New Books
Letters from Bishopsbourne
Christopher Scoble
£17.99. Published by BMM.
ISBN 978-0-9541544-1-7
The village of Bishopsbourne was once home to three of the finest stylists in the English language– Richard Hooker, the humble theologian who penned the definitive justification of the Elizabethan church settlement; Joseph Conrad, who wrote his last novels there; and Jocelyn Brooke, whose ‘orchid’ trilogy shot him to fame in the late 1940s.
After a tasting life of action, all three arrived in the village in search of peace and the space to write. They all loved the place in different ways, but died relatively young, frustrated by life and literature. This book recalls the lives, both in and out of the village, of three very different writers, but with one thing at least in common – a lasting love for the countryside of Kent.