| Repository | Special Collections Archives (GB 0029) |
| Ref No | EUL MS 493 |
| Date | 1973-2000 |
| Level | Collection |
| Extent | 1 box and 2 large photographs |
| Title | Letters from Mark Beeson to Gerard McBurney |
| Creator Name | McBurney; Charles Gerard (1954-); Composer |
| Beeson; Mark (1954-2022); playwright; poet; primatologist |
| Description | One box of letters and cards from Mark Beeson to Gerard McBurney from the late 1960s when they were at school together to the early 2000s. Beeson and McBurney were close friends, and the letters include many personal and anecdotal details about Beeson and thoughts about his work, often including manuscript versions of his poems. According to McBurney, some of the longer letters from earlier years show a young writer and thinker trying to grapple with the shaping of his own ideas. Their friendship continued for most of their lives and from the 2000s they increasingly kept in contact by email, text and phone, hence the gap in the letters.
The collection also includes two A3 photographs of Soph and Kate Behrens. Gerard and Mark met Kate and Soph Behrens, the twin daughters of painter Timothy Behrens, while on holiday in Tuscany in 1974. In 1975 Mark invited the twins to his parents' home, Ford Farm, in Manaton, where he took the photographs. The A3 prints hung, for many years, in Gerard McBurney's home. |
| Format | Various formats |
| AdminHistory | Material collected by Gerard McBurney and donated to the University of Exeter Special Collections in two deposits in 2023. |
| AccessStatus | Open |
| Access Conditions | Usual EUL conditions apply. |
| Copyright | Usual EUL conditions apply. |
| Related Material | MS Mus. 1779 British Library, Music Collections |
| RelatedRecord | EUL MS 489 |
| Management Group | Literary papers |
Show related Persons records.
Persons
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| DS/UK/158 | Beeson; Mark (1954-2022); playwright; poet; primatologist | 1954-2022 |