Nigel Balchin

Nigel Marlin Balchin (3 December 1908 – 17 May 1970)Peter Rowland, "Balchin, Nigel Marlin (1908–1970)", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, Sept 2004; online edn, accessed 9 December 2008 was an English psychologist and author, particularly known for his novels written during and immediately after World War II: '' Darkness Falls from the Air'', '' The Small Back Room'' and ''Mine Own Executioner''.

Life

Balchin was born on 3 December 1908 in Potterne, Wiltshire, the third and last child of William Edwin Balchin (1872–1958), a baker and teashop proprietor, later grocer, and Ada (née Curtis), the daughter of a railway guard. His paternal grandfather, George Marlin Balchin (1830–1898), was a farmer of 800 acres from a long line of wealthy Surrey farmers in Milford. George Balchin moved during the 1870s to Reading to become a Storekeeper. but his sudden decision in 1887 to cease work on his farm had a negative impact on the Balchin family's subsequent finances.

At the age of eighteen months, Balchin knocked over a kettle of scalding water, and was so badly burned that he was not expected to survive. He was educated at Dauntsey's School and Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he took a scholarship and became a Prizeman in Natural Sciences. He then worked for the National Institute of Industrial Psychology between 1930 and 1935. For part of this time he was a consultant to JS Rowntree & Sons, where he was involved in the design and marketing of Black Magic chocolates and, he claimed, responsible for the success of the company's Aero and Kit Kat brands.

During World War II he was a civil servant at the Ministry of Food, and then, on the basis of his pioneering work on personnel selection and scientific research, using early computers, appointed Deputy Scientific Adviser to the Army Council, being promoted to the rank of brigadier at the early age of thirty-six. With that and the film of his semi-autobiographical novel '' The Small Back Room'', he became regarded as a prototypical boffin. On 29 October 1954, he was the celebrity castaway on ''Desert Island Discs''. In 1956, he moved abroad to write screenplays in Hollywood, Italy and elsewhere, but was increasingly troubled by alcoholism, and returned permanently to England in 1962. He wrote about the changes in his home village of Potterne and nearby areas on a revisit for ''The Sunday Times Magazine's'' Return Journey series published on 6 August 1964. Balchin said "for me, perhaps the strongest formative influence in my early years was Salisbury Plain, itself. I thought, and still think, that those bare windswept chalk downs were one of the most beautiful places in the world . . . . Certainly, they gave me a love of space and tumbling wind nda liking for big sweeping views . . .".

Family

Balchin was married twice.

Firstly, on 21 January 1933 at Chelsea, to Elisabeth Evelyn Walshe, daughter of the novelist Douglas Walshe, whom he had met at Cambridge where she was reading English, archaeology and anthropology at Newnham. Their children were:
#Prudence Ann Balchin (1934–2004), who married ''Z-Cars'' scriptwriter John Hopkins (1931–1998) and ran a zoo for many years.
#Penelope Jane Balchin (born 1937), better known as childcare expert Dr Penelope Leach, who married the science journalist Gerald Leach (1933–2004).
#Freja Mary Balchin (born 1944), who became the first female president of Cambridge University's theatre group and married Professor Richard Gregory (1923–2010), a psychologist.

His first marriage broke up following a partner-swapping arrangement between the Balchins, the artist Michael Ayrton and the latter's partner Joan. Elisabeth also had an affair with the composer Christian Darnton. Balchin divorced Elisabeth in 1951 and she married Ayrton a year later. Balchin included an unflattering caricature of Darnton as the poet Stephen Ryle in his novel ''Darkness Falls from the Air'' (1942).

Secondly, in February 1953 at Marylebone, he married Yovanka (later Jane) Zorana Tomich. They had two children:
#Charles Zoran Marlin Balchin (born 1955), who held senior roles at the BBC, Sky Sports and various overseas broadcasters.
# Cassandra Marlin Balchin (1962–2012),GRO Register of Births: JUN 1962 5d 261 PADDINGTON – Cassandra M. Balchin, mmn = Tomich an authority on women's rights under Islamic law.

He died on 17 May 1970 at a nursing home in Hampstead, London, and is buried on the edge of the north path in Hampstead Cemetery in north London. His gravestone is small, but distinctive, having the form of an open book.

Ancestors

Writing

Balchin wrote articles for '' Punch'' and ''The Aeroplane'' magazine, and published three non-fiction books as Mark Spade.

He also wrote novels under his own name, and enjoyed great popular success for a time. '' Darkness Falls from the Air'' is set during the London Blitz and was written while the bombing was still in progress. '' The Small Back Room'' became a Powell and Pressburger film of the same title. '' A Way Through the Wood'' was adapted as a stage play, '' Waiting for Gillian'', and as the 2005 film '' Separate Lies'', which marked the directorial debut of Oscar-winning screenwriter Julian Fellowes. Other critically acclaimed Balchin novels include '' A Sort of Traitors'', '' Sundry Creditors'', '' The Fall of the Sparrow'' and '' Seen Dimly before Dawn''.

As a screenwriter he worked on an early draft of ''Cleopatra'' but is principally remembered for ''The Man Who Never Was'', for which he won the 1957 BAFTA Award for Best British Screenplay, and '' Mandy'', the story of a deaf child. He also wrote the screenplay for '' The Singer Not the Song'' and adapted two of his own novels for the screen.

Bibliography

Magazine Articles by Nigel Balchin

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Non-Fiction Books by Mark Spade

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Novels by Nigel Balchin

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::made into the 1948 film, '' The Small Back Room''
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::made into the 1947 film, ''Mine Own Executioner''
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::made into the 1960 film, ''Suspect''
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::made into the 1954 stage play, '' Waiting for Gillian'', and the 2005 film, '' Separate Lies''
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Screenplays by Nigel Balchin

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Miscellaneous

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:: an anthology including ''God and the Machine'' by Nigel Balchin
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References

Further reading

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External links

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The Nigel Marlin Balchin website
operated by Derek Collett
Balchin Family History Society website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Balchin, Nigel
1908 births
1970 deaths
British Army brigadiers
Military personnel from Wiltshire
British Army brigadiers of World War II
Alumni of Peterhouse, Cambridge
Writers from Wiltshire
People educated at Dauntsey's School
Burials at Hampstead Cemetery
English psychologists
20th-century British psychologists
English civil servants
20th-century English non-fiction writers
20th-century English novelists
English male screenwriters
20th-century English screenwriters
Best British Screenplay BAFTA Award winners



20th-century English male writers
British Army General List officers