POSTHUMOUS COLLECTIONS
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Henry Williamson relied, throughout the greater part of his writing life, on income generated by the sale of his articles and short stories to newspapers and magazines. Many of these formed the backbone of his early books: The Lone Swallows, The Peregrine's Saga and The Old Stag spring immediately to mind; but much of the material in other books – for example, The Wet Flanders Plain, The Village Book, The Labouring Life and The Linhay on the Downs – also had its origins in his journalism.
Lord Beaverbrook's newspaper empire – the Daily Express, Sunday Express and Evening Standard – provided space for most of his output, but articles were also placed in, amongst others, the Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Times, the Daily Mail and the Daily Mirror, as well as in many magazines.
The Daily Express in particular was staunch in its support for much of HW's writing career, publishing articles and short stories between 1921 and 1935, articles about his adventures as a novice farmer between 1937 and 1939, and further articles between 1966 and 1971. Bearing in mind that the Express, at its peak, had a circulation of more than four million copies, HW was reaching a huge readership, with his pieces being given prominence on the features page.
Between 1933 and 1936, when living at Shallowford, HW contributed a regular 'nature' column to the now defunct Sunday Referee.
When he moved to Stiffkey in North Norfolk with the intention of restoring the derelict Old Hall Farm, HW had very little in the way of capital, and indeed intended to rely on his articles and broadcasts to supply this. Between 1937 and 1945 he was writing continuously, well over 200 articles in all – this in addition, remember, to running and working on the farm – for a number of newspapers: the Daily Express (1937–1939); the Evening Standard (1939–1941); the Eastern Daily Press (1941–1944); and the Evening Standard again (1944-45).
Between 1935 and 1954 (but chiefly before the Second World War) HW also broadcast regular talks for the BBC – at first from Bristol, to where he used to either motor in his Alvis Silver Eagle or catch the train from Filleigh station, which was close to Shallowford; and then, after the move to Norfolk, from London. The texts of a number of these were reprinted in The Listener. Broadcasts were given live, recording equipment then being in its infancy.
North America, too, proved a lucrative and important outlet for his material. American magazines paid far more generously than their British counterparts, and essays and short stories were placed with, amongst others, Colliers Magazine; The Golden Book Magazine; The Wide World Magazine, Outsiders, Pearson's Magazine and the prestigious Atlantic Monthly. HW describes, in The Sun in the Sands, hearing about the first such sale from his agent Andrew Dakers in 1922:
One morning the postman brought me a letter from my literary agent telling me that he had sold the story of the peregrine falcons to The Pictorial Review in America for five hundred dollars, and he enclosed a cheque for ninety-eight pounds. . . . I had written several short stories during the winter, one about a badger, another of an otter, a third about a mouse, and other animals, and my agent had had good luck with them . . . placing them with magazines like The Royal, Pearson's, Pan, and The Storyteller, for prices between twelve and twenty guineas. I had all the money I needed. But this was the first American sale, the first "big money".
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When the Henry Williamson Society was founded in 1980, one of its earliest aims was to research, collect, publish and so rescue from obscurity much of this journalism, which, although an important part of HW's work, by definition was ephemeral: published and read one day, the next day's fish-and-chips wrapping, as the saying used to go. This was not a one-man task, and the project was advanced considerably by the willingness of its members to share their 'finds', for which thanks are here expressed. The Society's first publication, in 1983, was a reprint of HW's Contributions to the Weekly Dispatch. First published privately in 1969 (and so during HW's lifetime), it is not eligible for this page, but the link gives further details.
Subsequent collections are detailed below, in order of publication; the page for each gives the Editor's Notes; the Introduction; List of Contents; and a sample extract, in addition to bibliographical details.
While some of our books are still in print, all our titles are available as e-books. Links are given as appropriate to our Online Bookshop (or they can be ordered from Amazon's Kindle Store).
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