Ebenezer News
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Reading Group Guide
Download the NYRB Classics Reading Group Guide.
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Story of the Book
In 1994, Edward Chaney gave a talk to the Guernsey Society about Gerald Edwards and the writing of Ebenezer Le Page. Get it here.
Blue Plaque Campaign
Following the success of the Campaign to have a Blue Plaque erected on the former Guernsey home of Gerald Edwards (pictured left, seated), there is now a campaign to recognise his London home in the same way. It has been ten years since Edward Chaney, Edwards' literary heir, submitted the last application to English Heritage - on that occasion it was rejected, and ten years is the earliest a request can be resubmitted. However, since then, his novel, Ebenezer Le Page, has been reprinted in the UK, has never been out of print in the USA, has been reprinted in France, a new translation has appeared in Italian, and plans are afoot for a German version. It has been the subject of radio adaptions on BBC4 Women's Hour, a stage adaptation featuring Tony award-winning actor Roy Dotrice OBE and there are plans for turning it into a film.
Recognition for his work has spread amongst his peers (John Fowles' introduction to the book, William Golding who named it Book of the Year), critics (Harold Bloom named it in his Western Cannon, reprinted as part of New York Review of Books' Modern Classics series, glowing reviews in Times Literary Supplement, London Review of Books) and academics (Peter Goodall in Modern Language Review).
If having written the greatest novel set in Guernsey was not enough, he was also a superb letter writer and poet. A selection of his letters were published in the Guernsey Society Review 1994-5, and a collection of his poems are shortly to be published.
Most recently, GB Edwards has been recognised as the greatest Guernsey-born novelist in his island home through the Blue Plaque on his childhood home. And The Book of Ebenezer Le Page has been included in the most recent edition of the Oxford Companion to English Literature.
The Plaque
Gerald lived at 9 Ritherdon Road, London SW17 from at least September 1947 until December 1961. This is the house we want the plaque for. It would complement the Guernsey plaque by honouring Gerald on behalf of the rest of the world - for all the fans of his work in United Kingdom, North America, Australasia, France, Italy, and shortly Germany.
How Can You Help?
Contact English Heritage Blue Plaques expressing support for the Blue Plaque - feel free to quote (cut & paste) from the above in your email. But don't delay - because the board meets this month, and if rejected, it will be another ten years before we can reapply.
The criteria which English Heritage consider when deciding a Blue Plaque are:-
- the candidate must have been dead for 20 years. GB Edwards died in 1976.
- a building associated with the figure being proposed must survive in London. It does: 9 Ritherdon Road, London SW17.
- be considered eminent by a majority of members of their own profession or calling have made an important positive contribution to human welfare or happiness. He is and has - see examples above.
- be recognisable to the well-informed passer-by OR deserve national recognition. He does deserve national recognition - as the greatest Guernsey-born novelist.
- have resided in London for a significant period, in time or importance, within their life and work. He lived in London 1947 - 1961.
Further details of the Blue Plaques can be found at the English Heritage web site.
Contact Details for English Heritage Blue Plaques
- By Email : plaques@english-heritage.org.uk
- By Telephone : (020) 7973 3794 or 7973 3757
- By Post: Blue Plaques Team, English Heritage, 1 Waterhouse Square, 138 - 142 Holborn, London, EC1N 2ST
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