1 Robert Keable, Utterly Immoral WW1 chaplain and writer

2 Tahiti, the enduring image 1767-1920

3 1920s Tahiti – English-speaking writers and artists

Simon is an acredited lecturer with the Arts Society and listed in the Arts Society directory of lecturerers

Robert Keable, Utterly immoral WW1 chaplain and writer

Robert Keable’s first, semi-autobiographical, novel Simon Called Peter, about a WW1 chaplain's affair with a nurse, shocked many, was name checked in The Great Gatsby, and became a huge international best seller. Keable led an extraordinary life as a Cambridge educated priest who served as a missionary in Africa, before becoming chaplain to ill-treated black labourers in France. After the war he left the church, and his wife, and ran away to Tahiti with his mistress to live for a year in Paul Gauguin’s house. He stayed in Tahiti, built his own house, continued writing and married a Tahitian princess. 

You can see my descrition of this talk at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00Tia_UVvtw&t=24s

Tahiti, the enduring image 1767-1920

The first Europeans writers and artists who visited Tahiti in the 1760s came back talking about an island paradise. The artists who accompanied Captain Cook - William Hodges and John Webber, helped create an enduring image that lasted 150 years. Writers such as Herman Melville (best known today as the author of Moby Dick), Robert Louis Stephenson, Pierre Loti and Somerset Maugham; and artists such as Charles Giraud, John La Farge and of course Paul Gauguin kept the image going. What was it about Tahiti, the time it was 'discovered' and the popularity of certain writers and artists that made Tahiti seem so special and unique? 

1920's Tahiti - English-speaking writers and artists

Why did small number of American and British writers and artists, following in the footsteps of Paul Gauguin, Robert Louis Stephenson, Rupert Brooke and Somerset Maugham, decide to settle on Tahiti in the 1920s. Were they attracted by the huge 1920s craze for the South Seas and Tahiti with numerous Hollywood movies, books, and articles? What were writers such as Robert Keable, James Norman Hall, Charles Nordhoff, and Dean Frisbie; and artists such as George Biddle and William Alister Macdonald trying to escape? Why did they choose to stay and how successful were they?  

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Simon Keable-Elliott has been researching the writers living in Tahiti in the 1920s for a number of years. In July 2021 he took early retirement following 25 years as a secondary school politics teacher, and now works as a writer and lecturer. In his first book Utterly Immoral, Robert Keable and his scandalous novel, published in November 2022, he covered - among other topics - Robert Keable’s time in Tahiti

To see a list of  talks and lectures by Simon please visit his events page: https://robertkeable.com/events/

If you require any further information, please do email Simon on [email protected] or use the contact page to send a message.