The Isle of Wight can proudly boast of its many successful present day authors and interest in literature, with the 2024 Isle of Wight Literary Festival imminent. However in this feature I am taking a look at just some of the literary giants of the past, who had connections to the Island. Perhaps one of the most popular and well-known was J.
B. Priestley, who lived in Billingham Manor, near Chillerton. Priestley was a prolific author with works such as The Good Companions, An Inspector Calls, and Lost Empires, being but a few of his many published books and plays.
J. B. Priestley (Image: David White) Christopher Isherwood (Image: David White) During the Second World War he took to the radio,with a programme called Postscripts which proved very popular, being only second in popularity to Churchill's broadcasts.
Priestly had been married three times, his third wife being Jacquetta Hawkes, a well-known archaeologist of the period. Later in his career he moved to the iconic Brook Hill House at Brook, which has now been turned into luxury flats. Bonchurch Pond, a gift from Henry De Vere Stacpoole (Image: Isle of Wight County Press) Being one of the founding members of CND (Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) he could sometimes be found with another well-known Island resident, the much broadcast historian A.
J. P. Taylor - a leading figure in the campaign.
They would often meet at the Albion Hotel in Freshwater, Priestly drinking his favorite drink “A Dog's Nose” (hot stout, gin .