Robert Keable, a chaplain to the SANLC during the First World War, was a popular novelist in the 1920s. Simon Keable-Elliott is posting regular articles about his life and times which build on his book Utterly Immoral.

How a forgotten racy novel eclipsed The Great Gatsby

How a forgotten racy novel eclipsed The Great Gatsby

January 06, 2025

Although I usually write everything on my blog I thought I would repost Ian Kellett's kind blog promoting my talk at the Shaftesbury Gold Hill Museum 

How a forgotten racy novel eclipsed The Great Gatsby

5th January 2025 by Ian Kellett

F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby , published in April 1925, is widely regarded as a literary masterpiece and a classic example of the Great American Novel. By 2020 it was thought to have sold nearly 30 million copi…

WW1 Kirchner Pinups and Simon Called Peter

WW1 Kirchner Pinups and Simon Called Peter

November 23, 2023

Robert Keable claimed in the introduction to the American edition of Simon Called Peter that his intention was to ‘lift the veil’ on the life behind the lines during the war. He argued that the horror of war made men and women less restrained, ‘reckless’ and willing to throw ‘conventions to the winds’. And he suggested life in France was like the pages of La Vie Parisienne:

A man arrived, weary and dirty and craving for excitement, in some unknown town; in…

Finding the location of Paul Gauguin's house in Tahiti

Finding the location of Paul Gauguin's house in Tahiti

June 29, 2022

The truth is my book Utterly Immoral, which is published in November 2022, is the product of many years of research into the life of Robert Keable. Back in 2016 I visited Tahiti to find out as much as I could. One priority for me on that visit was to find the exact location of the French Impressionist Paul Gauguin’s house which Robert and Jolie Keable lived in for almost a year in 1923. I wrote about my search in a diary at the time.

 

Robert Keable loved driving along the coas…

Audiobooks by Robert Keable

Audiobooks by Robert Keable

December 30, 2024

Audiobooks by Robert Keable

In August 2024 I was invited to speak at a monthly meeting of the Weston Turville U3A at Aylesbury Rugby Club. This was my 28th U3A talk about my grandfather Robert Keable and his scandalous novel Simon Called Peter. It is rare for anyone attending my talks to have heard of Robert Keable, or any of his novels, but occasionally one of the U3A members has prepared for my talk by reading or at least starting to read Simon Called Peter. Up until this point no one had …

Was Gauguin famous in the1920s?

Was Gauguin famous in the1920s?

November 30, 2024

Did Gauguin inspire 1920s visitors to Tahiti?

Robert Keable lived in Paul Gauguin’s house in Tahiti for a year in 1923 twenty-five years after Gauguin had left the island for the last time. But who was Gauguin and how famous was he by 1923? Two recent excellent books, Wild Thing, A life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux and Gauguin and Polynesia by Nicholas Thomas, have shed more light on the life of Gauguin. I am currently preparing a talk on American and British writers and artists who…

William Alister Macdonald 1861-1956

William Alister Macdonald 1861-1956

September 30, 2024

Out of the blue I received an email from Dr Iain Macdonald asking whether I knew of any connection between Robert Keable and his great uncle. Iain was in Tahiti launching his new book William Alister Macdonald, Watercolours from Thurso, the Thames and Tahiti about the life and work of the artist and he had just come across my book about my grandfather. In my ignorance I had never heard of the artist nor have I ever come across his name in connection with Robert Keable. But the similarities betw…

What have academics learnt about the war from Robert Keable’s writings?

What have academics learnt about the war from Robert Keable’s writings?

March 24, 2024

The 2024 Spring edition of the Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research includes my article on the South African Native Labour Contingent[i]. This is my first peer-reviewed article on the First World War and is an attempt to examine the recruitment, conditions of service and treatment of the men of the SANLC. For the article I leant heavily on the writings of Robert Keable who served in France as a chaplain to the Contingent.

I am not the first to use Robert Keable’s writing…

Robert Keable - History Teacher

Robert Keable - History Teacher

November 09, 2023

Robert Keable was a full-time writer for the last few years of his life having previously been a priest and rising star on the Anglo-Catholic section of the Church of England. However, he was also a historian and for four terms in the early 1920s a history teacher.

His father was a successful businessman who retrained as a priest, moving to Croydon at the turn of the century. Keable embraced his parents’ evangelical faith and threw himself into the life of the church, preaching in the…

The Dulwich College Mystery?

The Dulwich College Mystery?

November 07, 2023

Did Robert Keable teach at Dulwich College?

When I first started to research the life of Robert Keable almost 25 years ago, I began by reading his obituaries written back in 1927. All of them mentioned that he taught at Dulwich College in South London. I was surprised therefore when I came across a letter from the then archivist at the school WJ Wright to Dr Douglas dated 26th October 1959.

I cannot find a trace of him, no mention in the Alleynian, nor is he included in the list of Assist…

Robert Keable at Magdalene College with AC Benson

Robert Keable at Magdalene College with AC Benson

November 03, 2023

Many of us have fond memories of our time as undergraduates at university and Robert Keable was no exception. He loved his time at Magdalene College, Cambridge and was proud to leave a trust fund to pay for poor students from his old school – Whitgift Grammar – to study history at the college. His best written novel, Peradventure, is a semi-autobiographical account of his time there. Little effort is made to disguise people or places. Paul Kestern’s upbringing and views are hi…

Am I too late to restore Robert Keable’s reputation in South Africa?

Am I too late to restore Robert Keable’s reputation in South Africa?

April 23, 2023

Introduction

Robert Keable, my grandfather, died aged just 40 in 1927. To say he led an unconventional life would be an understatement. He was born in London, won a scholarship to Cambridge University, was ordained as a Church of England priest, spent a year in Zanzibar as a member of the University Mission to Central Africa (UMCA), became a parish priest in Basutoland (Lesotho) and travelled to France as a padre in the South African Native Labour Contingent (SANLC). After returning from Fra…

Fletcher Allen’s Keable – Novelist and Rebel

Fletcher Allen’s Keable – Novelist and Rebel

March 02, 2023

Although I published my book on Robert Keable last November I still manage to stumble on new material about him. Only yesterday I came across a long article in the Literary Digest International Book Review by Fletcher Allen titled Keable – Novelist and Rebel, written in 1923.

The article runs through Keable’s career and goes over much of the same territory as in my book but there are some fascinating insights including an intriguing description of the man.

Fletcher Allen begin…

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