John Edward Curtis Prebble,

FRSL The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

, OBE, (23 June 1915 – 30 January 2001) was an English journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He is known for his books on Scottish history.

Early life

He was born in

Edmonton Edmonton is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. It is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Central Alberta ...

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a Historic counties of England, former county in South East England, now mainly within Greater London. Its boundaries largely followed three rivers: the River Thames, Thames in the south, the River Lea, Le ...

, England, but in 1921 he emigrated with his parents to

Saskatchewan Saskatchewan is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Western Canada. It is bordered on the west by Alberta, on the north by the Northwest Territories, on the east by Manitoba, to the northeast by Nunavut, and to the south by the ...

, Canada, where his father's brother was living. Returning to Edmonton with his family when aged 12, he attended the Latymer School. He joined the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPGB ...

but abandoned it after World War II.

''The High Girders''

He became a journalist in 1934 and served during World War II with the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

. His wartime experiences led to his novels, ''Where the Sea Breaks'' (1944), and ''The Edge of Darkness'', published in 1947. His Canadian prairie experience influenced two of his works, ''The Buffalo Soldier'', a historical novel about the

American West The Western United States (also called the American West, the Western States, the Far West, the Western territories, and the West) is census regions United States Census Bureau As American settlement in the U.S. expanded westward, the mea ...

, specifically, the 10th Cavalry Regiment, and ''Culloden'', about the 1746 battle which resulted in the defeat of the Jacobite uprising. The story of

Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby endi ...

had been part of the family lore when he grew up in the predominantly Scottish township of

Sutherland Sutherland () is a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in the Scottish Highlands, Highlands of Scotland. The name dates from the Scandinavian Scotland, Viking era when t ...

, in rural Saskatchewan. His interest in the American West was also inspired by the fact that part of his family lineage was Native American: his 1958 book, ''My Great-Aunt, Appearing Day, and Other Stories'' tells of a

Cheyenne The Cheyenne ( ) are an Indigenous people of the Great Plains. The Cheyenne comprise two Native American tribes, the Só'taeo'o or Só'taétaneo'o (more commonly spelled as Suhtai or Sutaio) and the (also spelled Tsitsistas, The term for th ...

relative named Appearing Day. One of his first big successes was ''The High Girders'' (1956), a description of the Tay Bridge Disaster, involving the collapse of the first Tay rail bridge to

Dundee Dundee (; ; or , ) is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, fourth-largest city in Scotland. The mid-year population estimate for the locality was . It lies within the eastern central Lowlands on the north bank of the Firt ...

. It has remained a popular work ever since publication. It was the first detailed account of the disaster to expose the many problems encountered during construction of the bridge, and Prebble also made extensive use of the

Board of Trade The Board of Trade is a British government body concerned with commerce and industry, currently within the Department for Business and Trade. Its full title is The Lords of the Committee of the Privy Council appointed for the consideration of ...

Public Inquiry in reviewing the evidence. He included some of the many

photographs A photograph (also known as a photo, or more generically referred to as an ''image'' or ''picture'') is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor. The process and pra ...

made at the time, and which show the extent of devastation of the centre part of the bridge on the night of 28 December 1879. There is still controversy over the detailed causes of the failure, especially the contributions from poor design of the columns using

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

and the storm raging at the time of the fall. However, the original conclusions of the Inquiry still stand. It found that the bridge fell owing to "bad design, bad construction and bad maintenance".

''Fire and Sword Trilogy''

The ''Fire and Sword Trilogy'' is about the fall of the

Scottish clan A Scottish clan (from Scottish Gaelic , literally 'children', more broadly 'kindred') is a kinship group among the Scottish people. Clans give a sense of shared heritage and descent to members, and in modern times have an official structure r ...

system. ''Culloden'' was the first book and it chronicles the defeat of the clans in one pivotal battle. The two other works were ''The Highland Clearances'' (1963) and ''Glencoe'' (1966). ''Glencoe'' was a study of the causes and effects of the Glencoe massacre in 1692, when government soldiers and members of the Campbell Clan attacked and killed members of Clan Donald who lived in Glencoe, a remote glen in the west highlands of Scotland. The book focuses on the political machinations to bring the unruly MacDonalds to heel, both by King William and by Scots with ambitions in royal circles. The massacre was notorious, both then and now, for the Campbells had abused the hospitality of the MacDonalds who had given them food and lodgings for several days before. His later works, ''Mutiny'' (1975) and ''The King's Jaunt'' (1988) would extend the theme. ''The Highland Clearances'' remains one of his best known works perhaps because the subject of the

Highland clearances The Highland Clearances ( , the "eviction of the Gaels") were the evictions of a significant number of tenants in the Scottish Highlands and Islands, mostly in two phases from 1750 to 1860. The first phase resulted from Scottish Agricultural R ...

as a discrete historical event remains a subject of debate. Historian Tom Devine credits Prebble with tackling "an important and controversial subject" which was being largely ignored at the time by academic historians – the first comprehensive history of the clearances to be produced by a professional historian was published in 1982, some 19 years after Prebble brought the subject to attention. However, Devine also lists some of the defects of Prebble's ''Highland Clearances'' as a work of history. Prebble makes a case that there was a conscious effort to remove Highlanders and Islanders from Scotland. Others argue that it was purely economic and social factors which led to the population decline in rural Scotland. The historiographer royal in Scotland, Gordon Donaldson, was particularly cutting in his criticism and declared Prebble's books to be "utter rubbish". Prebble's obituary in the ''

Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was foun ...

'' said "he was often accused of ignoring economic factors in his analysis of social change, but his books, though unashamedly partisan, were based on thorough research". Tom Devine reports the opinion of historians that Prebble's ''Highland Clearances'' was under-researched and lacking in critical perspective. Devine takes the view that Prebble relies extensively on the late 19th century accounts of the Clearances, (much of that being highly partisan or politically motivated), with no evidence of any original research.

Other media

His short story ''My Great-Aunt Appearing Day,'' first published in 1952 in '' Lilliput'' magazine, became the basis of the 1955 film ''

White Feather The white feather is a widely recognised propaganda symbol. The white feather was most prominently used in the 'White Feather Movement, white feather movement' in Britain during the First World War, in which women gave white feathers to non-en ...

''. He wrote an article entitled "Slaughter in the Sun" for ''Lilliput'' in 1958, on which the film '' Zulu'' (1964) would be based, co-written by Prebble and the director,

Cy Endfield Cyril Raker Endfield (November 10, 1914 – April 16, 1995) was an American film director, who at times also worked as a writer, theatre director, and inventor. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, he worked in the New York theatre in the late 1930s ...

. He contributed to television on the limited serials '' The Six Wives of Henry VIII'' (1970), '' Elizabeth R'' (1971) and '' The Borgias'' (1981). He also wrote radio dramas and documentaries for the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. They were usually, but not always, based on his published works. For example, in 1977, he wrote an adaptation of

John Buchan John Buchan, 1st Baron Tweedsmuir (; 26 August 1875 – 11 February 1940) was a Scottish novelist, historian, British Army officer, and Unionist politician who served as Governor General of Canada, the 15th since Canadian Confederation. As a ...

's '' The Three Hostages''.

Personal

He was married to the artist Betty (Golby) Prebble. He had a daughter, Sarah Prebble, and two sons, Jolyon and actor and narrator Simon Prebble. His first wife died in 1993 and he married his long-term mistress Jan Reid in 1994.

Publications include

Fiction

* ''Where the Sea Breaks'', Secker & Warburg, 1944 * ''Edge of Darkness'', Secker and Warburg, 1947 * ''Age without Pity'', Secker & Warburg, 1950 * ''The Brute Streets'', Secker & Warburg, 1954 * ''The Mather Story'', Secker & Warburg, 1954 * ''My Great-Aunt, Appearing Day, And Other Stories'', Secker and Warburg, 1958 * ''The Buffalo Soldiers'', New York Harcourt, Brace & Company, 1959 * ''Spanish Stirrup, and other stories'', Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1973

History

* ''Disaster at Dundee'', Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1956 (also published as ''High Girders: The Tay Bridge Disaster, 1879'', Secker and Warburg, 1975) * ''Culloden'', Secker & Warburg, 1961 * ''The Highland Clearances'', Secker & Warburg, 1963 * ''Glencoe: The Story of the Massacre'', Secker & Warburg, 1966 * ''The Lion in the North: A Personal View of Scotland's History'', Penguin Books, 1973, * ''Darien: The Scottish Dream of Empire'' (also published as ''Darien: A Scots Colony in the New World, 1698–1700''), 1968, about the Darien scheme * ''Mutiny: Highland Regiments in Revolt, 1743–1804'', 1975, * ''The Borgias'' (with Sarah Bradford), 1981 * ''The King's Jaunt: George IV in Scotland, August, 1822'', Birlinn Limited, Edinburgh, 2000, (originally published in 1988)

Other books

* ''Elephants and Ivory: True Tales of Hunting and Adventure'', John Alfred Jordan (as told to John Prebble); also published as ''Mongaso Man Who Is Always Moving: The Story of an African Hunter John Alfred Jordan'' (1956) * ''John Prebble's Scotland'', Secker & Warburg, 1984, * ''Landscapes and Memories, An Intermittent Autobiography'', Harper Collins, London, 1993

Films

* '' Culloden'', BBC documentary, 1964 written by Prebble and directed by

Peter Watkins Peter Watkins (born 29 October 1935) is an English filmmaker, documentarian, writer, and Film theory, film theorist. He is known as a pioneer of the docudrama and the mockumentary genres, typically with heavy political content. His films presen ...

. * '' Zulu'', screenplay

Honours and awards

(1963) * OBE (1998)

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prebble, John British Army personnel of World War II British expatriates in Canada English male journalists English communists English male screenwriters People from Edmonton, London British rail transport writers Royal Artillery soldiers Writers from the London Borough of Enfield 1915 births 2001 deaths People educated at The Latymer School English male novelists 20th-century English novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature 20th-century English male writers 20th-century English screenwriters Officers_of_the_Order_of_the_British_Empire