… And the Other Two

Potter allegedly cried “My God, it’s George Richards of Poole”

*

Introduction. In his article “Politics and the English Language” (Horizon, April 1946) Orwell quoted five passages of allegedly bad English. In my previous blogs on this website I gave biographies of Professor Harold Laski, Professor Lancelot Hogben and Paul Goodman who wrote the first three passages. Here I look at what I have found out about the authors of the fourth and fifth passages.

George Richards. On 31 August 1945 the left-wing journal Tribune printed a letter from George Richards of Poole, Dorset. The full letter read:

Speaking as one who wished to see Winston Churchill continue in the direction of affairs for the present, and who, therefore, unhesitatingly voted Conservative in the recent election, I freely concede that there are certain undoubted and manifest benefits to be derived from a Labour government.

For example the real realisation of the hard facts governing in the post-war world must come to millions as an unpleasant dose of medicine. It as well that the doctors administering it should not only have a mandate from the people, but themselves be sprung from the people.

Even so, a new government must walk warily. I imagine that there is nothing like coming into power in a democratic state for making a man realise how limited are the powers of the princes of this (modern) world. Nevertheless, if a new spirit is to be infused into this old country, there is one thorny and contentious reform which must be tackled, and that is the humanisation and galvanisation of the BBC. Timidity here will bespeak canker and atrophy of the soul. The heart of Britain may be sound and of strong beat, for instance, but the British lion’s roar at present is like that of Bottom in Shakespeare’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” – as gentle as any sucking dove. A virile new Britain cannot continue indefinitely to be traduced in the eyes, or rather ears, of the world by the effete languors of Langham Place, brazenly masquerading as “standard English”. When the Voice of Britain is heard at nine o’clock, better far and infinitely less ludicrous to hear aitches honestly dropped than the present priggish, inflated, inhibited, school-ma’mishly arch braying of blamelessly bashful mewing maidens.

George Orwell did not name George Richards who wrote this fourth passage of alleged bad English. With the help of our learned editor and the highly professional British Library Staff I obtained a copy of the full letter. It was marked from George Richards of Poole.

I tried hard to find out who this George Richards was and particularly when he was born, how he made his living and when he died. I searched Ancestry and other genealogical websites but to no avail. The online British Newspaper Archive gave me examples of other letters he had written but no obituaries for him.

I contacted Dorset Family History Society’s Treetops Research Centre in Poole and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole’s (BCP) Library Services. They too could not identify this George Richards. A Bournemouth Local Studies Librarian, though, enabled me to acquit a George Richards of Poole I had identified as a likely suspect.

I have, though, found out from various sources that George Richards lived in an apartment on Mount Pleasant Road in Poole. I found some references to him on online electoral registers but this got me no further. I found seven letters that George Richards had published in the Daily News (the News Chronicle).

George Richards praised the benefits of fresh milk and eggs over powdered ones (1941); suggested that the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour because of the stark, bleak monotony of their lives (1942); praised the US General Forces radio programme in comparison to the BBC (1944); criticised Hollywood publicity agents who over hyped films (1944); praised ITV in comparison to the BBC (1957); criticised Christians for supporting laws evolved for regulating the affairs of nomadic tribes 2,000 years ago (1959); and criticised railwaymen who boycotted Belgian cargoes (1961).

George Richards sometimes used other names. One thin pseudonym was G. Reichardt of Poole. He used it in a letter savaging avant-garde art (New Statesman, 4 August 1967); and one about over-size road signs (Daily Telegraph, 8 December 1968).

Nicholas Tomalin. According to Nicholas  Tomalin (New Statesman, 18 August 1967) George Richards used other less easily recognisable pseudonyms. They allegedly included Shadrack Joliffe, George Robens, James Olentighe, Soame Jenyns, Zoilus, Hubert Hoylake and John Peter Zender. Apparently George Richards had a small private income and often visited London to see plays, concerts and exhibitions. He would then write letters abusing critics whose commentary he disliked.

Some of these letters were allegedly sent directly to critics whose views George Richards disliked. Philip Hope-Wallace (1911-1979) of the Guardian took out an injunction against such letters. George Richards retaliated by sending him parcels containing toilet seats from various strangely named souls; and a series of accommodation addresses.

Further, according to Nicholas Tomalin, Stephen Potter (1900-1969) the critic and author, of The Theory and Practise of Gamesmanship fame, was changing trains at Poole. He heard heavy steps racing towards him down the platform, growing louder and louder. Potter allegedly cried “My God, it’s George Richards of Poole”, then leapt into his compartment, drew down the blinds and never returned to Poole.

The last published reference I have found to George Richards of Poole was in the Guardian (25 April, 1970). The writer in criticising the BBC Radio 4 programme PM noted with some glee that they had read out a letter from one Vivian Vavasseur of Solihull. This was one of George Richards of Poole’s pseudonyms unless of course he was using a real name as a cover. If anyone can tell me when George Richards died or if George Richards had a middle name, please let me know.

Going off at a tangent. Nicholas Tomalin was the only child of Miles Ridley Tomalin (1903-1983), an advertising copywriter, journalist, typographer, poet and communist party member. Like Orwell Miles Tomalin fought in the Spanish Civil War. Miles: in the International Brigades in Tomalin’s case. He outlived his son by nearly ten years, dying on 22 March 1983 aged eighty.

Nicholas Tomalin, a Cambridge graduate, was killed, aged forty two, on the Golan Heights by a Syrian missile on Wednesday 17 October 1973 during the Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli War. He had been reporting it for the Sunday Times. He had earlier reported the Vietnam War and the 1971-1972 Indian-Pakistani War. He left a widow, Claire Tomalin, nee Delavaney, a Cambridge graduate; and four children. After her husband’s death Claire Tomalin became a journalist and a prize winning literary biographer.

Still Unknown. The fifth passage of alleged bad English that Orwell quoted read:

All the ‘best people’ from the gentlemen’s clubs, and all the frantic fascist captains, united in common hatred of Socialism and bestial horror of the rising tide of the mass revolutionary movement, have turned to acts of provocation, to foul incendiarism, to medieval legends of poisoned wells, to legalise their own destruction of proletarian organisations, and rouse the agitated petty bourgeoisie to chauvinistic fervour on behalf of the fight against the revolutionary way out of the crisis.

Who wrote this rubbish? My first thought was to contact the Marx Memorial Library. I offered them £50 as a donation if they could identify whoever it was. They politely explained that it would mean searching through their very large collection of communist pamphlets and leaflets.

I contacted the editor of this website. He directed me to the British Library’s collection of Orwell’s collection of communist literature. This has an online catalogue. I lack the time, money and other resources to search this collection. If anyone can tell me who wrote it please let me know.

I cannot be certain but I suspect that it was one of the idiots who cheered on Stalin’s purges and found excuses to justify the 1939 Stalin-Hitler pact. The writer of the pamphlet probably then left the communist party in the 1950’s when Khrushchev was in power. Nikita Khrushchev had many faults as the people of Budapest and Berlin will testify; but he was far less cruel than Stalin.

*