Philip Mason
Philip Mason,
Early life and education
Philip Mason was one of three children- two sons and a daughter- of Herbert Alfred Mason (1876–1968), a general practitioner at Duffield, Derbyshire, and his wife Ethel Addison (1880–1956), daughter of Herbert Addison Woodruff, an engineer and manager of a Cammell Laird steel factory.[2][3] The Mason family had been farmers for several generations at Barrowden in Rutland, East Midlands; his great-grandfather Henry brewed beer and sold malting barley to brewers, and his grandfather George Mason "grew first-class malting barley and reared Leicester lambs".[4] On the basis that "Woodruff" struck him as "a prettier, a more unusual, and a more romantic name than plain ordinary Mason", he "decided very early to be Philip Woodruff Mason and was known by that name until (he) was thirteen and had to produce a birth certificate."[5]
Mason was educated at
Career with the Indian Civil Service
Mason worked for the
Race and decolonisation
With his farming efforts, even supplemented by the income from his writing, proving insufficiently remunerative for the needs of his growing family, Mason took the part-time position as the first Director of Studies of the Royal Institute of International Affairs at
Mason was strongly influenced by Octave Mannoni's use of The Tempest to illuminate the colonial situation — Prospero as imperialist — and in his own book of 1962, Prospero's Magic: Some Thoughts on Class and Race, he extended Mannoni's symbolism to cover the Third World in general, noting how "in my country until a generation ago we liked Prospero...some of us are beginning not to like him".[10]
Marriage and later life
In retirement, Mason wrote nine more books, before encroaching blindness ended his literary endeavours (he had previously suffered temporary blindness in 1941 after a shooting accident). These works included a biography of Rudyard Kipling and two autobiographical volumes.[7]
In 1935, Mason had married (Eileen) Mary, daughter of Courtenay Hayes, of Charmouth, Dorset and niece of senior Indian Army officer Major-General William Twiss. They had two sons and two daughters.[11][12] Mason lived at Mulberry House, Church Street, Fordingbridge, Hampshire[citation needed] (formerly at Hither Daggons, Brock's Hill, Cripplestyle, in the parish of Alderholt, near Fordingbridge),[13] where he died.[6][14] He had been created OBE in 1942, and CIE in 1946.[13]
See also
References
- ^ Ferdinand Mount, The Tears of the Rajas (2016) p. 76 and p. 568
- ^ A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 3
- .
- ^ A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 3, 8
- ^ A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 4
- ^ a b c Tinker, Hugh (3 February 1999). "Philip Mason obituary". The Guardian.
- ^ a b c d Olive, Roland (2 February 1999). "Obituary: Philip Mason". The Independent. Archived from the original on 26 May 2022. Retrieved 1 October 2012.
- ^ A Raj Collection, ed. Saros Cowasjee, Oxford University Press, 2005, p. 1023
- ^ A. Vaughan, Shakespeare's Caliban (1991) p. 160-1
- ^ Quoted in A. Vaughan, Shakespeare's Caliban (1991) p. 162
- ^ "Mason, Philip, (19 March 1906 – 25 January 1999), writer | Who's WHO & WHO WAS WHO".
- ^ A Shaft of Sunlight, Philip Mason, Andre Deutsch Ltd, 1978, p. 123
- ^ a b Debrett's Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage and Companionage, 1973, Kelly's Directories, p. 2839
- ^ A Thread of Silk: Further Memories of a Varied Life, Philip Mason, M. Russell, 1984, p. 188