June 5th Filson Young (Birth)

     

 

 

Irish – born Alexander Bell Filson Young (1876 – 1938), always known as Filson Young, was an essayist, novelist and non-fiction writer, organist and a pioneer of travel by motorcar and plane. 

He became notorious for a scandalously lewd novel, ‘The Sands of Pleasure’ (1905) and his fame increased with his reporting of the Boer War for the Manchester Guardian as well as for publishing the first book about The Titanic, just 38 days after the tragic sinking.

A close friend of Grant Richards (October 21st), Young spent many years living on the Lizard Peninsula he became very friendly with Father Bernard Walke (June 15th) and Annie Walke (July 6th) and produced  the radio broadcast of Walke’s Christmas play, ‘Bethlehem’ (December 1926) and the plays which became an annual Christmas tradition at St. Hilary and on the BBC.

An early motoring enthusiast, he published ‘The Complete Motorist’ (1904), ‘Cornwall and a Light Car’ (1926), and ‘The Joy of the Road’ (1907). He wrote extensively on music, produced literary columns for ‘The Saturday Review’ and ‘The Daily Mail’ and is renowned for the first publication of James Joyce’s work having recommended the writer to Grant Richards.

He served in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in World War I and wrote about the navy’s service in the North Sea whilst, having learnt to fly in 1936, he broadcast a series of radio talks, ‘Growing Wings

 

 

 

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