Adrian Bell

Adrian Bell (1901-1980), the son of a newspaper editor, was born in London and educated at Uppingham School in Rutland. At the age of 19 he went off to the countryside in Hundon, Suffolk to learn about farming. He then farmed in various locations for the next sixty years, including the rebuilding of a near derelict 89 acre smallholding at Redisham, near Beccles. Out of his early experiences came the book Corduroy, published in 1930. Bell's friend, the author and poet Edmund Blunden, advised him and helped secure his first publishing deal. Corduroy was an immediate best-seller and was followed by two more books on the countryside, Silver Ley in 1931 and The Cherry Tree in 1932. The three books form a farm trilogy. Bell wrote the Countryman?s Notebook column in the Eastern Daily Press from 1950, and produced over twenty other books on the countryside, including Apple Acre (1942), Sunrise to Sunset (1944), The Budding Morrow (1946), The Flower and the Wheel (1949), Music in the Morning, (1954), A Suffolk Harvest (1956), the autobiographical My Own Master (1961) and The Green Bond (1976).

Related Topics:
1901 - 1980 - Uppingham School - Rutland - Suffolk - Beccles - Corduroy - 1930 - Edmund Blunden - Silver Ley - 1931 - The Cherry Tree - 1932 - Countryman?s Notebook - Eastern Daily Press

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Bell was also the first compiler of The Times Crossword, which first appeared in the weekly edition on 2 January 1930, and is credited as helping to establish its distinctive cryptic style. He set around 5,000 puzzles between 1930 and 1978. His son, Martin Bell, is a well-known BBC journalist and was an independent Member of Parliament between 1997 and 2001. Things that Endure, a half-hour BBC radio documentary on Adrian Bell presented by Martin Bell, was broadcast on September 2, 2005 on Radio 4.

Related Topics:
The Times Crossword - 2 January - 1930 - 1978 - Martin Bell - BBC - Member of Parliament - Radio 4

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Ann Lynda Gander has written a biography: Adrian Bell, Voice of the Countryside (Holm Oak Publishing, 2001). There is also an Adrian Bell Society.

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