Perceval Landon
Perceval Landon (1869–1927) was an English writer, traveller and journalist, now best remembered for his classic and much reprinted ghost story "Thurnley Abbey".
Family
Perceval Landon was born in
Life and career
He was educated at
He was called to the Bar by the
At a meeting of the Royal Society of Arts in 1915, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, former Viceroy of India, described Landon as "a writer of exceptional ability on Eastern and other questions" and "an authority second to none on the geography and politics of what was commonly called the Middle East."[9]
His best known non-fiction work is The opening of Tibet (1905), which he wrote after joining the British expedition to Tibet in 1903–1904; the book is subtitled "an account of Lhasa and the country and people of central Tibet and of the progress of the mission sent there by the English government in the year 1903-4". In this book, Landon was one of the first Europeans to describe the holy city of Lhasa in detail.[10]
He was also the author of a book of 13 original short stories, Raw Edges, published by William Heinemann, London, in 1908, with lithograph illustrations by Alberto Martini. The most successful and enduring of these stories was Thurnley Abbey; but also included were psychological suspense stories Railhead and The Gyroscope (which is about a horrifying juggernaut running amok in a crowded auditorium).
Landon was private secretary to the Governor of
By this time, in 1925, Landon was 57 and had travelled constantly since the age of 21. Landon from 1912 had the use of Keylands, a cottage in the grounds of Kipling's house,
On 22 January 1927, his old friend Rudyard Kipling wrote to his former employer Lord Beauchamp saying Landon had "crocked badly", blaming "exposure and over-work". He asked Beauchamp to "keep a kindly eye on him" while Kipling was sailing to South America and added, in a postscript, "If when he gets better, he has to go on a milk and egg diet, you could see that he gets good country stuff. I can't arrange this from my farms, in my absence."[16]
But Landon died, a day later, on 23 January 1927. He was unmarried.
Kipling was too upset to go to the funeral, but his poem A Song in the Desert "was a lament for a friend he had loved".[17] The poem is dedicated: "P. L. OB. JAN. 1927".[18] The Kipling Society says it reflects "his many travels in the wild places of the world, his uncomplaining endurance of dangers and discomforts, his magical tales, lightly told, and his shrewd criticism of Kipling's own work".[19]
Thurnley Abbey
Landon's
A man named Alastair Colvin is travelling on a boat with the narrator, and asks the narrator if he can sleep in his cabin, even though he has his own. The narrator is surprised by this but Colvin then narrates his tale which involves his travelling to Thurnley Abbey, recently inherited by Colvin's friend, John Broughton, who has recently taken ownership of the old abbey. A Mr. Clarke, the old retainer who had lived at the Abbey for many years, is reputed to have put about that a ghost haunts the Abbey, and seemed to have delighted in the fear that this had caused. Locals believe it, and though the new owner makes light of it, he seems not to be entirely convinced that it is not true, and after arranging for Colvin to stay overnight, asks him to "talk to it" [22] if he sees a ghost. Colvin spends the night in the house and encounters the ghost – an experience which changes his life. Henceforth he is afraid to sleep alone.
Raw Edges also included the ghost story "Mrs Rivers's Journal" which Hugh Lamb has reprinted in his anthologies Gaslight Nightmares 2 and "Gaslit Horror".
Medals
In 2015, a group of 7 medals awarded to Landon on various occasions was offered for sale by
Publications
As well as his journalism, Landon published the following books:
- Heliotropes, or New Posies for Sundials, written in an old book partly in English and partly in Latin (1908)
- The opening of Tibet; an account of Lhasa and the country and people of central Tibet and of the progress of the mission sent there by the English government in the year 1903-4 (1905) [1]
- Lhasa, v. I and II (1905)[25]
- Under the Sun: impressions of Indian cities (1906)[26]
- 1857, The Story of the Indian Mutiny (1907)
- Raw Edges; studies and stories of these days (1908)
- For the Soul of the King (translated from the French, 1909)
- The House Opposite (play; produced at the Queen's Theatre, London, 1910)
- Nepal (1928).
- Percival Landon's History of Nepal
References
- ^ Foster, Joseph (1893). Oxford Men and their Colleges 1880–1892. Oxford: J. Parker. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black.
- ^ Foster, Joseph (1893). Oxford Men and their Colleges 1880–1892. Oxford: J. Parker. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black.
- ^ Foster, Joseph (1893). Oxford Men and their Colleges 1880–1892. Oxford: J. Parker. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
- ^ Rao, Conjeeveram Hayavadana (1915). The Indian Biographical Dictionary. s.v. Perceval Landon. Retrieved 27 February 2017.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black.
- ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black.
- ^ "Proceedings of the Society". Journal of the Royal Society of Arts. 63: 505. 23 April 1915.
- ^ Valentine, Mark (7 June 2012). "Perceval Landon: A Book of Shadows". Wormwoodiana. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
- ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black.
- Doubleday & Co., pp. 336, 345.
- ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black.
- ^ Ricketts, Harry (1999). The Unforgiving Minute – A Life of Rudyard Kipling. London: Chatto & Windus. p. 335.
- ^ Who Was Who. A&C Black.
- ISBN 978-0877458982.
- ^ Lycett, Andrew (1999). Rudyard Kipling. Hachette, UK. p. 453.
- ^ Kipling, Rudyard. "A Song in the Desert". Poetry Lovers Page. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
- ^ "A Song in the Desert – notes by John McGivering and John Radcliffe". The Kipling Society. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
- ^ "An M.R. James Letter". Introduced and Annotated by Jack Adrian. Ghosts & Scholars magazine, Volume 8. Retrieved 18 August 2019.
- ^ Wilson, Neil (2000). Shadows in the Attic: A Guide to Supernatural Fiction, 1820–1950. p. 309.
- ^ "THURNLEY ABBEY". Archived from the original on 24 March 2005.
- ^ "A Guide to British Campaign Medals of WW1". The Great War 1914–1918. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
- ^ "ORDERS, DECORATIONS AND MEDALS Sale Date 12 May 2015 10 am". The Saleroom. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
- ^ "Review of Lhasa by Perceval Landon, 2 vols". The Athenaeum (4035): 231–232. 25 February 1905.
- ^ "Review of Under the Sun; Impressions of Indian Cities by Perceval Landon". Journal of the Royal Colonial Institute (3, Session 1906–1907): 195. February 1907.
External links
- Works by Perceval Landon at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)