Reginald Arkell
Encyclopedia
Reginald Arkell was a British script writer and comic novelist who wrote many musical plays for the London theatre. The most popular of those was an adaptation of the spoof history book 1066 and All That
: 1066—and all that: A Musical Comedy based on that Memorable History by Sellar and Yeatman. He was the author of A Cottage in the Country and the Green Fingers series of garden verse.
He was born on 14 October 1882 at Lechlade
, Gloucestershire, England, was educated at Burford Grammar School and married actress Elizabeth Arkell. He died on 1 May 1959 at Cricklade
, England.
’s immortal manservant, Jeeves
. Born at the dusk of the Victorian era, Bert Pinnegar, an awkward orphan child with one leg a tad longer than the other, rises from inauspicious schoolboy days spent picking wildflowers and dodging angry farmers to become the legendary head gardener “Old Herbaceous,” the most esteemed flower-show judge in the county and a famed horticultural wizard capable of producing dazzling April strawberries from the greenhouse and the exact morning glories his Lady spies on the French Riviera, “so blue, so blue it positively hurts.”
Sprinkled with nuggets of gardening wisdom, Old Herbaceous is a witty comic portrait of the most archetypal—and crotchety—head gardener ever to plant a row of bulbs at a British country house.
1066 and All That
1066 and All That: A Memorable History of England, comprising all the parts you can remember, including 103 Good Things, 5 Bad Kings and 2 Genuine Dates is a tongue-in-cheek reworking of the history of England. Written by W. C. Sellar and R. J. Yeatman and illustrated by John Reynolds, it first...
: 1066—and all that: A Musical Comedy based on that Memorable History by Sellar and Yeatman. He was the author of A Cottage in the Country and the Green Fingers series of garden verse.
He was born on 14 October 1882 at Lechlade
Lechlade
Lechlade, or Lechlade-on-Thames, is a town at the southern edge of the Cotswolds in Gloucestershire, England. It is the highest point at which the River Thames is navigable. The town is named after the River Leach that joins the Thames near here....
, Gloucestershire, England, was educated at Burford Grammar School and married actress Elizabeth Arkell. He died on 1 May 1959 at Cricklade
Cricklade
Cricklade is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in north Wiltshire in England, midway between Swindon and Cirencester.On 25 September 2011 Cricklade was awarded The Royal Horticultural Society's 'Champion of Champions' award in the Britain in Bloom competition.Cricklade is twinned with...
, England.
Works
- The Round House (1958) (novel?)
- Charley Moon (1956?) (novel)
- The Miracle Of Merriford (1956) (novel)
- Collected Green Fingers (1956) (poems)
- Trumpets Over Merriford (1955) (novel)
- Come to the ball; or, Harlequin (1951) (adaptation of Johann Strauss IIJohann Strauss IIJohann Strauss II , also known as Johann Baptist Strauss or Johann Strauss, Jr., the Younger, or the Son , was an Austrian composer of light music, particularly dance music and operettas. He composed over 500 waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, and other types of dance music, as well as several operettas...
's Die FledermausDie FledermausDie Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
) - Old Herbaceous (1950, republished 2002)
- Green fingers Again (1943) (poems)
- Percy Ponsonby (1939) (TV series)
- 1066 And All That (1939) (TV version)
- The Street Singer or Interval for Romance (1937) (film musical which starred Arthur TracyArthur TracyArthur Tracy was an American vocalist, billed as The Street Singer. His performances in theatre, films and radio, along with his recordings, brought him international fame in the 1930s...
) - Smash and Grab (1937) (film)
- Green fingers, and other poems (1934) (includes Roses at OwlpenOwlpenOwlpen is a small village and civil parish in the Stroud district of Gloucestershire, England, set in a picturesque valley in the Cotswold hills. It is about one mile east of Uley, and three miles east of Dursley. The Owlpen valley is set around the settlement like an amphitheatre of wooded hills...
) - The Last Waltz (1936) (film of the musical comedy)
- 1066 And All That (1935) (revue)
- A Kingdom for a Cow (1935) (adaptation of Kurt WeillKurt WeillKurt Julian Weill was a German-Jewish composer, active from the 1920s, and in his later years in the United States. He was a leading composer for the stage who was best known for his fruitful collaborations with Bertolt Brecht...
's operetta Der KuhhandelDer KuhhandelDer Kuhhandel is an operetta by Kurt Weill. The German libretto was written by Robert Vambery.-Genesis:...
) - Playing the Games (1935) (humour)
- Bridge Without Sighs (1934) (A Harmless Handbook to the game, written in rhyme)
- Richard JefferiesRichard JefferiesJohn Richard Jefferies was an English nature writer, noted for his depiction of English rural life in essays, books of natural history, and novels. His childhood on a small Wiltshire farm had a great influence on him and provides the background to all his major works of fiction...
(1933) (biography) - Winter Sportings (1929)
- Columbine – A Fantasy of Summertime (1928) (adaptation for radio)
- The Blue Train (1927) (musical, music by Robert StolzRobert StolzRobert Elisabeth Stolz was an Austrian songwriter and conductor as well as a composer of operettas and film music.- Biography :...
, additional lyrics by Ivy St. HelierIvy St. HelierIvy St. Helier was a British stage actress, composer and lyricist.On the stage, St. Helier played Manon la Crevette in the original production of Noel Coward's operetta Bitter Sweet , a role she reprised in the 1933 film version...
) - Frasquita (1925) (operetta, music by Franz LehárFranz LehárFranz Lehár was an Austrian-Hungarian composer. He is mainly known for his operettas of which the most successful and best known is The Merry Widow .-Biography:...
) - Our Nell (1924) (musical play, music by Ivor NovelloIvor NovelloDavid Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...
and Harold Fraser-SimsonHarold Fraser-SimsonHarold Fraser-Simson , was an English composer of light music, including songs and the scores to musical comedies. His most famous musical was the World War I hit, The Maid of the Mountains, and he later set numerous children's poems to music, especially those of A. A...
) - The tragedy of Mr. Punch (1923) (play)
- Columbine (1922) (play)
- Catherine (1922) (musical play, music by TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich TchaikovskyPyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (Russian: Пётр Ильи́ч Чайко́вский ; often "Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky" in English. His names are also transliterated "Piotr" or "Petr"; "Ilitsch", "Il'ich" or "Illyich"; and "Tschaikowski", "Tschaikowsky", "Chajkovskij"...
) - The Last Waltz (1922) (musical comedy, music by Oscar StrausOscar StrausOscar Straus may refer to:*Oscar Straus , Viennese composer of operettas*Oscar Straus , United States Secretary of Commerce and Labor from 1906 to 1909...
) - The Holidays (Children's poem in The Captain Dec 1910)
Old Herbaceous
Old Herbaceous is a classic British novel of the garden, with a title character as outsized and unforgettable as P. G. WodehouseP. G. Wodehouse
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, KBE was an English humorist, whose body of work includes novels, short stories, plays, poems, song lyrics, and numerous pieces of journalism. He enjoyed enormous popular success during a career that lasted more than seventy years and his many writings continue to be...
’s immortal manservant, Jeeves
Jeeves
Reginald Jeeves is a fictional character in the short stories and novels of P. G. Wodehouse, being the valet of Bertie Wooster . Created in 1915, Jeeves would continue to appear in Wodehouse's works until his final, completed, novel Aunts Aren't Gentlemen in 1974, making him Wodehouse's most famous...
. Born at the dusk of the Victorian era, Bert Pinnegar, an awkward orphan child with one leg a tad longer than the other, rises from inauspicious schoolboy days spent picking wildflowers and dodging angry farmers to become the legendary head gardener “Old Herbaceous,” the most esteemed flower-show judge in the county and a famed horticultural wizard capable of producing dazzling April strawberries from the greenhouse and the exact morning glories his Lady spies on the French Riviera, “so blue, so blue it positively hurts.”
Sprinkled with nuggets of gardening wisdom, Old Herbaceous is a witty comic portrait of the most archetypal—and crotchety—head gardener ever to plant a row of bulbs at a British country house.