"Feathers in the Bed" and " Shepherd Market" Two Camp Novels by Leslie Roberts

 

RARE BOOKS  SEEN TOGETHER BY THE NOTORIOUS LESLIE ROBERTS AND THE FORTUNE PRESS. 

"Feathers in the Bed" and " Shepherd Market" 

Two Camp Novels by Leslie Roberts

FEATHERS IN THE BED  c1943  380 pages   

The farcical adventures of an eccentric aristocrat called Rebecca Maelstrom, who has an obsession with feathers. Her stately pile is set in the environs of Maidensmeadow ( declared as in Nottinghamshire) with a near all woman household and local town full of weird worthies,  the eccentric and the absurd.

Leslie comments " ..possibly the first book ever to be written in a mortuary..intentionally escapist....a gay carnival of conjecture concerning the identity of the characters"

"A story you will never forget . It sparkles with laughter , mischief , and gay audacity" Horizon 1943 .

SHEPHERD MARKET  c1943  

Leslie's first novel, also first set  in “Maidensmeadow” (  Roberts’ home town of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, somewhat thinly disguised).

Paul Onion, pushed by his mother ( from aged 10) is set on the road to achieve his ambition to be a great man. After leaving education and his mother’s death he sells up the family home and moves to London with an  ambition to be a poet. In Piccadilly he meets Desiree – and then follows two riotous years together until the intriguing Desiree  runs off with an old lover.

Paul and Desiree also appear in "Feathers On the Bed"

The books have shadows of Ronnie Firbank's bizarre folk at their very best and worst and sexually ambiguous.

The only way to grasp Roberts' literary scrambles is to read, enjoy and laugh at  the complete tomfoolery of the storylines in both books. 

MORE INFORMATION :

CONTACT  WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

A FAN OF LESLIE ROBERTS WHO OWNS THE BOOKS

williecross@aol.com      

Great War Women: Manners Ambulance Corps

Members of the Manners Ambulance Corps 1914 

In Belgium Nellie Hozier can be seen in the picture alongside  in nurse’s uniform  and Red Cross armband ( seated front). She is with the other nursing staff of the Angela Manners  Ambulance Corps. 

The  Matron (in the middle ) is Miss Catherine E A Thorpe.

The Members of the Corps were: 

Catherine  E A Thorpe :Matron 

Hon. Angela  (Ange)  Manners  : Organiser ( daughter of the 3rd Lord Manners)

Nellie Hozier : Interpreter and Secretary ( sister in law of Winston Churchill)

Margaret Dixon Bowie : Nursing  Sister

C Florence Forbes  : Nursing  Sister

Beatrice Waters : Nursing  Sister

Hilda  Rose Ffolliott : Nursing  Sister

The British doctor attached to the unit was  Dr James  Douglas Driberg, MC, OBE, FRCS, MRCS, LRCP (1890-1956) Second son of John James Street Driberg  and Amy Mary Irving Bell, his wife, of Uckfield Lodge, Crowborough. 

Almost as soon as the Manners Corps started work the German authorities in Brussels monitored their activities. In the first weeks the Manners Unit treated British, French, Belgian and even some German wounded soldiers and civilians.

Further details about the Manners Ambulance Corps may be obtained by contacting William Cross.

Best method is by e-mail

williecross@virginmedia.com

  

Nellie Hozier and the Manners Ambulance Corps

Nellie Hozier and the Manners Ambulance Corps in Brussels August to November 1914

Nellie Hozier, ( 1888-1955)  daughter of Lady Blanche Hozier and sister of Clementine Churchill.  Went to Brussels with the Manners Ambulance Corps as their interpreter and secretary

Nellie Hozier  showed great courage in joining  the Angela Manners  Ambulance Corps in August  1914. 

What  follows  is extracted from Nellie's  personal  papers  

( held in Hereford Archives) :  

“ A surgeon ,  6 nurses and myself left Charing Cross at 8.30 AM on Saturday the 14th of Aug 1914 for Brussels. The expedition was organized by Angela Manners and financed by her family and many friends. I went as secretary and interpreter ( friends do not smile ) dressed in nurses’ uniforms for greater safety.  On arriving we were installed in a convent. After being there five days we received this telegram  ( see below* ). 

We did not wish to leave Brussels   and we could not  for the Germans were already in possession of this town, they had entered that very day. We were shut off from the outside world, pleased  to be here to do work but very angry  at being under German rule. Never mind we will wait to see till the English appear.”

 *"TELEGRAM FROM WINSTON CHURCHILL TO NELLIE HOZIER 

 STRONGLY ADVISE GOING ANTWERP WHERE WORK WILL BE USEFUL  THROUGHOUT THE WAR = WINSTON" 

Nellie and her colleagues served in Belgium for several months treating the war wounded.  In November 1914 they were all arrested and thrown into prison, their release later secured by Brand Whitlock, ( 1869-1934) the American representative in Brussels ( later the American Ambassador).

For more information on members of  the Angela Manners Ambulance Corps please contact William Cross by e-mail.

williecross@virginmedia.com

With acknowledgment and thanks to the son and daughters of Giles Romilly, the eldest son of Nellie Hozier. 

Also thanks to Hereford Archives

Society Woman in Great War

Pictured above  the Duchess of Westminter's Nurses enroute to Le Touquet, France, on board Sir Thomas Lipman's Yacht

Some Society Angels of the Great War   

                     

      AN ILLUSTRATED TALK

               FROM WILLIAM CROSS, FSA SCOT

Using  research material from his book “ Lady Carnarvon’s  Nursing Homes : Nursing the Privileged in Wartime and Peace” ISBN 978-1-905914-3-6 (2011)  William Cross explores and appraises the brave contribution made by several woman  aristocrats of High Society  in nursing the wounded during the Great War  both  at home and in the theatres of war. Among the ladies featured  are:

Margaret ( Nellie ) Ogilvy Hozier, later Mrs Bertram Romilly   ( 1888-1955) “ one of the first women to join a party of doctors and nurses to Belgium in August  1914 in time to help with the carnage of Mons.”  Nellie was the sister in law of Winston Churchill.

Millicent Leveson Gower, Dowager   Duchess of Sutherland        ( 1867-1955) and her  sister Lady Angela  Forbes ( 1876-1950)    ( fictionalised in the TV series ‘ The  Monocled  Mutineeer’,)     who established respectively  hospitals  “ the camp in the oatfield”  at Bourbourg ( near Dunkirk) and soldiers’ canteens  ( Angelinas) at Boulogne and the British Soldiers’ Buffets  near Estaples, France.

Constance,  ( ‘Shelagh ‘ Cornwallis-West), Duchess of Westminster,  ( 1876-1970) who established a large military  hospital at Le Touquet , France, where some pioneering work was done on treating cases of shell shock.

Contact William Cross by e-mail williecross@virginmedia.com

This talk was successfully launched at Newport's U3A on 26 March, 2015.