| Description | 1 Correspondence
1/1 Letters from John Heygate to Henry Williamson 1929-1975 [16 files of letters]
- 1929-1930s: 75 letters from JH to HW including references to Heygate's life in Germany and Berlin, the British Picture Corporation Gaumont and UFA film studios at Babelsberg, near Berlin, Germany; photographic postcard of the ruins of Ypres, after the First World War. Also including references to 'Tarka the Otter', 'The Gold Falcon' and possible film adaptation of some of HW's books. Finally mentioning his first wife Evelyn Gardner, Lawrence, De La Mare.
- Separate file of 5 letters, 1934-1935 mentioning Henry Williamson's journey to Germany, the Nurnberg rally, Hitler and Nazism.
- 1940s: 5 letters from JH to HW
- 1950s: 215 letters from JH to HW
- 1960s: 117 letters from JH to HW
- 1970s: about 40 letters from JH to HW
- 1 letter from John Heygate to Anne Williamson 1982
1/2 Letters from Dora Heygate to Henry Williamson: 4 letters 1958-1964
1/3 Letters from Henry Williamson to John Heygate and Dora Heygate: 11 letters 1953-1971
1/4 Letters about John Heygate and Henry Williamson: 10 letters 1935-2005
Including 1 letter from HW to Jan Mills Whitham about 'what is literature', John Heygate, Hitler and Nazism, 1935? [HW refers to a letter by John Heygate to himself that he showed to Jan Mills Whitham].
2 Papers about John Heygate
- news-cutting article 'Missing: The Real Englishman' by John Heygate in The Daily Express, 8 Oct 1931, about politics, mentioning Germany and Hitler
- news-cutting review of John Heygate's book 'Motor Tramp' by Henry Williamson, John O'London's Weekly, 23 Nov 1935, mentioning Hitler, the Nazi; Mussolini; T E Lawrence
3 Anne Williamson's notes and papers about the correspondence
|
| AdminHistory | Sir John Edward Nourse Heygate [1903-1976] was a journalist and novelist. Born in Northern Ireland, he was educated at Eton and Oxford. In 1926, he worked as a trainee for the Foreign Office in Heidelburg, before becoming an assistant news editor at the BBC. He became involved with Evelyn Gardner, who at the time was married to writer Evelyn Waugh, and mention of Heygate in their divorce proceedings in 1929 forced his resignation. In 1932 he joined the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation, and worked with German film company UFA. He attended the 1935 Nuremberg Rally with Henry Williamson, and is portrayed as Sir Piers Tofield in Williamson's 'A Chronicle of Ancient Sunlight'. Heygate served as a Bombardier with the Royal Artillery in the Second World War, and inherited his baronetcy in 1940. He published a number of novels, including 'Decent Fellows', 'Talking Picture' and 'Love and Death'. |