SOMETHING IN THE WATER...

The sun sets behind Hythe Pier, as the little train meanders its erratic way from the shore to the pier head where the ferry leaves for Southampton and the waves of Southampton Water lap gently in the evening breeze.

Hythe has a few claims to fame. The inventor of the hovercraft, Sir Christopher Cockerill, lived and died in Hythe. T. E. Lawrence (of Arabia) lived in the village from 1931 to 1932. He was then known as T. E. Shaw and he lodged in Myrtle Cottage at the junction of St John Street and Shore Road. My old school friend, William Scammell, a leading UK poet, critic and biographer, was born in Hythe in 1939. The author and ship historian, David Ellery, is based at Hythe. The adventurer and TV Presenter, Bruce Parry, was born 17 March 1969, in Hythe and, of course, the reknowned blogger, golfing fantasist and former midfield dynamo, Snopper, spent his boyhood days in that village between the forest and the sea.

And it`s high time that the name of Michael Scammell, William`s brother, was added to the list. I always remember Mike being sent down from the Scammell household in Alexandra Road to retrieve William ("Billy") who spent many happy hours with me playing at the bottom of our garden where the tide lapped in twice a day and we watched the great ocean liners as they came and went to and from all parts of the world. Mike was educated at Nottingham University and obtained his doctorate at New York`s Columbia University, where he is professor of creative writing and the translation of slavic languages. He has just published his long awaited biography of Arthur Koestler, which has been hailed by the Washington Times thus:-

"It takes talent to write about someone else's interesting life in a book that is interesting itself. The biographer would have to be, say, an author, scholar and translator. Such a person could write a biography about an intellectual polyglot, polymath, "journalist, novelist, essayist, autobiographer, and writer of scientific speculations" — and Casanova.
Michael Scammell is such a biographer. His new book on Arthur Koestler (1905-1983) took two decades to complete. He has flushed out details that Koestler himself left out — in some half dozen autobiographies. He shares Koestler's long, convoluted life in a thoroughly enjoyable read. The British-born Mr. Scammell comes with top credentials. Currently, he teaches creative writing and translation at Columbia University. Previously, he chaired the Russian literature department at Cornell. His Solzhenitsyn biography won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and English PEN Nonfiction Prize. Translations from Russian include Nabokov, Dostoevsky, and Tolstoy."

I confess to having badgered the Parish Council in Hythe to start a programme of `blue plaques` to commemorate leading figures associated with Hythe. There are already plaques for Sir Christopher Cockerill, Lawrence and Billy Scammell, so I may have to start badgering again to give Mike the recognition he deserves locally.

One thing`s for sure. They won`t be putting up a plaque for me, especially as the house I lived in has long been demolished and since even I would doubt the legitimacy of a plaque to commemorate a former box to box midfielder with a good engine and an eye for a pass. But there must be something in the Southampton Water for such an abundance of other local talent to emerge.

For more on Mike Scammell, please see http://michaelscammell.com/