Winston Mawdsley Graham OBE, English novelist, best known for the Poldark series of historical fiction, was born on June 30th 1908 in Victoria Park, Manchester, England.
A younger Winston Graham.
Credit goodreads.com
To commemorate his birthday we’re sharing the following extracts from his autobiography
” Memoirs of a Private Man ” – a hugely enjoyable read and one that we’d highly recommend. In the following extract, Graham recalls a meeting with someone who helped to fill out the details of the character of Ross Poldark, which was ” At that time, a hazy picture of the character…”
” One day, during the first year of the war, when I was still waiting for call-up, I went to Truro by train and sat opposite a young RAF officer who told me he was convalescing after a crash. He had a substantial, barely healed scar from temple to lower cheek…
A very tall bony good-looking young man with a high-strung disquiet about him that made a great impression on me. And a depth and darkness that lay behind the frivolity of his air force language language. He was not at all nervous, but one guessed that strong nerves contributed to his latent urgent vitality…
Some friend told me once that there was an element of Heathcliff in Ross Poldark. A Cornishman, Peter Pool, more perceptively, I think, saw an affinity with Captain Hornblower, at least in his capacity for self-criticism. It’s impossible for me to take a detached view of Ross’s origin and character. All I know is that the young airman, his general appearance and my perception of his character, provided the basis for what followed. ”
On the creation of Demelza, Graham says this:
” I wish I could be as explicit as that in considering the creation of Demelza. Obviously there have been borrowings, chiefly from my wife. I took her sturdy common sense and judgement, her courage, her earthy ability to go at once to the root of a problem and point the answer; her intense interest and pleasure in small things; and particularly I have used her gamine sense of humour. As for the rest, most of it seemed to come from within. A romantic man’s perception of an ideal woman? That was maybe how it began, but I have had no more than parental control over how she was developed.
Sometimes a name is a great help. While the first book was still in its preliminary stages I was driving across Bodmin Moor, and not far from Roche saw a small signpost marked DEMELZA. Until then she had no name; after that she could have no other. ”
Demelza wasn’t the only name that Graham happened across upon the Cornish moor:
” Warleggan, taken from another village on the moors, was also a help in formulating the characteristics of that clan. Incidentally it was reported to me that one evening in Pratt’s Club the doyens of two distinguished Cornish families were heard to be arguing as to which family had provided the model for the Warleggans. Each claimed it. Which is little surprising considering the character of the family portrayed. ”
Memoirs of a Private Man is published by Bello [ 2013 edition ] available here:
http://www.panmacmillan.com/book/winstongraham/memoirsofaprivateman
Winston Graham’s autobiography – Memoirs of a Private Man
poldarkrooms 