 29, Death in the Hawkweed p. 30, Nightingale by a Sea Wood p. 31, Birds in Seascape p. 32, Looking Back p. 33, Padstow at Dawn p. 34, Hafod Kite p. 36, Bank Holiday in a Country Lane p. 37, The Accident (Accident, Wardmaid, Back from the Theatre, Visitors, Sacrament. St Bartholomew’s Hospital, Physio-Therapy) p. 37. London. Cassell. 1966. pp. 46.

Anna Chevron. London. Cassell. (17^th November) 1966. [Dust jacket by Charles Raymond] pp. 343.

The Unlikely Ghosts. (editor). (anthology of 12 ghost stories). Contents: Introduction by James Turner. The Visitation of Aunt Clara by Kate Barlay, Everything a Man Needs by Ronald Blythe, The Eternal Amateur by D. G. Compton, Diary of a Poltergeist by Ronald Duncan, Salpingogram by James Hamilton-Paterson, The Foot by Christine Brooke-Rose, My Man Closters by Anthony Rye, A Tale in a Club by William Kean Seymour, Are You There? by Jean Stubbs, The Bridge by Paul Tabori, The Ghostess with the Mostest by Fred Urquhart, Shepherd, Show Me… by Rosalind Wade. London. Cassell. [Dust jacket illustrator: Edward Ripley]. 1967. pp. 218. [1^st U.S. edition: New York. Taplinger Publishing Co. Inc. 1969]

A Coin Has Two Sides: A Collection of Double Stories on the Theme of Love. [Stories by Rosemary Timperley, Edward Hyams, Ronald Duncan, Jean Stubbs, Christine Brooke-Rose and Ronald Blythe] London. Cassell. 1967. pp. 239.

Requiem for Two Sisters. (novel). London. Cassell. [featuring Rampion Savage]. 1968. pp. 176.

Seven Gardens for Catherine. (Autobiography, volume I). Dedicated: ‘To Catherine who has shared so much’. Contents: Part One – The Beginning: I. When Sidcup was a Village p. 3, II. A Sprinkling of Vicars p. 20, III. Holidays and Millie p. 38, IV. The Limes, Staplehurst p. 57, V. Oxford and After p. 75. Part Two – Labourer: VI. ‘We’ll Make a Man of You Yet’ p. 101, VII. Marriage and the Limes Again p. 116, VIII. Bankrupt p. 135, IX. Labourer Again p. 154. Part Three – East Anglia: X. We Move to East Anglia p. 175, XI. Moving Houses p. 192, XII. I Build My Own Bungalow p. 209. Appendix (a Short History of Sidcup) pp. 227-230. London. Cassell. 1968. 12 Photographic Illustrations. pp. 230.

Love Letters: An Anthology from the British Isles, 975-1944. The contents include a comprehensive selection of letters from such eminent luminaries as: King Henry VIII to Lady Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Seymour; Sir Walter Raleigh, King Charles I, Sir Christopher Wren, Queen Mary II to King William III, William Congreve, Alexander Pope, Laurence Sterne, Horace Walpole, William Cowper, Sir Joshua Reynolds, George Crabbe, Robert Burns, Lord Nelson, Charles Lamb, Sir Walter Scott, William Hazlitt, Lord Byron, Percy Byshe Shelley, John Keats, Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Robert Browning, John Ruskin, Coventry Patmore, Katherine Mansfield to John Middleton Murray, Vita Sackville West to Harold Nicholson, Dylan Thomas and Alun Lewis. London. Cassell. 1970. pp. 358.

Sometime into England. (Autobiography, volume II). Dedicated: ‘For Catherine Again’. Contents: Part One – East Anglia Still: I. Borley Rectory p. 3, II. Borley Still p. 22, III. The Mill House, Belchamp Walter I p. 41, IV. Belchamp Walter II p. 59, V. Hillcot, Grundisburgh p. 80. Part Two – Cornwall: VI. Primrose Cottage I p. 107, Primrose Cottage II p. 130, VIII. Treneague p. 150. London. Cassell. 1970. 14 Photographic Illustrations. pp. 178.

The Stone Dormitory. (novel). Contents: I. The Stone Dormitory p. 1, II. Rampion’s Report p. 10, III. Rough Tor p. 21, IV. Half Portrait of a Dead Man p. 33,V. North Returns from Crestus p. 47, VI. The Bull House p. 58, VII. Rosamunde Hext p. 69, VIII. Wayland Smith p. 83, IX. Trackways p. 96, X. The Will p. 109, XI. Clare Chapman p. 125, XII. The Hanging Gardens p. 138. London. Cassell (Crime Connoisseur Book). [features Rampion Savage]. [Dust jacket design by: Jeanne Cross] (January) 1971. pp. 160.

Stella C, an Account of some Original Experiments in Psychical Research. (editor). London, Souvenir Press. 1973. pp. 182. [Harry Price’s original volume was published in London by Hurst & Blackett in 1925 and gave accounts of sittings with the medium Stella Cranshaw; this edition has an introduction by James Turner].

Ghosts in the South West. (editor). Newton Abbot. David & Charles. 1973. pp. 165.

Staircase to the Sea: Fourteen Ghost Stories by James Turner. [Turner’s short stories: ‘Fly away home’ p. 1, ‘Staircase to the sea’ p. 18, ‘Double Take’ p. 36, ‘The Guardian’ p. 47, ‘Poppy Time’ p. 60, ‘Vane’ p. 81, ‘No one ever comes here in winter’ p. 97, ‘Colonel Blonde’ p. 112, ‘The Bonfire’p. 128, ‘An ordered sequence of events’ p. 138, ‘A Summer Idyll’ p. 156, ‘A fall of snow’ p. 168, ‘Love Affair’ p. 184, ‘Long journey into time’ p. 196]. London. William Kimber. 1974. pp. 212.

The Stone Peninsula: Scenes from a Cornish Landscape. Contents: I. The White Pyramids p. 9, II. Cathedrals p. 19, III. The Stone Peninsula p. 31, IV. Burial Grounds and Ghosts p. 43, V. Pools and Inventors p. 58, VI. A 30 p. 75, VII. Bodmin Moor p. 89, VIII. Temples p. 103, IX. A Taste for Ruins p. 111, X. Deserted Railways p. 121, XI. Land of the Virgins p. 136, XII. Slate p. 152, XIII. Some Clergy p. 164, XIV. Baron Munchausen and the Great Dolcoath Mine p. 175, XV. Night Walkers p. 188. London. William Kimber. 1975. pp. 208 [12 pages of illustrative plates].

The Way Shadows Fall: Fourteen Ghost Stories by James Turner. [Turner’s short stories: ‘The way shadows fall’ p. 7, ‘Stratton’ p. 21, ‘The Oak Tree’ p. 36, ‘Love me, love my car’ p. 48, ‘The Quantity Surveyor’ p. 62, ‘Naked we came into this world’ p. 82, ‘The Model’ p. 100, ‘The Blue Dress’ p. 117, ‘Act of Contrition’ p. 128, ‘The Revolving Glasshouse’ p. 147, ‘Open Sesame’ p. 164, ‘Brookhurst’ p. 177, ‘The St. Christopher Medallion’ p. 190, ‘Point of Intersection’ p. 206]. London. William Kimber. (October) 1975. Dust jacket illustration by ‘Ionicus’ [Joshua Charles Armitage (1913-1998)] pp. 221.

The Countryside of Britain. (editor). [photography by Edwin Smith and Introduction by Ronald Blythe]. Contents: Introduction by Ronald Blythe pp. 7-9. I. Mountains p. 15, II. Fens, Marshes and Bogs p. 33, III. Broads, Lakes, Lochs and Reservoirs p. 47, IV. Downs and Hills p. 63, V. Middle Landscapes p. 85, VI. Forests, Woods and Hedges p. 103, VII. Rivers and Canals p. 123, VIII. Sea-shore and Coastline p. 149, IX. Moors and Heaths p. 171, X. Bridges and Modern Roads p. 187.London. Ward Lock Ltd. 1977. pp. 208 [1^st U.S. edition: Sceptred Isle: The Countryside of Britain. New York. Methuen Publications. 1977. pp. 320]

 

CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHOLOGIES:

 

The Fifth Ghost Book. (editor Rosemary Timperley). [includes Turner’s short story ‘Double Take’, p. 30]. London. Barrie & Rockliff. 1969. pp. 256.

The Sixth Ghost Book. (editor Rosemary Timperley). [includes Turner’s short story ‘No one ever comes here in winter’, p. 177]. London. Barrie & Rockliff. 1970. pp. 320.

The Seventh Ghost Book. (editor Rosemary Timperley). [includes Turner’s short story ‘Fly away home’, p. 266]. London. Barrie & Jenkins. 1971. pp. 302.

The Eighth Ghost Book. (editor Rosemary Timperley). [includes Turner’s short story ‘An ordered sequence of events’, p. 211]. London. Barrie & Jenkins. 1972. pp. 272.

The Ninth Ghost Book. (editor Rosemary Timperley). [includes Turner’s short story ‘Love me, love my car’, p. 163]. London. Barrie & Jenkins. 1973. pp. 284.

Spectre, 1. (anthology). [includes Turner’s short story ‘The Model’, p. 113]. 1973. pp. viii, 168.

Haunted Cornwall. (editor Denys Val Baker). [16 ghost stories, includes Turner’s short story ‘The Wheel’ p. 147]. New English Library Ltd. 1973. pp. 217.

The Vampire’s Bedside Companion. (editor Peter Underwood). [includes Turner’s short story ‘Mirror without Image’, pp. 225-247]. London. Leslie Frewin Publishers Ltd. pp. 248. [Turner’s story is illustrated by Geoffrey Bourne-Taylor and depicts the fair and naked form of Pauline upon a divan in the arms of the vampire, Elaine, p. 243]

The Fourteenth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. (editor Robert Chetwynd-Hayes). [16 ghost stories including Turner’s short story ‘The St Christopher Medallion’]. 1978. pp. 194.

The Nineteenth Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories. (editor Robert Chetwynd-Hayes). [includes Turner’s short story ‘The way shadows fall’]. 1983. pp.192.

 

A SELECTION OF RADIO BROADCASTS:

 

The Haunted Rectory. B.B.C. Home Service. James Turner, along with Reverend Clifford Henning and his wife, Miss Edith Bull, Tom Gooch and Herbert Mayes (once Henning’s chauffeur) discuss the haunting of the famous Rectory. Sunday 29^th July 1947, 9.30-10.15 p.m.

Morning Story. B.B.C. Light Programme. ‘The Statue’ by James Turner, read by Felix Felton. Thursday 5^th November 1953, 11.45 a.m.

Morning Story. B.B.C. Light Programme. ‘The Tree’ by James Turner, read by David King-Wood. Tuesday 24^th November 1953, 11.45 a.m.

Morning Story. B.B.C. Light Programme. ‘The Masterpiece’ by James Turner, read by Robert Rietty. Wednesday 26^th January 1955, 11.15 a.m.

Children’s Hour. B.B.C. Home Service. ‘In His Own Stable’ (the story of a donkey) written by James Turner, told by Bernadette Hodgson. Tuesday 25^th December 1956, 5.00 p.m.

Morning Story. B.B.C. Light Programme. ‘The Fortifications’ by James Turner, read by Douglas Leach. Thursday 10^th November 1960, 11.00 a.m.

B.B.C. Home Service (West). ‘Sometimes into England: James Turner describes his return to Cornwall after thirty years’. Sunday 12^th February 1961, 10.30 a.m.

B.B.C. Home Service (South and West). ‘A Haze of Smoke: James Turner on his early years in London’. Thursday 23^rd August 1962, 6.25 p.m.

Morning Story. B.B.C. Light Programme, (from the West). ‘The Miracle’ by James Turner, read by Hedley Goodall. Thursday 23^rd August 1962, 11-11.15 a.m.

Morning Story. B.B.C. Light Programme. ‘A Fall of Snow’ by James Turner, read by Hedley Goodall. Thursday 13^th December 1962, 11-11.15 a.m.

B.B.C. Home Service (South and West). ‘A Taste for Ruins’, a talk by James Turner. Friday 29^th May 1964, 12.00 p.m.

B.B.C. Home Service. ‘The Interval, We’ll Make a Man of You’, James Turner talks of his early experiences as a towns-man learning to be accepted by the countryman. Wednesday 14^th October 1964, 9.10-9.25 p.m.

Woman’s Hour. B.B.C. Light Programme. ‘Afternoons with a Painter: the author James Turner, remembers afternoons spent with Sir Alfred Munnings’. Friday 25^th March 1966, 2-3 p.m.

 

NOTES:

 

*‘At Borley’. The Ancient People. Glen Cavaliero. Carcanet Press. 1973. p. 44.

 

1. Architectural Practice and Procedure: A Manual for Students and Practitioners. Hamilton Hall Turner. London. B. T. Batsford. 1925. [2^nd edition: 1931, 3^rd: 1945, 4^th: 1948, 5^th edition revised by his son, John Hamilton Turner: 1955 and 6^th edition 1974]
2. In 1901 Hamilton and Dora Turner were living at 2, Western Villas, West Street, Carshalton, Sutton, London. Dorothea Isabel Turner died at Stildon, East Grinstead, aged 98 on Saturday 13^th February 1999 and the funeral service took place at St Mary’s Church, Windmill Lane, East Grinstead on Wednesday 24^th February at 11 a.m.
3. Rev. John Gwynne Pryse Hardy, born Aston, Warwickshire in 1872, deacon 1901, priest 1902, St. Alban’s Church of Holy Trinity, Waltham Cross 1901-03,  Curate (1903) St. Mark’s, Lewisham 1903-11, St. John, Brixton 1911-12, All Saint’s, Camberwell 1912-22, Vicar St. Barnabus, Eltham from 1922. He died aged 74 on 24^th December 1946. Another relative was Great Uncle Rev. Edward Jones Hardy (1835-1900), educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, who was vicar of Tresmere in Cornwall from 1884-1900; he married Laetitia Ridler (died 1884) of Portarlington, Queen’s County, Ireland on 21^st June 1869 at Lea Church, Portarlington. Reverend Edward Hardy who had been Classical and Mathematical Master for many years at the Grammar School in Falmouth, died at Tresmere Vicarage, Launceston in Cornwall on 3^rd March 1900 aged 64.
4. Desmond Flower (1907-1997), publisher and author. In his autobiography, ‘Fellows in Foolscap: Memoirs of a Publisher’ (London. Robert Hale Ltd. 1991), Flower describes Turner as an ‘extremely good critic whose judgement I trusted. I also liked his rather odd, dry wit.’ (p. 323)
5. The Haunted Rectory (number 10 in The True Escape stories) by Alan Burgess and Peter Eton (producers). James Turner (along with Mr. and Mrs. Tom Gooch and Mr. Kemp) was interviewed at Borley on Monday 16^th June 1947 and the programme aired on the B.B.C. Home Service on Sunday 29^th June 1947 between 9.30 and 10.15 p.m. The programme also featured interviews of Edward Cooper, Captain W. H. Gregson, Lady Florence Whitehouse (of Arthur Hall near Sudbury), Tom Gooch (farmer and native of Borley), Mrs. Pearson, Mr. Ernest Hardy (village local), Mr. Shaw Jeffrey (b. 1862 who was at Oxford with Harry Bull and later Headmaster of Colchester Royal Grammar School), Miss Ethel Bull, Mr. Herbert Mayes, Mr. Samuel Seal, Mr. Russell, Reverend Henning and wife, Mr. Glanville, Gwen Day Burroughs, Frank Partington, Marjorie Westbury and Mr. Harry Price. see ‘Borley Postscript’ (Surrey. Whitehouse Publications. 2001) by Peter Underwood for a full transcription of the broadcast, p. 31.
6. Sometimes into England. James Turner. 1970. pp. 37-38.
7. Berry Perkins (Mrs. Christopher Perkins, The Stone, 1, Stour Street, Sudbury) was a regular outspoken correspondent of the Suffolk and Essex Free Press. In her letter to the editor (Suffolk and Essex Free Press, Tuesday 2^nd January 1951, p. 5) she reacted to Turner’s letter under the heading: ‘She’s Ready to Turn the Other Cheek’, which begins: ‘Sir, - I am ready to turn the other cheek to James Turner for as many “slaps in the face” as he thinks necessary to administer, but at the same time I would like to point out that I consider his letter in today’s “Free Press” entirely lacking in all the qualities he wished to promote in the female sex. To begin with, no sane person could advocate Matriarchy: the idea is unnatural and therefore repellent. (By the way, it is not only in the last 50 years, to quote Mr. Turner, that women have lowered themselves to equality with men. I contend this has been done throughout the ages, e.g., Amazons, Boadicea, Joan of Arc, Margaret of Anjou, Queens Elizabeth and Victoria, Pope Joan (less said about this lady the better).’
8. ‘Winter Digging’. James Turner. The Poetry Review, volumes 56-58. 1965. p. 18.
9. ‘Suffolk Stallion’. James Turner. The Poetry Review, volume LX, spring 1969, p. 7; also in The Best Poems of 1969. Borestone Mountain Poetry Awards 1970 (22^nd Annual volume, volume XXII). California. Pacific Books. 1970. p. 145.
10. The poem ‘Summer Day’ also appeared in Outposts, issue 37, summer 1958, pp. 6-7 and the poem ‘Summer Afternoon’ (not included in the collection The Interior Diagram) was published in The Poetry Review, volumes 56-58, 1965-1967, p. 214.
11. The poem, ‘Pheasant’, is also included in ‘Chorus: an Anthology of Bird Poems’. Edited by Susanne Knowles. London, Heinemann.1969. p. 121.
12. ‘Dying Gull’ also appeared in The Poetry Review, volume 50, 1959, p. 77.
13. ‘Kynance Cove’ was also published in Outposts, issue 39, winter 1958, p. 13. The poem ‘Last Land’ also appeared in The Listener, volume 57, number 1473, 20^th June 1957, p. 998. [‘Last Land’ is one of the few rhyming verse Turner composed and in my opinion it is less accomplished than his blank verse; in it we find three, six-line stanzas in which the rhymes ‘rocks’ and ‘blocks’, ‘sand’ and ‘land’, ‘shells’ and wells’, ‘deep’ and ‘creep’, ‘shags’ and ‘crags’, ‘pool’ and ‘cool’, ‘whips’ and ‘ships’ seem quite tedious, although there are some saving grace  exceptions in his use of compound words such as ‘waveworn’, ‘seachants’, ‘hornbeak’, ‘tideleft’ and ‘crabhome’; the last line is particularly enchanting, with its ‘torment seas; time-drowned ships.’]
14. For more on James Turner and his time at Borley see my article: James Turner and the Borley Ghost. Ghost Blooms. (2009), and Turner’s volume: My Life with Borley Rectory (1950).
15. Also in New Voices, Selected by Alan Pryce Jones, (Pocket Poets). London. E. Hulton and Company Limited. 1959. p. 46.
16. The Poetry Review. LVIII, Number 1, spring, 1967. p. 29.
17. ‘Foxlight’, published in The Listener, volume LXVI, number 1684, Thursday 6^th July 1961, p. 29.
18. ‘Wardmaid’, published in The Poetry Review, volume 52, 1960, p. 143.
19. ‘Physio-Therapy’, The Poetry Review, volume 53, 1961, pp. 142-143. An excerpt from the poem ‘The First Wound’ (Interior Diagram, p. 64) is included in Ronald Blythe’s ‘Akenfied: Portrait of an English Village. The Penguin Press. 1969. Chapter 2. God. p. 64.
20. see also the Torbay Express and South Devon Echo – ‘Author Dies in Cornwall’, Wednesday 14^th May 1975, p. 7.