The prolific novelist, playwright, journalist, composer - and many other things including political activist - Beverley Nichols was born on September 9th 1898, so he shares a ninth day of the ninth month birthday with this blog.
His four childen's books that feature the witch Miss Smith are the main reason for his appearance here, but there is a little more to say about him to mark the occasion.
I am still wondering where Beverley Nichols got his ideas about witches and evil from. I also wonder why The Wickedest Witch in the World (1971) was written so long after the Woodland Trilogy – there is a gap of 21 years.
There is a story called Super Witch: A Story for Children of all Ages in his unpublished papers; it is dated circa 1971.
We will probably never know why he returned to writing about witches at this time.
Beverley Nichols wrote a series of books about his houses and gardens.
I learned recently that his book Down the Garden Path was the inspiration for Sellar & Yeatman's Garden Rubbish.
These books, which are all very good reads and are now what Beverley Nichols is best remembered for, were illustrated by the great decorative artist Rex Whistler.
