George Warwick Deeping (28 May 1877 – 20 April 1950) was a prolific English novelist and short story writer, whose most famous novel was Sorrell and Son (1925).

Life

Born in Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea

Southend-on-Sea is a unitary authority area, town, and seaside resort in Essex, England. The district has Borough status, and comprises the towns of Chalkwell, Eastwood, Leigh-on-Sea, North Shoebury, Prittlewell, Shoeburyness, Southchurch, Thorpe Bay, and Westcliff-on-Sea. The district is situated...

, Essex, into a family of doctors, he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School

Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood

Merchant Taylors' School is a British independent day school for boys, originally located in the City of London. Since 1933 it has been located at Sandy Lodge in the Three Rivers district of Hertfordshire ....

. He proceeded to Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College, Cambridge

Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Trinity has more members than any other college in Cambridge or Oxford, with around 700 undergraduates, 430 graduates, and over 170 Fellows...

 to study medicine and science, and then to Middlesex Hospital

Middlesex Hospital

The Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, United Kingdom. First opened in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally closed in 2005. Its staff and services were transferred to various sites...

 to finish his medical training. During the First World War, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps

Royal Army Medical Corps

The Royal Army Medical Corps is a specialist corps in the British Army which provides medical services to all British Army personnel and their families in war and in peace...

. Deeping later gave up his job as a doctor to become a full-time writer.

His early work is dominated by historical

Historical novel

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, a historical novel is-Development:An early example of historical prose fiction is Luó Guànzhōng's 14th century Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which covers one of the most important periods of Chinese history and left a lasting impact on Chinese culture.The...

 romance

Romance novel

The romance novel is a literary genre developed in Western culture, mainly in English-speaking countries. Novels in this genre place their primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and must have an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Through the late...

s. His later novels can be seen as attempts at keeping alive the spirit of the Edwardian age

Edwardian period

The Edwardian era or Edwardian period in the United Kingdom is the period covering the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910.The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 and the succession of her son Edward marked the end of the Victorian era...

. He was one of the best selling authors of the 1920s and 1930s, with seven of his novels making the best-seller list. George Orwell

George Orwell

Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...

 was a strong critic of Deeping's, criticising his melodramatic plots.

Deeping also published fiction in several US magazines, including the Saturday Evening Post and
Adventure

Adventure (magazine)

Adventure magazine was first published in November 1910 as a monthly pulp magazine. Adventure went on become one of the most profitable and critically acclaimed of all the American pulp magazines...

.

He married Phyllis Maude Merrill and lived up to his death in Eastlands on Brooklands Road in Weybridge

Weybridge

Weybridge is a town in the Elmbridge district of Surrey in South East England. It is bounded to the north by the River Thames at the mouth of the River Wey, from which it gets its name...

, Surrey.

Select bibliography

• Uther and Igraine (1903), his first published novel
• Love Among the Ruins (1904)
• The Seven Streams (1905)
• Bess of the Woods (1906)

• The Return of the Petticoat (1907)
• Bertrand of Brittany (1908)
• Mad Barbara (1908)
• The Red Saint (1909)
• The Lame Englishman (1910)
• The Rust of Rome (1910)
• Fox Farm (1911)
• Joan of the Tower (1911)
• Sincerity (1912)
• The House of Spies (1913)
• The Pride of Eve (1914)
• The Shield of Love (1914)
• Martin Valliant (1917)
• Unrest (1918)
• Valour (1918)
• Second Youth (1919)
• The Prophetic Marriage (1920)
• The House of Adventure (1921)
• Lantern Lane (1921)
• Orchards (1922)
• Apples of Gold (1923)
• Suvla John (1924)
• Sorrell and Son
  Sorrell and Son
  Sorrell and Son is a silent film released on December 2, 1927 and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Director in the 1st Academy Awards the following year...
  
  (1925)
• Doomsday
  Doomsday (novel)
  Doomsday is a novel by Warwick Deeping which was published in 1927.Set in post-1918, rural Sussex, the story revolves around a girl with aspirations to leave her small town, as well as her relationship with a man living on a local acreage, known as the Doomsday Farm.The novel was developed into a...
  
  (1927)
• Kitty (1927)
• Old Pybus (1928)
• Roper's Row (1929)
• Exiles (1930)
• The Short Stories of Warwick Deeping (1930)
• The Road (1931)
• The Ten Commandments (1931)
• The Secret Sanctuary or The Saving of John Stretton (1931)
• Old Wine and New (1932)
• Smith (1932)
• Two Black Sheep (1933)
• Seven Men Came Back (1934)
• Sackcloth Into Silk (1935)
• No Hero—This (1936)
• Blind Man's Year (1937)
• The Malice of Men (1938)
• Fantasia (1939)
• The Man Who Went Back
  The Man Who Went Back
  The Man Who Went Back is an adventure novel by Warwick Deeping about a man who has a car accident in 1939 England. He is transported back into post-Roman Britain and has to contend with the knowledge that he is from the future, in the past....
  
  (1940)
• Corn in Egypt (1941)
• The Dark House (1941)
  1941 in literature
  The year 1941 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Frank Herbert marries Flora Parkinson.*F. Scott Fitzgerald's unfinished work, The Last Tycoon, is edited and published by Edmund Wilson.-New books:...
  
  
• I Live Again (1942)
• Mr Gurney and Mr Slade ( 1944
  1944 in literature
  The year 1944 in literature involved some significant new books.-New books:*Samuel Hopkins Adams – Canal Town*Jorge Amado – Terras do Sem Fim *Saul Bellow – Dangling Man*Jorge Luis Borges – Fictions...
  
  )
• Reprieve (1945)
• The Impudence of Youth (1946)
• Laughing House (1946)
• Portrait of a Playboy (1947)
• Time to Heal (1952)
• Man in Chains (1953), published posthumously
• The Old World Dies (1954)
• Caroline Terrace (1955)
• The Sword and the Cross' (1957)

Films

Movies based on Deeping's novels belong, with two exceptions, to the silent era

Silent film

A silent film is a film with no synchronized recorded sound, especially with no spoken dialogue. In silent films for entertainment the dialogue is transmitted through muted gestures, pantomime and title cards...

. Unrest was filmed in 1920, Fox Farm in 1922, and Doomsday in 1928. Kitty

Kitty (1929 film)

Kitty is a 1929 British drama film directed by Victor Saville and starring Estelle Brody and John Stuart. The film was adapted from the 1927 novel of the same name by Warwick Deeping and marked the third co-star billing of Brody and Stuart, who had previously proved a very popular screen pairing...

(1929), directed by Victor Saville

Victor Saville

Victor Saville was an English film director, producer and screenwriter. He directed 39 films between 1927 and 1954...

, was one of the first British talkies (arguably the very first; only the second half of the film had a soundtrack).

Sorrell and Son, based upon Deeping's experiences during the First World War, was filmed three times: It first appeared in 1927 as a silent movie

Silent Movie

Silent Movie is a 1976 satirical comedy film co-written, directed by, and starring Mel Brooks, and released by 20th Century Fox on June 17, 1976...

, was remade

Remake

A remake is a piece of media based primarily on an earlier work of the same medium.-Film:The term "remake" is generally used in reference to a movie which uses an earlier movie as the main source material, rather than in reference to a second, later movie based on the same source...

 in 1934 as a sound film

Sound film

A sound film is a motion picture with synchronized sound, or sound technologically coupled to image, as opposed to a silent film. The first known public exhibition of projected sound films took place in Paris in 1900, but decades would pass before sound motion pictures were made commercially...

, and turned into a TV mini-series in 1984.

External links

Sources

• Works by Warwick Deeping at Internet Archive
  Internet Archive
  The Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
  
  
• Works by Warwick Deeping at Project Gutenberg of Australia

Other

• A 2002 essay by Mary Grover (Sheffield Hallam University
  Sheffield Hallam University
  Sheffield Hallam University is a higher education institution in South Yorkshire, England, based on two sites in Sheffield. City Campus is located in the city centre, close to Sheffield railway station, and Collegiate Crescent Campus is about two miles away, adjacent to Ecclesall Road in...
  
  ), from The Literary Encyclopedia
  The Literary Encyclopedia
  The Literary Encyclopedia is an online reference work first published in October 2000 which, as of May 2008, offers freely available content together with full content and services for subscribing members. Articles are written by "nearly 2000 named scholars, most of whom are current university...