Maurice Lane Richardson[1] (1907–1978) was an English journalist andshort story writer.[2]
Richardson was born to a wealthy family; his father, a successfulstockjobber, "after retirement and some financial ups and downs" moved from "a large house in Essex to another large house inBudleigh Salterton", Devon.[3][4] As a child, Richardson was sent toprep school, which he disliked, thenOundle School;[5] he later recalled his education in his 1968 bookLittle Victims.[4][6] He studied at Oxford in the 1920s, initially reading zoology but subsequently changing to English; he did not take a degree.[7] There he befriended the poetBrian Howard.[8]
After leaving Oxford, he spent some time as an amateur boxer, and wrote his first novel,A Strong Man Needed, a humorous story about a female boxer.[9] Richardson began his journalistic career in the 1930s. After joining theCommunist Party,[4] Richardson became a contributor toLeft Review[10] and a member of the London-based left-wing Writers and Readers Group which includedRandall Swingler,Sylvia Townsend Warner,Mulk Raj Anand,Arthur Calder-Marshall andRose Macaulay.[11]
In the late 1940s, Richardson became a contributor to the British magazineLilliput. Here he published a series ofhumorous fantasy stories about a "Dwarf Surrealist Boxer" named Engelbrecht.[2][12] These tales were illustrated by several noted artists, includingRonald Searle,Gerard Hoffnung andJames Boswell.[12] The series was collected in book form asThe Exploits of Engelbrecht in 1950;[2] it was later reprinted in 1977 and in a deluxe edition by Savoy Books in 2000.[13] David Langford has praisedThe Exploits of Engelbrecht for their "enjoyable absurdist humour";[2]J. G. Ballard also admired the stories, describing them as "English surrealism at its greatest. Witty and fantastical, Maurice Richardson was light years ahead of his time. Unmissable."[14]
After leaving the Communist Party in the 1950s,[4] Richardson worked as a book reviewer. Richardson also became known for arranging meetings between himself and other writers in London pubs. Guests at these meetings includedJeffrey Bernard,Daniel Farson, Swingler,Lionel Bart,Frank Norman andAlan Rawsthorne.[15] In the 1960s, he also worked as theObserver's television critic[16][17] and wrotesports journalism forThe Guardian.[14] Richardson also wrote a study ofsnakes,lizards and otherreptiles entitledThe Fascination of Reptiles.[18]
After Richardson's death, a posthumous collection of journalism,Fits and Starts, was issued. ReviewingFits and Starts, Mary Manning praised the book, particularly Richardson's essay on theMoors murders, which she described as "a masterpiece in this genre".[4]
Richardson married Bridget Tisdall, whose widowed mother occupied the top half of a house they owned inPaultons Square, Chelsea; the bottom half was for a time occupied by the writer and actressTheodora FitzGibbon and the surrealist painter and photographerPeter Rose Pulham.[19]
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