Twickenham

Ian Beck began his career in graphic design, successfully illustrating “for grown-ups” before turning his talents to picture books in 1982. He now has over fifty books for children to his credit (including his own stories as well as books written by others). He is especially known for his teddy bear stories and for illustrating fairy tales. His first novel for older children, The Secret History of Tom Trueheart, Boy Adventurer, will be published in June 2006.

Originally from Brighton, Ian spent several years in London before settling with his family in St Margarets in 1988, in a small house “bursting with books and people”. Much of his work has been inspired by local places, such as Old Deer Park in Richmond, the Thames, and Ian’s own house and street.

Walter de la Mare was a major influence on twentieth-century children’s literature, and many of his works, such as the book of rhymes Peacock Pie (1913), have endured. He is primarily remembered as a poet, although he also wrote stories and edited anthologies, for both children and adults. His writing, particularly his verse, is described as mysterious, dreamlike and musical, and he liked to write about childhood, animals, fairies and dreamland.

From 1940 until his death, the writer took a flat in the top two stories of South End House, Montpelier Row (the same row where Alfred Tennyson had once lived). The house is now commemorated by a Blue Plaque. Walter once said that Twickenham was London’s loveliest suburb, although during World War II he was officially reprimanded for failing to observe the blackout. (On one occasion, the police even rowed across the river to complain that his upper windows were beaconing to the far bank!) His Collected Stories for Children, the work of over forty years, won the 1947 Carnegie Medal. In 1953 he was awarded the Order of Merit. He was often confined indoors through illness during his final two years but positioned a mirror opposite his bed, so that he could still enjoy the fine view of Marble Hill Gardens. Walter de la Mare was buried at St Paul’s Cathedral in London, where he’d once attended school as a chorister.

Although he did write several books especially for children, Charles Dickens was so celebrated among the Victorians that children of his day also read his novels and especially his Christmas stories. His works remain immensely popular, although today, young people are perhaps more likely to be familiar with their many stage and screen adaptations.

Charles lived all over London. In the summer of 1838 he rented 2 Ailsa Park Villas with his family, in the area now called Downes Close, opposite the present St Margarets railway station. There he wrote parts of Oliver Twist and Nicholas Nickleby, both of which refer to local places, including Eel Pie Island. In his later novel Little Dorrit (1857), the Meagles live in a riverside cottage inspired by the Thames at Twickenham: both text and illustrations (by “Phiz”) cite the river, towpath and ferry crossing. Charles Dickens was also associated with Petersham and Richmond around this time.

From 1850 to 1856, Francis Turner Palgrave was a vice-principal at Kneller Hall in Whitton, Twickenham, which was then a training college for teachers of children in the workhouses (now home to the Royal Military School of Music). When the school closed, he worked for the Education Department, writing literary and artistic criticism in his free time. In 1860, while on a walking tour of Cornwall with his friend Alfred Tennyson, he suggested that the pair compile a collection of the best poetry. The result was The Golden Treasury of the Best Songs and Lyrical Poems in the English Language (1861), a book so successful that it has remained in print ever since. He was buried in the cemetery at Barnes Common.

Many of Alfred Tennyson’s lyrical poems, including “The Lady of Shalott” (1832) and “The Charge of the Light Brigade” (1855) are regularly anthologized for children. From 1851 to 1853, the poet lived at Chapel House, (now No. 15) Montpelier Row, Twickenham, the same row where the poet Walter de la Mare was to live nearly a century later. In 1851 Alfred was newly married and had just been appointed Poet Laureate. Although he would soon tire of Twickenham, Chapel House impressed him greatly. In 1852, his son Hallam was born in the house and baptized at St Mary’s Church, Twickenham. Alfred’s friend F.T. Palgrave was the vice-principal at a teacher training college at nearby Kneller Hall during this time. Alfred also wrote “Ode on the Death of the Duke of Wellington” (1852) while living here. His former home is now marked by a private plaque. The house was bought in 1985 by Pete Townshend of The Who.

The third in Philip Pullman’s series of thrillers set in Victorian London finds the heroine, Sally Lockhart, in Twickenham. It is 1881, and Sally lives with her daughter and Bohemian friends in “Orchard House”, a large, airy Regency building with iron balconies, a glass-roofed veranda and a sunny garden with flowerbeds and fruit trees. Her business as a financial consultant is thriving, and there is even a photography shop in Church Street. Sally’s happiness is threatened, however, as a villainous man called the Tzaddik makes his way towards Twickenham …

The daughter of children’s book author and illustrator Shirley Hughes, Clara Vulliamy was encouraged to draw and paint from an early age. Clara now illustrates children’s books by other writers, as well as her own. Her picture books tend to be realistic portrayals of the big moments in a young child’s life.

Living with her artist husband and two children in a large house in Twickenham, she is inspired by the things she sees around her. Many of her illustrations depict everyday places close to Clara’s home, such as neighbouring houses and the local school.