George Butterworth: Words, Deeds, and Memory

[Pabmusic]

This is my book, subtitled 'not exactly a biography'. It's about 103,000 words (say 300 pages with pictures). It's now out with 16 readers, including two from here. If anyone else would like to read a draft (actually a mock-up) please PM me. I'd like responses by the end of August.

Please note that I'm asking for serious feedback, including whether I'm talking out of the right orifice.

[Serial_Apologist]

This is my book, subtitled 'not exactly a biography'. It's about 103,000 words (say 300 pages with pictures). It's now out with 16 readers, including two from here. If anyone else would like to read a draft (actually a mock-up) please PM me. I'd like responses by the end of August.

Please note that I'm asking for serious feedback, including whether I'm talking out of the right orifice.

Hi Pabs!

Congratulations on completing your tome! I know how satisfying this can be. I Have to go out now for a few hours, but I was wondering, is this a complete draft, or are you open to judiciously considering "amendments"? (Not that personally I'd have any, you understand!)

[Pabmusic]

Hi Pabs!

... is this a complete draft, or are you open to judiciously considering "amendments"? (Not that personally I'd have any, you understand!)

Yes and yes.

[BBMmk2]

Hi Pabs. Sounds great this. My concentration for reading though, especially a book, has been greatly diminished, in recent years though.

[Lat-Literal]

This is my book, subtitled 'not exactly a biography'. It's about 103,000 words (say 300 pages with pictures). It's now out with 16 readers, including two from here. If anyone else would like to read a draft (actually a mock-up) please PM me. I'd like responses by the end of August.

Please note that I'm asking for serious feedback, including whether I'm talking out of the right orifice.

George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC if I am not mistaken.

Congratulations, PAB, on completing the draft. It must be immensely satisfying. I won't have anything useful to offer and will have much to learn from the published version.

[Pabmusic]

George Sainton Kaye Butterworth, MC if I am not mistaken...

Yes indeed. His name's a bit complicated. His given names were George (strong family name) and Sainton (mother's choice,after her teacher Prosper Sainton). His father had already added his own mother's maiden name of Kaye, but he never hyphenated it. He was Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth, General Manager of the NER.

At Aysgarth and Eton, George was G S Kaye-Butterworth, also in the army from the time he became an officer. However, George always styled himself George Butterworth or G S K Butterworth, including when he volunteered as a Private. He was an only child.

[Lat-Literal]

Yes indeed. His name's a bit complicated. His given names were George (strong family name) and Sainton (mother's choice,after her teacher Prosper Sainton). His father had already added his own mother's maiden name of Kaye, but he never hyphenated it. He was Sir Alexander Kaye Butterworth, General Manager of the NER.

At Aysgarth and Eton, George was G S Kaye-Butterworth, also in the army from the time he became an officer. However, George always styled himself George Butterworth or G S K Butterworth, including when he volunteered as a Private. He was an only child.

Interesting - and yes, I knew he was an only child which means his early passing would have had a significant but different impact compared with one family local to me who lost four of their five in that war. There are a number of books on the supposed traits of only children which may be of interest to you given that you have made that point especially. I used to own one. Some of it rang true. Other parts didn't. It is a bit like astrology. If you want to accept the connections, you will see more of them. I preferred instead to go by my own experience.

In general terms, I have not always got on especially well with other only children. As with anything, there are exceptions. But I tend to need people who take the edges off a bit by being for "everyone just mixing in and not thinking about it". At the same time, they have tended to be a bit distinctive in themselves by being by far the oldest or the youngest in their families. It can sometimes give folk just a tad more sensitivity. I don't know whether that would be revealed in Butterworth's friendships or not so but it might be worth considering.

[EdgeleyRob]

Congratulations, PAB, on completing the draft. It must be immensely satisfying. I won't have anything useful to offer and will have much to learn from the published version.

Congrats from me too Pabs,I am in the same boat as Lat

[Pabmusic]

... I don't know whether that would be revealed in Butterworth's friendships or not so but it might be worth considering.

Good stuff, Lat. His childhood and youth at boarding schools and university probably meant that he'd have been less conscious of being an only child, of course, but the last three chapters of the book look at his friendships and personality in depth.

He never seems to have gone home very often during holiday times. He'd often stay with friends such as Dan Macmillan (Harold's elder brother) or Timmy Jekyll (Gertrude Jekyll's nephew). At university he'd spend much of the vacations song-collecting. And he didn't return to live at the family home till 1911.