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What Happened When a Famous Novelist Moved to By Derek Collett

It is a dream that many of us have: he Greyhound in when we approach retirement age we is a thatched cottage built in about 1420 will buy a little place in the country and situated in the heart and live out the remainder of our Tof this attractive Suffolk days in blissful rural tranquillity. But village. The building had functioned as a pub for many years until, in for some people this sort of dream 1907, the brewery that owned it can quickly turn into a nightmare and decided to close it down. On its final night of operation, the regulars so it proved for Nigel Balchin, the imbibed colossal quantities of free famous English author of The Small beer and then processed drunkenly Back Room and many other fine to a nearby churchyard carrying a coffin! This coffin novels, when he moved to Suffolk at (symbolizing the old the age of fifty-eight. inn) was then sent to

The Greyhound in Glemsford, Balchin’s country residence between 1967 and 1969

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the brewery as a protest against the

closure of a much-loved hostelry. When Nigel Balchin arrived at The Balchin was always keen to live

Greyhound with his wife Yovanka and in large, palatial houses that matched their two children, sixty years after it “ had closed as a pub, he wasted little “ time in restoring a link with the his standing as an eminent novelist house’s past. He asked a local artist, Tom Mallin from the nearby village of and screenwriter Clare, to paint him an old-fashioned inn sign with a picture of a greyhound on it. Balchin did this to make it easier for his friends and family to find his unwelcome visitor to The Greyhound illustrious career when he relocated house when they first visited was a ghostly white horse. Although from to Glemsford. Born in Glemsford but this piece of kindness Balchin had not seen the spectral Wiltshire in 1908, he was educated at soon backfired. During the two years presence himself, he was well aware Dauntsey’s School and or so that the Balchins lived at The that his house was reputed to be and then secured a job with the Greyhound, many people knocked on haunted. When he was interviewed by National Institute of Industrial their door late at night and the local press early in 1969, Psychology. He was intimately demanded to his natural flair for storytelling involved in the introduction of the be served kicked in and he recounted a Black Magic chocolate assortment in with alcohol. miniaturized ghost story that 1933: on secondment from the NIIP to They would the journalist described as Rowntree’s, he coordinated a depart in a “just the kind of thing that groundbreaking market research filthy temper reporters like to hear”: project that determined which once Balchin “…one of the people who chocolates filled the first boxes of or his wife had lived here a long time ago Black Magic. Balchin also selected told them that got into financial difficulties black as the predominant colour for the painting of and hanged himself. the packaging. This was because, as a greyhound He owned a white horse he explained himself, a black box was simply an that now and then comes should theoretically stand out from ornament, and looking for him. It goes into the competition: “Looking into any definitely did what used to be a loose box confectioner’s window, there’s every not mark the and then when it’s had colour but black.” site of licensed enough it just goes away.” Balchin was employed by the army premises! Balchin was coming for most of the Second World War. He Another towards the end of his made numerous important

ABOVE: The interior of The Greyhound; INSERT: The last novel that Balchin wrote, Kings of Infinite Space, was published while he was living in Suffolk

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contributions in the areas of personnel owned a house—instead of at The caught up with him while he was selection and scientific research— Greyhound. Balchin’s marriage to based in Glemsford. He owed a wine contributions that undoubtedly helped Yovanka had been a turbulent, topsy- merchant in the to shorten the war—and impressed turvy affair almost since their wedding equivalent of about £1000 today and the top brass so much that he was in 1953 and a romantic liaison between his bank manager threatened to made a brigadier on the day before the writer and his live-in secretary declare him bankrupt if he didn’t pay VE Day. while he was working in London off the debt. Yovanka reluctantly sold But Balchin is best known as a threatened to tear it apart yet again. some of her finest pieces of jewellery novelist. He wrote three atmospheric The marriage survived, but only just. to save her husband from and exciting thrillers during his In the post-war period, Balchin embarrassment and financial ruin. wartime military service ( Darkness Not surprisingly, given this sorry Falls from the Air, The Small Back sequence of events, the Balchins Room and Mine Own chose to leave Suffolk in 1969 and Executioner ), all of which were move back to London. As a way of heavily influenced by the working saving money, they bought a flat in environments he had occupied West Hampstead and Balchin lived during the conflict. Thereafter, his there until his untimely death the career as a writer was more following year. uneven but there were periodic Life was certainly not all doom high spots such as the novels A and gloom for Balchin while he was Sort of Traitors, Sundry Creditors, the owner of The Greyhound. His The Fall of the Sparrow and first wife Elisabeth had moved to Seen Dimly Before Dawn . Toppesfield in north in 1952 After the war, Balchin spent with her new husband, the painter a lot of his time writing film and sculptor Michael Ayrton. As scripts, firstly in and Toppesfield was situated less than later in Hollywood. As is the ten miles from Glemsford, the case with his books, the movies Ayrtons were close enough to he scripted vary widely in the Balchins to be able to see quality but he did win a BAFTA them on a regular basis. It is also for his screenplay for The Man known that both Balchin and Who Never Was and he even Ayrton, along with Tom Mallin, used contributed an early script for the Liz to attend social gatherings at a house Burton/Richard Taylor version of in Pentlow, not far from Glemsford. Cleopatra . Powell and Pressburger Appropriately enough, this house was also made a wonderful screen version called Larks in the Wood! of The Small Back Room in 1948. Nigel Balchin’s connections with Balchin’s final novel, Kings of persisted long after his Infinite Space , was published soon death. Balchin’s second wife Yovanka after he bought The Greyhound. I have has resided in for many Glemsford is an attractive village on heard it said that Balchin retired to years and his writer friend Elizabeth the southern edge of Suffolk. Glemsford but this is not actually true. Jane Howard moved to Bungay in It was more the case that his writing 1990 and lived there until her death at career had declined to such an extent earned a lot of money from his books, the beginning of 2014. I once travelled that he faced an uphill struggle when miscellaneous business interests and, to to interview Miss Howard he tried to get his work published. He in particular, as a result of his for my biography of Balchin. The also experienced a number of scriptwriting work for the film afternoon I spent in the company of personal problems while he was living industry. But as his friend and fellow that fascinating and formidable in Suffolk and these inevitably took novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard woman is not an experience I will their toll on his writing. observed about Balchin and Yovanka forget in a hurry—but then that’s a Balchin had drunk very heavily for while they were married: “they spent story for another time! much of the post-war period and by money like water.” Balchin was always the time he moved to Suffolk he had keen to live in large, palatial houses sunk decisively into alcoholism. that matched his standing as an Ironically, his drinking was probably at eminent novelist and screenwriter and its absolute worst when he was although The Greyhound was not an residing in a cottage that had extravagant purchase by his previously been a pub. To give an standards, his spendthrift nature example of how serious Balchin’s drink problem had now become, Yovanka recalls the vicar’s wife calling at The Greyhound to ask her to open the village fete. The two women took a His Own Executioner: stroll in the garden and almost tripped The Life of Nigel Balchin over Balchin, who had fallen asleep, blind drunk, in some long grass. Derek Collett’s biography of Although Yovanka adored living in Balchin, His Own Executioner: her country cottage, her husband felt The Life of Nigel Balchin , is differently. At this stage in his life, published by SilverWood Books, Balchin generally preferred the town priced £11.99. to the country and he often chose to write in London—where he also

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