Sir Thomas Willes Chitty, 3rd Baronet (2 March 1926 – 7 March 2014), better known by his

pen name A pen name or nom-de-plume is a pseudonym (or, in some cases, a variant form of a real name) adopted by an author and printed on the title page or by-line of their works in place of their real name. A pen name may be used to make the author's na ...

Thomas Hinde, was a British novelist.

Life

Thomas Chitty was born in

Felixstowe Felixstowe ( ) is a port town and civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England. The estimated population in 2017 was 24,521. The Port of Felixstowe is the largest Containerization, containe ...

Suffolk Suffolk ( ) is a ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Norfolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Essex to the south, and Cambridgeshire to the west. Ipswich is the largest settlement and the county ...

, England, the son of Sir Thomas Henry Willes Chitty, 2nd Baronet, a barrister, and his wife Ethel Constance Gladstone, daughter of Samuel Henry Gladstone. He was educated at

Winchester College Winchester College is an English Public school (United Kingdom), public school (a long-established fee-charging boarding school for pupils aged 13–18) with some provision for day school, day attendees, in Winchester, Hampshire, England. It wa ...

and

University College, Oxford University College, formally The Master and Fellows of the College of the Great Hall of the University commonly called University College in the University of Oxford and colloquially referred to as "Univ", is a Colleges of the University of Oxf ...

. After service in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, he worked briefly for the

Inland Revenue The Inland Revenue was, until April 2005, a department of the British Government responsible for the collection of direct taxation, including income tax, national insurance contributions, capital gains tax, inheritance tax, corporation ta ...

and then for the

Shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

Petroleum Company, before becoming a full-time writer. He became a

baronet A baronet ( or ; abbreviated Bart or Bt) or the female equivalent, a baronetess (, , or ; abbreviation Btss), is the holder of a baronetcy, a hereditary title awarded by the British Crown. The title of baronet is mentioned as early as the 14th ...

on the death of his father in 1955. Chitty married Susan Hopkinson (1929-2021), daughter of the novelist

Antonia White Antonia White (born Eirene Adeline Botting; 31 March 1899 – 10 April 1980) was a British writer and translator, known primarily for ''Frost in May'', a semi-autobiographical novel set in a convent school. It was the first book reissued by Vira ...

, in 1951; the couple remained married until his death in 2014 and had four children. Hinde and his wife, also an author writing under the name Susan Chitty, lived at Bow Cottage,

West Hoathly West Hoathly is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England, located south west of East Grinstead. In the 2001 census 2,121 people, of whom 1,150 were economically active, lived in 813 households. At the 201 ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Surrey to the north, East Sussex to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Hampshire to the west. The largest settlement is Cr ...

, a village on the edge of

Ashdown Forest Ashdown Forest is an ancient area of open heathland occupying the highest sandy ridge-top of the High Weald National Landscape. It is situated south of London in the county East Sussex, England. Rising to an elevation of above sea level, its ...

in the

High Weald High may refer to: Science and technology * Height * High (atmospheric), a high-pressure area * High (computability), a quality of a Turing degree, in computability theory * High (tectonics), in geology an area where relative tectonic uplift to ...

Pseudonym

The surname Hinde belonged to Chitty's family history on his mother's side. Samuel Henry Gladstone (1853–1932) was son of Robert Gladstone, the younger (1811–1872), of Highfield, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, a member of the Liverpool Gladstone family. Robert Gladstone married in 1852 Anne Mary Hinde, daughter of Samuel Hinde of Lancaster; and after her death another Miss Hinde, a cousin of his first wife.

Works

His first novel, ''Mr Nicholas'', was published in 1953. His second, ''Happy As Larry'', the story of a disaffected, unemployable, aspiring writer with a failed marriage, led critics to associate him with the Angry Young Men movement. An excerpt from ''Happy As Larry'' appeared in the popular paperback anthology, ''Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men''. Hinde published thirteen further novels before turning to non-fiction. After 1980, he also published books on English stately homes and gardens, English court life, and the forests of Britain, as well as histories of English schools.

Bibliography

Novels

*''Mr. Nicholas'' (1953) *''Happy as Larry'' (1958) *''For the Good of the Company'' (1961) *''A Place Like Home'' (1962) *''The Cage'' (1962) *''Ninety Double Martinis'' (1963) *''The Day the Call Came'' (1964) *''Games of Chance: The Interviewer, The Investigator'' (1965) *''The Village'' (1966) *''High'' (1968) *''Bird'' (1970) *''Generally a Virgin'' (1972) *''Agent'' (1974) *''Our Father'' (1975) *''Daymare'' (1980)

Nonfiction

*''Spain A Personal Anthology'' 1963 (Newnes) *''On Next to Nothing: A Guide to Survival Today'' (1976, with Susan Chitty) *''The Great Donkey Walk'' (1977, with Susan Chitty) *''The Cottage Book: A Manual of Maintenance, Repair, and Construction'' (1979) *''Sir Henry and Sons: A Memoir'' (1980) *''A Field Guide to the English Country Parson'' (1983) *''Stately Gardens of Britain'' (1983) *''Forests of Britain'' (1985) *''Just Chicken'' (1986, with Cordelia Chitty) *''Capability Brown: The Story of a Master Gardener'' (1987) *''Courtiers: 900 Years of English Court Life'' (1986) *''Tales from the Pump Room: Nine Hundred Years of Bath: The Place, Its People, and Its Gossip'' (1988) *''Imps of Promise: A History of the King's School, Canterbury'' (1990) *''Paths of Progress: A History of Marlborough College'' (1992) *''Highgate School: A History'' (1993) *''The Martlet and the Griffen: An Illustrated History of Abingdon School''(1997, With Michael St John Parker)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hinde, Thomas 1926 births 2014 deaths People from Felixstowe People educated at Winchester College Alumni of University College, Oxford Baronets in the Baronetage of the United Kingdom English male novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English male writers Chitty family