Bevis Hillier (born 28 March 1940) is an English

art historian Art history is the study of artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Traditionally, the ...

, author and journalist. He has written on

Art Deco Art Deco, short for the French (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

, and also a biography of

Sir John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architect ...

Life and work

Hillier was born in

Redhill, Surrey Redhill () is a town status in the United Kingdom, town in the borough of Reigate and Banstead within the county of Surrey, England. The town, which adjoins the town of Reigate to the west, is due south of London Borough of Croydon, Croydon in ...

. In 1947 the family moved to South Merstham, Surrey; in 1959, back to Redhill. His father was Jack Hillier, an authority and author on

Japanese art Japanese art consists of a wide range of art styles and media that includes Jōmon pottery, ancient pottery, Japanese sculpture, sculpture, Ink wash painting, ink painting and Japanese calligraphy, calligraphy on silk and paper, Ukiyo-e, paint ...

; his mother, Mary Louise (née Palmer), was an authority on wax dolls and

automata An automaton (; : automata or automatons) is a relatively self-operating machine, or control mechanism designed to automatically follow a sequence of operations, or respond to predetermined instructions. Some automata, such as bellstrikers i ...

. Hillier was educated at

Reigate Grammar School Reigate Grammar School is an 11–18 co-educational private day school in Reigate, Surrey, England. It was established in 1675 by Henry Smith. History The school was founded as a free school for poor boys in 1675 by Alderman Henry Smith with Jo ...

and

Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College ( ) is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford. It was founded in 1458 by Bishop of Winchester William of Waynflete. It is one of the wealthiest Oxford colleges, as of 2022, and ...

, where he won the Gladstone Memorial Prize for History. He was employed as a journalist on ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' from 1963 (on the editorial staff until 1968; edited The Connoisseur magazine (1972–76); antiques correspondent of The Times from 1970 to 1984; deputy literary editor from 1980 to 1981). In 1981, editor of The Times's colour magazine. From 1982 to 1984, features editor, then executive editor of the Telegraph Sunday Magazine. From 1984 to 1988, he was an associate editor of the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

''. He has since been a reviewer for ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

''. In 1968 Hillier's book ''

Art Deco of the 20s and 30s ''Art Deco of the 20s and 30s'' is an art history book by English historian Bevis Hillier. It was initially published in 1968 by Studio Vista. The author discusses how the style of cubism, expressionism, Ancient Egyptian art, Mayan art, and so on ...

'' was published by Studio Vista. This was the first major work on a hitherto neglected genre of art that had previously been referred to as

Art Moderne Streamline Moderne is an international style of Art Deco architecture and design that emerged in the 1930s. Inspired by Aerodynamics, aerodynamic design, it emphasized curving forms, long horizontal lines, and sometimes nautical elements. In indu ...

(the term ''Art Moderne'' has since come to be used to refer to the later ''streamlined'' style of Art Deco in the 1930s). Hillier's use of the term ''

'' became definitive. In 1971 Hillier curated a major Art Deco show at the

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United Stat ...

, which helped to increase popular awareness of this style. In 1969 Weidenfeld published Hillier's ''

Posters A poster is a large sheet that is placed either on a public space to promote something or on a wall as decoration. Typically, posters include both textual and graphic elements, although a poster may be either wholly graphical or wholly text. ...

''. In 1970 Studio Vista published his ''Cartoons and Caricatures'', a study of caricature from the 13th century to the late 20th. Hillier has also written books on ceramics, as well as ''Austerity Binge: Decorative Arts of the 1940s and 50s'' and ''The Style of the Century'' (1983), a review of the various styles of art in the 20th century, from

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau ( ; ; ), Jugendstil and Sezessionstil in German, is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. It was often inspired by natural forms such as the sinuous curves of plants and ...

through

psychedelia Psychedelia usually refers to a Aesthetics, style or aesthetic that is resembled in the psychedelic subculture of the 1960s and the psychedelic experience produced by certain psychoactive substances. This includes psychedelic art, psychedelic ...

and pop art to

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

. Hillier's major work, however, is the authorised biography of Sir

John Betjeman Sir John Betjeman, (; 28 August 190619 May 1984) was an English poet, writer, and broadcaster. He was Poet Laureate from 1972 until his death. He was a founding member of The Victorian Society and a passionate defender of Victorian architect ...

. It took him 28 years to research and write, and was published by John Murray in three volumes (1988, 2002 and 2004). A one-volume abridgement was published in 2006 for Betjeman's centenary. From the age of 60, Hillier has resided at the

almshouse An almshouse (also known as a bede-house, poorhouse, or hospital) is charitable housing provided to people in a particular community, especially during the Middle Ages. They were often built for the poor of a locality, for those who had held ce ...

of the

Hospital of St Cross The Hospital of St Cross and Almshouse of Noble Poverty is a medieval almshouse in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It has been described as "England's oldest and most perfect almshouse". Most of the buildings and grounds are open to the publ ...

Winchester Winchester (, ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city in Hampshire, England. The city lies at the heart of the wider City of Winchester, a local government Districts of England, district, at the western end of the South Downs N ...

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, having an appreciation for the architecture reminiscent of his time at Oxford.

Betjeman letter hoax

In August 2006 a rival biography of Betjeman was published by A. N. Wilson. It was later discovered to contain a hoax letter, purportedly by Betjeman, but actually containing an

acrostic An acrostic is a poem or other word composition in which the ''first'' letter (or syllable, or word) of each new line (or paragraph, or other recurring feature in the text) spells out a word, message or the alphabet. The term comes from the Fre ...

insulting Wilson. The letter had been sent to Wilson by "Eve de Harben", an anagram of "Ever been had?", and the first letters of each sentence, beginning with the second sentence, spelled out the message "A. N. Wilson is a shit." Hillier was an immediate suspect for the

literary forgery Literary forgery (also known as literary mystification, literary fraud or literary hoax) is writing, such as a manuscript or a literary work, which is either deliberately misattributed to a historical or invented author, or is a purported memoir ...

: the ''

Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' article revealing the hoax was accompanied by a prominent picture of Hillier and noted that an envelope containing a letter supposedly from de Harben to the newspaper had been bought in

, his home town. Hillier initially denied responsibility, but soon admitted that he had written the letter. He explained that he had been angered by Wilson's negative review of the second volume of his biography of Betjeman, and by pre-publication publicity for Wilson's own biography.

Bibliography

Books

* ''

'' (Studio Vista/Dutton Picturebacks, 1968) * ''Pottery and Porcelain 1700–1914: England, Europe and North America'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1968) ; "The Social History of the Decorative Arts" series * ''Posters'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1969) * ''100 Years of Posters'' (Pall Mall Press, 1972) * ''Victorian Studio Photographs: Unique Portraits of the Makers of the High Victorian Age. From the Collections of Studio Bassano and

Elliott & Fry Elliott & Fry was a Victorian era, Victorian photography studio founded in 1863 by Joseph John Elliott and Clarence Edmund Fry. For a century, the firm's core business was taking and publishing photographs of the Victorian public and social, arti ...

, London'' (Ash & Grant, 1975) * ''The Decorative Arts of the Forties and Fifties: Austerity/Binge'' ( Clarkson N. Potter, 1975) * ''Travel Posters'' (Phaidon, 1976) * ''Bevis Hillier's Pocket Guide to Antiques'' (Mitchell Beazley, 1981) * ''John Betjeman: A Life in Pictures'' (John Murray, 1984) * ''Young Betjeman'' (John Murray, 1988) * ''John Betjeman: New Fame, New Love, 1934–1958'' (John Murray, 2002) * ''Betjeman: The Bonus of Laughter'' (John Murray, 2004) * ''The Virgin's Baby: The Battle of the Ampthill Succession'' (Hopcyn Press, 2013)

Articles

* Review of .

References

External links

Review of the third volume of Hillier's biography of Betjeman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hillier, Bevis 1940 births 20th-century English historians 20th-century English journalists 21st-century English historians 21st-century English journalists Alumni of Magdalen College, Oxford English biographers Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature John Betjeman Literary forgeries Living people Los Angeles Times people People educated at Reigate Grammar School People from Redhill, Surrey