The John Meade Falkner Society Journal - July 2013

The latest issue of the journal of the John Meade Falkner Society (number 14, July 2013) includes rare material by the author of The Lost Stradivarius, Moonfleet and The Nebuly Coat, and essays on little-known aspects of his life and work.



George Woodman explores Falkner's final published piece of fiction in "Charalampia: A Quasi-Byzantine Romance?", and notes that it adds to our regret that Falkner did not write more fiction in his later years. One reason was certainly that Falkner was a very busy man in his role as Company Secretary of Armstrong, a major armaments firm, and another essay in this issue discusses Falkner's visit to Brazil in 1906 to sell warships, with quotations from letters showing his shrewd observation of character and brisk business sense.

Journal Editor Kenneth Hillier has made an excellent find in an old school journal of an account by Falkner of a boating trip on the Thames with friends: the excursion was beset by wind and rain, and the account has some of the facetious flavour of Jerome's Three Men in a Boat.  There's also a consideration by George Robson of the use of underground passages in Falkner's fiction, with discussion of some genuine examples which might have inspired these. Finally, the issue also reprints a previously uncollected poem by Falkner, 'Villa Adriana'. The journal is free to members of the Society, and there is also a regular newsletter.