Extra: Romney Marsh in the news

Romney Marsh has an illustrious literary pedigree. Whether it's the stunning views, isolated atmosphere or perhaps the many fine pubs, the Marshes have attracted some of the finest writers and literati of each generation to its surrounds who lived or worked on the Marshes and used it as the setting for their poems, stories and novels. Indeed, the list of who's who of the Marsh reads more like a fashionable London surberb than the countryside. Included in the list of local notables are Ian Fleming who used many local locations as the names for characters in the Bond books, Noel Coward loved the area and wrote his early works from here and Rudyard Kipling loved the area and referenced it frequently in his poems.

H. G. Wells, Edit Nesbit, Derek Jarman, Paul MacCartney

Amongst the more notable literary figures living on or writing about the Marsh:

• H. G. Wells - near Sandgate
• Noel Coward - Wrote his early plays in St. Mary-in-the-Marsh and later lived nearby in Adlington.
• Rudyard Kippling
• Paul MacCartney
• Radclyffe Hall
• Conrad Aiken
• Russell Thorndike
• Edith Nesbit

Other notable figures for who the Marsh became home include:

• Derek Jarman - Film maker
• Ford Madox Ford - Novelist and Poet
• Paul Nash - Painter
• Irene Wellington - one of the finest calligraphers of the 20th century
• Paul O'Grady – a.k.a. Lily Savage - TV Personality
• John Davidon - Poet
• Jimmy Hendrix - Musician
• Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer - TV Personalities
• The Thompson Twins - 80's pop group
• George Cole - 'Arthur Daley' - TV Actor

James Bond  -  Ian Fleming

A special mention also goes to James Bond creator Ian Fleming. Although he lived in Dover, he used Romney Marsh locations for the names of various characters, locations and "bond girls". When asked how he created his heroines, Fleming said, "I go out into Romney Marsh and hope to find one there", and a quick look at the map of the area does indeed show up names familiar to any Bond aficionado - Moneypenny Farm being perhaps the most obvious, . Source: James Bond historian Graham Rye http://www.007magazine.co.uk/fleming/kentish01.htm 

Rudyard Kipling

Perhaps most well known for his interpretation of British imperialism and heroism in India and Burma, Kipling also wrote two poems about Smuggling on the Marshes ("Smugglers Song" & "Poor Honest Men"). Notably, he referred to smugglers as 'Gentleman' and did much to reinforce the romantic vision of smuggler.

If you wake at Midnight, and hear a horse's feet,
Don't go drawing back the blind, or looking in the street,
Them that asks no questions isn't told a lie.
Watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

Five and twenty ponies Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson. '
Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady, letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

A Smuggler's Song, Rudyard Kipling

To be drowned or be shot
Is our natural lot,
Why should we, moreover, be hanged in the end —
After all our great pains
For to dangle in chains
As though we were smugglers, not poor honest men?

Poor Honest Men,

He also wrote:

H G Wells

H G Wells was lived near Hythe, and referenced the Marshes in 'First Men in the Moon' :

"Certainly if any one wants solitude, the place is Lympne. It is in the clay part of Kent, and my bungalow stood on the edge of an old sea cliff and stared across the flats of Romney Marsh at the sea." H. G. Wells, First Men in the Moon.

Ford Madox Ford

God, to be in Romney Marsh
And see the ships above the wall
For just an hour of storm and shower
And just a glimpse of Lydd church tower,
And just to hear the wind in the thorns
Just not to hear the cowbells' din,
Just not to hear the cowmen's horns
But just to mark the tide come in,
Dear God by Romney Wall.

John Davidson

In Romney Marsh:

As I went down to Dymchurch Wall, I
heard the South sing o'er the land
I saw the yellow sunlight fall
On knolls where Norman churches stand.
And ringing shrilly, taut and lithe,
Within the wind a core of sound,
The wire from Romney town to Hythe
Along its airy journey wound.

Reference

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/property/main.jhtml?xml=/property/2001/04/28/tprom28.xml

Last update: 09-11-2008 04:10