In Search of H. V. Morton

Contemporary Review, Nov, 2004

In Search of H. V. Morton. Michael Bartholomew. Methuen. [pounds sterling]18.99. 248 pages. ISBN 0-413-77138-5. Full of admiration and respect, Michael Bartholomew set out in search of H. V. Morton, author of the immensely popular In Search--of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales--series, and ended up loathing him.

Reading this biography, I saw two Mortons: the urbane, charming, witty writer of some 39 travel books, and his alter ego, Harry Morton, pro-Nazi, pro-Fascist, anti-democratic, anti-semitic, racist, sexual recidivist. Lancashire-born Morton's life journey, via Birmingham and Fleet Street to the higher reaches of richly rewarded authorship, is enthralling--and disillusioning. Disenchanted with post-war Britain, its high taxes, shortages, and floods of immigrants, Morton emigrated in 1948 to the milk and honey of South Africa. His last ten years of slow decline were spent walled away in his beautiful garden, desultorily sipping local champagne and playing with a second childhood's vast army of model soldiers. He who had had two wives and a regiment of over a hundred mistresses, died, aged 87, in 1979, alone (unusually!) in his bedroom. A compulsively iconoclastic read. (R.W.-E.)