Scottish writer (1883?1972)
Sir Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie
,
OBE
(17 January 1883 ? 30 November 1972) was a Scottish writer of fiction, biography, histories and a memoir, as well as a cultural commentator, raconteur and lifelong
Scottish nationalist
. He was one of the co-founders in 1928 of the
National Party of Scotland
along with
Hugh MacDiarmid
,
R. B. Cunninghame Graham
and
John MacCormick
. He was
knighted
in 1952.
Background
[
edit
]
Edward Montague Compton Mackenzie was born in
West Hartlepool
,
County Durham
, England, into a theatrical family of Mackenzies, many of whose members used Compton as their stage surname, starting with his English grandfather
Henry Compton
, a well-known
Shakespearean
actor of the
Victorian era
. His father,
Edward Compton
Mackenzie, and mother,
Virginia Frances Bateman
, were actors and theatre company managers; his sister,
Fay Compton
(whose son was
Anthony Pelissier
, Compton's nephew), starred in many of
J. M. Barrie
's plays, including
Peter Pan
. He was educated at
St Paul's School
, London, and
Magdalen College, Oxford
, from where he graduated with a degree in Modern History.
[1]
Writing
[
edit
]
Mackenzie is perhaps best known for two comic novels set in Scotland:
Whisky Galore
(1947) set in the
Hebrides
, and
The Monarch of the Glen
(1941) set in the
Scottish Highlands
. They were the sources of a successful
film
and a
television series
respectively. He published almost a hundred books on different subjects, including ten volumes of autobiography:
My Life and Times
(1883?71). He wrote history (on the
Battle of Marathon
and the
Battle of Salamis
), biography (
Mr Roosevelt
, a 1943 biography of FDR), literary criticism, satires,
apologia
(
Sublime Tobacco
1957), children's stories, poetry and so on. Of his fiction,
The Four Winds of Love
is sometimes considered his
magnum opus
.
[2]
He was admired by
F. Scott Fitzgerald
, whose first book,
This Side of Paradise
, was written under the literary influence of Compton.
[3]
Sinister Street
, his lengthy 1913?14
Bildungsroman
, influenced
George Orwell
and
Cyril Connolly
, who both read it as schoolboys.
[4]
[5]
Max Beerbohm
praised Mackenzie's writing for vividness and emotional reality.
[6]
Frank Swinnerton
, a literary critic, comments on Mackenzie's "detail and wealth of reference". Sir
John Betjeman
said of it, "This has always seemed to me one of the best novels of the best period in English novel writing."
Henry James
thought it to be the most remarkable book written by a young author in his lifetime. After his conversion to Roman Catholicism in 1914, Mackenzie explored religious themes in a trilogy of novels,
The Altar Steps
(1922),
The Parson's Progress
(1923) and
The Heavenly Ladder
(1924).
[
citation needed
]
In 1922,
Robin Legge
,
chief music critic
of
The Daily Telegraph
, encouraged Mackenzie to write some of the earliest gramophone record reviews.
[7]
In 1923 he and his brother-in-law
Christopher Stone
founded
Gramophone
, the still-influential
classical music
magazine.
[8]
Mackenzie continued to edit the magazine until 1961. He was also the literary critic for the London-based national newspaper
Daily Mail
.
[9]
Following his time on
Capri
, socialising with the gay exiles there, he treated the homosexuality of a politician sensitively in
Thin Ice
(1956).
The Lunatic Republic
(1959) is a political satire. For the version of English spoken by the inhabitants of Lunamania on the far side of the Moon, Mackenzie invented over 150 new words.
[
citation needed
]
Greek Memories
[
edit
]
Mackenzie worked as an actor, political activist and broadcaster. He served with
British Intelligence
in the
Eastern Mediterranean
during the
First World War
, later publishing four books on his experiences. According to these books, he was commissioned in the
Royal Marines
, rising to the rank of captain. His ill-health making front-line service impractical, he was assigned counter-espionage work during the
Gallipoli campaign
,
[10]
and in 1916 built up a considerable counter-intelligence network in Athens, Greece then being neutral.
[11]
He is alleged to have taken part in an attempt to assassinate the King by poison in August 1916, during which the royal palace was to be surrounded by fire to prevent him escaping.
[12]
While his secret service work seems to have been valued highly by his superiors, including Sir
Mansfield Smith-Cumming
, his passionate political views, especially his support for the
Venizelists
, made him a controversial figure and he was expelled from
Athens
following the
Noemvriana
.
[13]
In 1917, he founded the Aegean Intelligence Service, and enjoyed considerable autonomy for some months as its director. He was offered the Presidency of the Republic of
Cerigo
, which was briefly independent while Greece was split between Royalists and
Venizelists
, but declined the office. He was recalled in September 1917. Smith-Cumming considered appointing him as his deputy, but withdrew the suggestion after opposition from within his own service, and Mackenzie played no further active role in the war. In 1919, he was appointed an Officer of the
Order of the British Empire
(OBE), and was also honoured with the French
Legion of Honour
, the
Serbian
Order of the White Eagle
, and the Greek
Order of the Redeemer
.
[14]
After the publication of his
Greek Memories
in 1932, he was prosecuted the following year at the Old Bailey under the
Official Secrets Act
for quoting from supposedly secret documents. His account of the trial, vividly described, is in Octave Seven (1931?38) of his autobiography: the result was a fine of £100 and (prosecution) costs of £100. His own costs were over £1,000. Mackenzie states that a plea-bargain (described in the text as "an arrangement") had been reached with the judge prior to the trial: in exchange for his pleading guilty, he would be fined £500 with £500 costs. However
Sir Thomas Inskip
, then attorney general who prosecuted the case, succeeded in annoying the trial judge to such an extent that he then reduced the penalties to a token amount. Even so, the costs of his defence and the withdrawal from sale of
Greek Memories
left Mackenzie out of pocket and an attempt was made to ask the authorities exactly which passages in the book they objected to so it could be re-issued with the offending material removed. This approach was rebuffed.
[15]
In Octave Eight, covering the years 1939?45, Mackenzie recounts that the matter was raised in Parliament and a new version of
Greek Memories
was eventually published in 1939.
[16]
However, in spite of the withdrawal of the 1st edition a copy had already been deposited at the British Museum
[17]
(which then contained what is now the independent British Library) but was not given a general catalogue reference making it effectively impossible to access. In 1994
The Guardian
newspaper published an article about this anomaly
The muzzling of Compton Mackenzie ? 62 years on
.
[18]
Following this the 1932 edition was entered in the British Library's public catalogue.
[19]
In 2011 Biteback published the original 1932 edition of
Greek Memories
, including the
Secret Intelligence Service
memo detailing the offending passages of the book.
[20]
He was president of the
Croquet Association
from 1953 to 1966. He was president of the Siamese Cat Club.
[21]
He was the subject of
This Is Your Life
in 1956 when he was surprised by
Eamonn Andrews
at the
King's Theatre
,
Hammersmith
, London.
[
citation needed
]
A strong supporter of
Edward VIII
, Mackenzie was a leading member of the Octavians, a minor society that campaigned in support of Edward VIII and for his return to the UK after he became the Duke of Windsor.
[22]
According to a 1938
Time
article Mackenzie had intended to write a book in support of Edward but abandoned the plan when the Duke asked him not to publish.
[23]
Capri
[
edit
]
Between 1913 and 1920 he lived with his wife,
Faith
, on
Capri
at
Villa Solitaria
, and returned to visit in later years. This Italian island near
Sorrento
was known to be tolerant not just of foreigners in general, but of artists and homosexuals in particular. He became friends with the writer
Somerset Maugham
, a frequent visitor to the island. Faith had an affair with the Italian pianist
Renata Borgatti
,
[24]
who was connected to
Romaine Brooks
.
Compton Mackenzie's observations on the local life of the Italian islanders and foreign residents led to at least two novels,
Vestal Fire
(1927) and
Extraordinary Women
(1928). The latter, a
roman a clef
about a group of lesbians arriving on the island of Sirene, a fictional version of Capri,
[25]
[26]
was published in Britain in the same year as two other ground-breaking novels with lesbian themes,
Virginia Woolf
's love letter to
Vita Sackville-West
,
Orlando
, and
Radclyffe Hall
's controversial polemic,
The Well of Loneliness
, but Mackenzie's satire did not attract legal attention.
[27]
He was a friend of
Axel Munthe
, who built
Villa San Michele
, and
Edwin Cerio
, who later became mayor of Capri.
[28]
Scottish identity
[
edit
]
Mackenzie went to great lengths to trace the steps of his ancestors back to his spiritual home in the Highlands, and displayed a deep and tenacious attachment to
Gaelic culture
throughout his long and very colourful life. As his biographer,
Andro Linklater
, commented, "Mackenzie wasn't born a Scot, and he didn't sound like a Scot. But nevertheless his imagination was truly Scottish." He was an ardent
Jacobite
, the third Governor-General of the
Royal Stuart Society
, and a co-founder of the
National Party of Scotland
. He became a member of the Scottish Arts Club in 1929.
[29]
He was rector of
University of Glasgow
from 1931 to 1934, defeating
Oswald Mosley
, who later led the
British Union of Fascists
, in his bid for the job.
[30]
From 1920 to 1923 Mackenzie was the
Tenant of Herm
and
Jethou
. He built a house on
Barra
, in the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides) of Scotland, in the 1930s. On Barra, he gained inspiration and found creative solitude, and befriended a great number of people that he described as "the aristocrats of democracy".
[
citation needed
]
He was a founding member of the short-lived secret organisation
Clann Albain
.
[31]
Private life
[
edit
]
Mackenzie was married three times. On 30 November 1905 (aged 22), he married
Faith Stone
in
St Saviour's, Pimlico
: they remained married for more than 50 years, until her death.
[32]
In 1962 (aged 79), he married Christina MacSween, who died the following year. Lastly, he married his
deceased wife's sister
, Lilian MacSween in 1965 (aged 82).
[33]
(died 2009)
Mackenzie was a supporter of
West Bromwich Albion F.C.
Although from the north east of England, he "was influenced in the choice of Albion as 'my' team by the fact that their ground was romantically called The Hawthorns and that they were nicknamed the Throstles".
[34]
He was also a fan of
snooker
, and gave an account of the origin of the game's name in
The Billiard Player
magazine of 1939, describing how young lieutenant
Neville Chamberlain
(not the former British Prime Minister) was experimenting on the officers' mess table with the existing game of 'Black Pool' featuring 15 red balls and a black.
[35]
[36]
He presented the World Championship trophy to
Joe Davis
at the
1939 Championships
.
[
citation needed
]
After his retirement, Mackenzie sold the entire copyright in 20 of his books for a lump sum of £10,000 arguing that this was a capital receipt and not the proceeds of the business. The Court of Appeal held that this was assessable income as part of the proceeds of his business: Mackenzie v Arnold (1952) 33 TC 363.
[37]
Mackenzie died on 30 November 1972, aged 89, in Edinburgh and was interred in St Barr's churchyard cemetery at Eoligarry on the Isle of Barra.
Select bibliography
[
edit
]
A list based on Kenneth Young's
Compton Mackenzie
, 1968:
[38]
Verse
[
edit
]
- Poems
(1907)
- Kensington Rhymes
(1912)
Plays
[
edit
]
- The Gentleman in Grey
(1907)
- Columbine
(1920)
- The Lost Cause
(1931)
Novels and romances
[
edit
]
- The Passionate Elopement
(1911), a revision of the play
The Gentleman in Grey
- Carnival
(1912), an early best-seller, filmed as
The Ballet Girl
(1916),
Dance Pretty Lady
(1932) and
Carnival
(1946)
- Sinister Street
(1914), 2 volumes, a
Bildungsroman
- Guy and Pauline
(1915), a sequel to
Sinister Street
, also published as
Plashers Mead
- The Early Life and Adventures of Sylvia Scarlett
(1918), a sequel to
Sinister Street
, filmed in 1935 as
Sylvia Scarlett
- Sylvia and Michael
(1919), a sequel to
Sylvia Scarlett
- Poor Relations
(1919)
- The Vanity Girl
(1920)
- Rich Relatives
(1921)
- The Altar Steps
(1922)
- The Seven Ages of Woman
(1923)
- The Parson's Progress
(1923), a sequel to
The Altar Steps
- The Heavenly Ladder
(1924), a sequel to
The Parson's Progress
- The Old Men of the Sea
(1924)
- Coral
(1925), a sequel to
Carnival
- Fairy Gold
(1926)
- Rogues and Vagabonds
(1927)
- Vestal Fire
(1927)
- Extremes Meet
(1928)
- Extraordinary Women
(1928)
- The Three Couriers
(1929)
- April Fools
(1930), a sequel to
Poor Relations
- Buttercups and Daisies
(1931)
- Our Street
(1931)
- Water on the Brain
(1933), an absurdist spy novel parody
- The Darkening Green
(1934)
- Figure of Eight
(1936)
- The Four Winds of Love
(6 volumes 1937?45)
- The Red Tapeworm
(1941)
- The Monarch of the Glen
(1941)
- Keep the Home Guard Turning
(1943)
- Whisky Galore
(1947), filmed in 1948 as
Whisky Galore!
- Hunting the Fairies
(1949)
- The Rival Monster
(1952)
- Ben Nevis Goes East
(1954)
- Thin Ice
(1956)
- Rockets Galore
(1957), a sequel, filmed in 1958 as
Rockets Galore!
- The Lunatic Republic
(1959)
- Mezzotint
(1961)
- The Stolen Soprano
(1965)
- Paper Lives
(1966), a sequel to
The Red Tapeworm
History and biography
[
edit
]
- Gallipoli Memories
(1929)
- First Athenian Memories
(1931)
- Greek Memories
(1932), a continuation of
First Athenian Memories
- Prince Charlie
(1932), biography
- Marathon and Salamis
(1934), history
- Prince Charlie and His Ladies
(1934), history
- Catholicism and Scotland
(1934), history
- The Book of Barra
(1936), (with J.L. Campbell)
- Pericles
(1937), history
- The Windsor Tapestry
Being a study of the life, heritage and abdication of HRH The Duke of Windsor (1938)
- Aegean Memories
(1940)
- Calvary
(with F.C. Mackenzie) (1942)
- Wind of Freedom: The history of the invasion of Greece by the
Axis powers
, 1940?1941
(1943)
[39]
- Mr Roosevelt
(1943), biography
- Brockhouse
(1944), history
- Dr Benes
(1946), biography
- The Vital Flame
(1946) (on the gas industry)
- All over the Place
(1949), diary
- Eastern Epic
, an account of the part played by the Indian Army in the Second World War, Vol. I (1951)
- I Took a Journey ... A tour of the National Trust Properties
(1951)
- The House of Coalport 1750?1950
(1951), history
- The Queen's House. A history of Buckingham Palace
(1953), history
- Realms of Silver. One Hundred Years of Banking in the East
(1954), a history of the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China.
- The Savoy of London
(1953), history
- My Record of Music
(1955), musical autobiography
- Sublime Tobacco
(1957)
- Cats' Company
(1960) with photos by
Harrison Marks
- Greece in My Life
(1960), essays
- Catmint
(1961), imaginary conversations
- Look at Cats
(1964)
- Little Cat Lost
(1965)
Essays and criticism
[
edit
]
- Gramophone Nights
(1923), (with Archibald Marshall)
- Unconsidered Trifles
(1932), collected essays.
[40]
- Literature in My Time
(1933), criticism
- Reaped and Bound
(1933), collected essays
- A Musical Chair
(1939), essays
- Echoes
(1954), broadcast talks
- On Moral Courage
(1962)
Children's stories
[
edit
]
- Santa Claus in Summer
(1924)
- Told
(1930), tales and verses
- Little Cat Lost (1965)
- The Stairs That Kept Going Down
(1967)
- The Strongest Man on Earth
(1967), mythology for young people
Autobiography
[
edit
]
- My Life and Times
in ten "Octave" volumes each intended to cover eight years, published as:
- Octave One
(1883-1891)
- Octave Two
(1891-1900)
- Octave Three
(1900-1907)
- Octave Four
(1907-1915)
- Octave Five
(1915-1923)
- Octave Six
(1923-1930)
- Octave Seven
(1931-1938)
- Octave Eight
(1939-1946)
- Octave Nine
(1946-1953)
- Octave Ten
(1953?1963)
Biographies
[
edit
]
- Linklater, Andro
Compton Mackenzie: A Life
The Hogarth Press (1992, London)
- Mackenzie, Lady Faith Compton
More than I should
, Collins (1940)
Filmography
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
"Compton Mackenzie"
.
Undiscovered Scotland: The Ultimate Online Guide
. Undiscovered Scotland
. Retrieved
31 March
2015
.
- ^
Massie, Allan (26 September 2007).
"The magnum opus of Compton Mackenzie"
.
The Spectator
. Retrieved
31 March
2015
.
- ^
Piper, Henry Dan (1956). "Frank Norris and Scott Fitzgerald".
Huntington Library Quarterly
.
19
(4).
University of California Press
: 393?400.
doi
:
10.2307/3816401
.
ISSN
1544-399X
.
JSTOR
3816401
.
- ^
Cyril Connolly,
Enemies of Promise
(White Samite), Routledge, London, 1938.
- ^
Sonia Orwell and Ian Angus,
The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell Volume I Letter to Connolly 14 December 1938
, Secker & Warburg, 1968.
- ^
"On Compton Mackenzie"
by Allan Massie, faber.co.uk; accessed 10 August 2014.
- ^
Epperson, Bruce, D.
More Important Than the Music: A History of Jazz Discography
(2013), p. 20
- ^
"Compton Mackenzie"
.
Encyclopædia Britannica
. Retrieved
31 March
2015
.
- ^
"Compton Mackenzie"
.
Compton's by Britannica. Britannica Online for Kids
. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc
. Retrieved
31 March
2015
.
- ^
Sir Compton Mackenzie:
Gallipoli Memories
- ^
Sir Compton Mackenzie:
Athenian Memories
.
- ^
Deacon, Richard (23 November 1991).
British Secret Service
. Grafton.
ISBN
9780586209851
– via Google Books.
- ^
Sir Compton Mackenzie,
Greek Memories
- ^
Sir Compton Mackenzie,
Aegean Memories
- ^
Sir Compton Mackenzie:
Octave Seven
p.104
- ^
Sir Compton Mackenzie:
Octave Eight
pp. 14,15
- ^
The official stamp in the book is dated 22 November 1932
- ^
The Guardian 8 January 1994, page 6. Available on microfiche at the British Library and via ProQuest
- ^
Shelfmark Cup.410.f.383
- ^
Greek Memories
backstory
, bitebackpublishing.com; accessed 10 August 2014.
- ^
"Compton Mackenzie | Authors | Faber & Faber"
.
www.faber.co.uk
.
- ^
Martin Pugh
,
"Hurrah for the Blackshirts!" Fascists and Fascism in Britain Between the Wars
, Pimlico, 2006, p. 260
- ^
Foreign News: Want Him Back!
, time.com; accessed 10 August 2014.
- ^
Infinite variety: the life and legend of the Marchesa Casati
, by Scot D. Ryersson, Michael Orlando Yaccarino, p. 99
- ^
Castle, Terry (2005).
The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall
. Columbia University Press. p. 38.
ISBN
0-231-12511-9
.
- ^
"Isola di Capri ? Personaggi e dimore: Compton Mackenzie"
. 8 July 2011. Archived from
the original
on 8 July 2011.
- ^
Tamagne, Florence (2006).
A history of homosexuality in Europe: Berlin, London, Paris, 1919?1939, volume I & II
. Vol. 1?2. Algora Publishing. p. 322.
ISBN
0-87586-355-8
.
- ^
Profile
Archived
19 July 2006 at the
Wayback Machine
, capri.com; accessed 10 August 2014.
- ^
Graves, Charles (1974),
Men of Letters
, in
The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, 1874 ? 1974
, The Scottish Arts Club, Edinburgh, p. 52.
- ^
Compton Mackenzie profile
Archived
26 August 2012 at the
Wayback Machine
, universitystory.gla.ac.uk; accessed 10 August 2014.
- ^
Linklater, Andro (1992).
Compton Mackenzie: A Life
. Hogarth Press. p. 234.
ISBN
0701209844
.
- ^
"Marriages: 40th Anniversary".
The Times
. 30 November 1945.
- ^
Webster, Jack (1994).
The Express Years
. Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing.
ISBN
1873631367
. Retrieved
1 April
2015
.
- ^
Profile
, spectator.co.uk; accessed 10 August 2014.
- ^
"History of Snooker"
. World Snooker. 22 January 1955
. Retrieved
16 September
2016
.
- ^
"Billiard and Snooker Heritage Collection ? Origins of Snooker"
.
Snookerheritage.co.uk
. Retrieved
16 September
2016
.
- ^
Tiley, John (2013).
Studies in the History of Tax Law, Volume 6
. Portland OR: Hart Publishing. pp. 310?11.
ISBN
9781849464802
. Retrieved
1 April
2015
.
- ^
Young, Kenneth (1968).
Compton Mackenzie
. London: Longman, Green & Co. pp.
29
?32 (bibliography).
- ^
"Compton Mackenzie Ably Tells The Heroic Tale of Greece, 1941"
.
The Montreal Gazette
. 6 November 1943. p. 10
. Retrieved
16 July
2017
.
- ^
"Essays by Compton Mackenzie. Unconsidered trifles. By Compton Mackenzie"
.
The Glasgow Herald
. 19 May 1932. p. 4
. Retrieved
16 July
2017
.
External links
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