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The Defendant (Spring, 2017) The DEFENDANT Newsletter of the Australian Chesterton Society Vol. 24 No. 4 Spring 2017 Issue No. 95 ‘I have found that humanity is not Chesterton as a incidentally engaged, but eternally and Broadcaster systematically engaged, by Tony Evans in throwing gold into the In his later years Chesterton attracted an gutter and diamonds into expanded audience as a result of his radio the sea. ; therefore I talks. This important, but previously neglected, have imagined that the part of his writing and public speaking was main business of man, the subject of an address by the Founding however humble, is President of the Australian Chesterton Society, defence. I have conceived Tony Evans, at its 2001 conference in Sydney. that a defendant is chiefly Tony Evans was a long-time producer with required when worldlings ABC radio and television in Perth, and has despise the world – that published several historical biographies, the a counsel for the defence most recent of which was of the church Chesterton at a microphone in the BBC studios would not have been out architect, William Wardell. In this article for of place in the terrible day The Defendant, he demonstrates his unrivalled to broadcast live on Christmas Day. when the sun was expertise in discussing Chesterton as a Luckily the script of the talk has survived, broadcaster. complete with additions and deletions. darkened over Calvary Thus we know that he first alluded to and Man was rejected of his journey by apologising for interrupt- men.’ Chesterton received his first invitation ing the listeners’ Christmas holiday, and G.K. Chesterton, ‘Introduction’, from the BBC to broadcast on their then adding ruefully, ‘the equally disgusting The Defendant (1901) overseas service to America, a full year interruption to my Christmas Day’. before his regular Home Service broadcasts Chesterton as a Broadcaster began. This broadcast went to air on The BBC, only five years old at that time, (Tony Evans) 25th December, 1931. was still under the iron control of the Pages 1-2 formidable Sir John Reith. The highest A Modern Chestertonian Why to America? A possible explanation standards of decorum were maintained; (David Ryan) is that Chesterton’s reputation in the all talks were scripted and rehearsed, Page 3 United States at that time had been and male announcers wore evening dress Composing Hymns with James enhanced by his six-week lecture tour a to read the news. Even to be invited to McAuley (Richard Connolly) Page 4 year previously, and an alert Head of Talks give talks on the BBC was a passport to in the Overseas Service must have noted national fame. The Music of Chesterton (Simon Dennerly) his popularity and stolen a march on his Page 5 Home Service colleagues. Chesterton must have passed the test The Senior Syllabus – As It because within twelve months he received Should Be (Dale Ahlquist) The subject suggested for him was dear his invitation to broadcast on the BBC Page 6 to his heart, ‘Dickens and Christmas’. Home Service the following September. His The Man Behind Father Brown second 15-minute talk was scheduled for (John Young) There were no recordings in those days, 31 October and this led to an unbroken Page 7 and so Chesterton was obliged to make series of talks, roughly at monthly intervals Desert Island Chesterton the journey from his home in Beaconsfield until his death in 1936, with gaps only (Francis Phillips) to Broadcasting House in central London when he was away travelling; a total of 33 Page 8 The DEFENDANT 1 SPRING 2017 broadcasts if we include the debate with Bertrand Russell throughout his life, we should give thanks to God for our entitled, Who Should Bring Up Our Children? existence; he believed that we should all be filled with wonder and joy at the miracle of life: ‘Unless we can bring Letters in the BBC files show plainly how successful men back to enjoying the daily life which moderns call a Chesterton was as a broadcaster. ‘You do admirably’ declares dull life, our whole civilisation will be in ruins in about one enthusiastically. Another writes, ‘[You are] Quite superb at fifteen years’. the microphone’. It was a theme that he would return to poignantly in his All broadcasters in those days had to submit scripts which final broadcast before he died two years later. were carefully vetted before broadcast. Invariably speakers were rehearsed until the required standard was reached. Incidentally, Chesterton’s estimate of fifteen years would take In a letter to Chesterton from a BBC producer he was told, us to 1949 – the desolate years after World War II, when the contrary to usual practice, that he need not keep to the economies of Europe, including England, were all but in letter of his script, ‘We should like you to make variations as ruins, and the full murderous truth of the Holocaust was these occur to you as you speak at the microphone. Only then being revealed. Did Chesterton pluck fifteen years out in this way can the talk have a real spontaneity about it.’ of the air, or was that estimate born out of his extraordinary prescience? Most of Chesterton’s thirty-three talks were presented under the general title of Books and Authors, each with its own Chesterton’s religious beliefs permeated his radio talks. He individual title, but there were other contributions in the was subject to no strictures from BBC officials, and always series too. They were book reviews only in a loose sense, spoke as an Orthodox Catholic. because although he spoke of books and writers, they were selected to support a particular theme. In pre-war England there was not that disaffection towards Christianity that has become a characteristic of Much has been written about Chesterton’s super-human public life today. It was a time when, broadly speaking, the output, and his capacity to work on several books, write majority of the population believed in God and religion. poetry, prepare lectures, and so on, at the one time. We read Thus in one talk he was able to defend and praise the Book this in the biographies but it is only when delving into these of Genesis. ‘Do not jeer at the Book of Genesis,’ he says, broadcasts that one becomes fully aware of Chesterton’s ‘It would be better for all of us if [we remembered] that formidable mental ability and the mountain of work he Genesis was a series of symbolic services reminding us managed to get through. of Creation.’ Each month he would read and absorb eight books as The edition of BBC weekly magazine, The Listener, published preparation for his talk. We may be sure that he wasn’t one in the week following Chesterton’s death in 1936, contained of those reviewers – and there were many – who skim read an editorial eulogy praising him as ‘he took his place in and, as in Chesterton’s satirical verse, rely on ‘the back of the forefront of the best of broadcast talkers,’ and the cover to tell them the plot.’ This was not Chesterton’s added: ‘Chesterton had enormous gusto in his broadcast way of working. He obviously had a photographic mind. talks and gusto is one of the essential qualities of a good broadcaster.’ At the same time as making his broadcasts – for example in 1932 – he was writing and editing G.K.’s Weekly; writing his The eulogy concludes by referring to a paradox weekly essay for The Illustrated London News; writing ‘which Chesterton himself would have loved... that when Christendom in Dublin published in November that year; he was being most individual he was being most writing St Thomas Aquinas published the following year, and in universal.’ that same year appeared his book of essays, All I Survey. A simple story which illustrates just how popular But this is not the final tally: his faithful Secretary, Dorothy Chesterton was as a broadcaster is told by Maisie Ward in Collins, lists forty lectures in her diary in that one year alone, her definitive 1944 biography. including a debate at the Oxford Union, and various other lesser engagements. She relates that, on the Monday morning following the Sunday of Chesterton’s death, a barber in Chancery Lane, Chesterton made eight broadcasts in 1933. One, on 25 London, rushed out of his shop, shaving-brush in hand, September, in which he reviewed books on the French and accosted Chesterton’s friend Edward Macdonald Revolution, one on Marie Antoinette, and three books dealing whom he recognised. He asked Macdonald if he had with the Napoleonic dynasty. heard the terrible news. When Macdonald asked the barber if he had known Chesterton well, the barber admitted Again there were eight radio broadcasts in 1934 – seven of that he had never read any of Chesterton’s books, but them in the Autumn and Winter. He maintained that, would never miss listening to his broadcasts. The DEFENDANT 2 SPRING 2017 A Modern Chestertonian Interview with Dawn Eden by David Ryan A contemporary author, Dawn Eden, who became a Catholic as a result of reading Chesterton, has recently been interviewed by a Campion College student, David Ryan, who has been serving an internship at the Sydney Catholic Weekly provided by the Editor, Peter Rosengren. Dawn Eden In this article, he explores the influence of Chesterton’s writings on her conversion. December 1995 was a turning point in the life of Jewish- I was taken by Chesterton’s quote that ‘the most poetic American writer and journalist Dawn Eden; a turning point thing is not being sick’ and co-incidentally, prior to coming that paved the way to Catholicism, and that began with an across Chesterton’s works I had been following counter- encounter with the writings of G.K.
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