Billy Oblivion
New Member
Starting on another thread talking about risible romantic fiction I moved on to talk about my favourite romantic author. So I thought I'd start a thread to aquaint anyone who doesn't know him with the wonderful, aslthough late, Howard Spring. First a potted biography:
Howard Spring, the son of a gardener from Ireland, was born in Cardiff in 1889. The family were extremely poor and the nine children and their parents lived in a small, two bedroomed house. The situation was made even worse when Howard's father died when he was still at school and his mother was forced to take in washing to earn some money.
When he was twelve years old Spring left school and found work as a errand boy at a butcher's shop that involved carrying heavy joints to customers' houses. Later he obtained a post as an office-boy at an accountants in Cardiff Docks.
Spring then found work as a messenger boy at the South Wales Daily News. He taught himself shorthand and attended night school to improve his education. Spring eventually joined the reporting staff of the newspaper. In 1911 began work for the Yorkshire Observer in Bradford.
Spring moved to the Manchester Guardian in 1915 and stayed for over fifteen years. He reported on the First World War and during the conflict worked for the Intelligence Department in France.
In 1930 Spring joined the Evening Standard and replaced J. B. Priestley as the newspaper's chief book reviewer. He also wrote several best-selling novels including Shabby Tiger (1934), My Son, My Son * (1938), Fame is the Spur *(1940), Dunkerleys (1946), The Houses in Between (1951), A Sunset Touch (1953), These Lovers Fled Away * (1955), Time and the Hour * (1957), All The Day Long * (1959) and I Met A Lady * (1961).
Also: Winds Of The Day*
Rachel Rosing
Hard Facts.
There Is No Armour*
Spring also wrote two volumes of autobiography, Heaven Lies About Us (1939), In The Meantime (1942) and And Another Thing (1946). Howard Spring died on 3rd May 1965.
Books marked with an asterisk are those I consider to be the best. I've read all of Springs books (and have a hardback collection) but without a doubt his later books are not of the standard of the early ones.
What I like about Howard Spring is the way he can make me feel nostalgic for times and places I have never experienced and his use of pathos reduces a soft lump like me to tears every dozen or so pages.
Being blessed with an utterly useless memory I re-read these books every couple of years and enjoy them just as much now as when I first read them as a teenager (two or three years ago).
Howard Spring, the son of a gardener from Ireland, was born in Cardiff in 1889. The family were extremely poor and the nine children and their parents lived in a small, two bedroomed house. The situation was made even worse when Howard's father died when he was still at school and his mother was forced to take in washing to earn some money.
When he was twelve years old Spring left school and found work as a errand boy at a butcher's shop that involved carrying heavy joints to customers' houses. Later he obtained a post as an office-boy at an accountants in Cardiff Docks.
Spring then found work as a messenger boy at the South Wales Daily News. He taught himself shorthand and attended night school to improve his education. Spring eventually joined the reporting staff of the newspaper. In 1911 began work for the Yorkshire Observer in Bradford.
Spring moved to the Manchester Guardian in 1915 and stayed for over fifteen years. He reported on the First World War and during the conflict worked for the Intelligence Department in France.
In 1930 Spring joined the Evening Standard and replaced J. B. Priestley as the newspaper's chief book reviewer. He also wrote several best-selling novels including Shabby Tiger (1934), My Son, My Son * (1938), Fame is the Spur *(1940), Dunkerleys (1946), The Houses in Between (1951), A Sunset Touch (1953), These Lovers Fled Away * (1955), Time and the Hour * (1957), All The Day Long * (1959) and I Met A Lady * (1961).
Also: Winds Of The Day*
Rachel Rosing
Hard Facts.
There Is No Armour*
Spring also wrote two volumes of autobiography, Heaven Lies About Us (1939), In The Meantime (1942) and And Another Thing (1946). Howard Spring died on 3rd May 1965.
Books marked with an asterisk are those I consider to be the best. I've read all of Springs books (and have a hardback collection) but without a doubt his later books are not of the standard of the early ones.
What I like about Howard Spring is the way he can make me feel nostalgic for times and places I have never experienced and his use of pathos reduces a soft lump like me to tears every dozen or so pages.
Being blessed with an utterly useless memory I re-read these books every couple of years and enjoy them just as much now as when I first read them as a teenager (two or three years ago).
