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Q acted as best man for Kenneth Grahame (whom he met when Grahame was convalescing in Fowey). Grahame suggested in a signed first edition dedicated to Q’s daughter, Foy, that Q was the inspiration for Ratty in “The Wind in the Willows”. This edition was sold in 2010 for £32,4006. Helene Hanff wrote extensively about Q whilst Alistair Cooke chose Jesus College in order to study under Q, ‘the man whose writings had so impressed him’.

This related to a volume of Q’s lectures in 1913-1914 in which he first used the term “murder your darlings” although it has variously but incorrectly been ascribed to writers as diverse as Ginsberg, Faulkner, Chekov, Oscar Wilde, Welty, Chesterton and Stephen King and the inspiration for the title of the 2013 film “Kill your darlings” about the Beat Generation of writers.

 

 

Essentially the point of the expression ‘murder your darlings’ was to emphasise that ‘Whenever you feel the need to perpetuate a piece of exceptionally fine writing – obey it wholeheartedly and delete it from the manuscript before sending it to press. Murder your darlings.’ In other words he was advising the writer to avoid unnecessarily ornate or flowery phrasing and demonstrated that by a lengthy rewording of Hamlet’s “To be or not to be”.

The aspiring writer, Cooke, also modestly suggested that his studying under Q was “like some amateur fiddler going to live next door to Beethoven.” and, in his biography of Cooke, Nick Clarke related a mildly amusing tale of Q’s advice to Cooke about an essay he had written. Q’s advice, having read the essay whilst dressing for dinner, amounted to “Cooke, you must learn to murder your darlings”.