Much has been written of D.H. Lawrence’s time in Cornwall, but one writer has a unique insight into the period, and a unique story to tell. For the past few years, Rebecca Matthews has been researching and writing an account of Lawrence’s time in a small rural cottage in Zennor, and of the unlikely relationship he struck up with a local farmer, William Henry Hocking. As she explains, her mission is to finally give William Henry, her great grandather, a voice…
"I remember the first time I read D.H. Lawrence. As I was growing up, there had been the odd muttering of his name in family circles, followed by the mention of my great grandfather, William Henry Hocking. But I had never paid much attention. The only writers that interested me at the time were Enid Blyton and Jill Murphy, and my great grandfather was another faceless ancestor, dead and buried.
Then I became a teenager. As I became aware of Lawrence’s place amongst the eminent figures of English literature, I developed an insatiable appetite to find out about more about this notorious writer and his relationship with my family.
I discovered that William Henry Hocking and Lawrence developed a great friendship while the writer was living in Zennor during 1916-17. Lawrence lived in the cottage across the field from the Hocking family farm, Tregerthen, with his wife, Frieda. During those difficult war years, the farmer and the writer developed a close bond - Lawrence even helped out on the farm - and the experience obviously left an indelible impression on Lawrence’s mind, prompting him to write about William Henry in his letters; he even fictionalised the Hocking family in his novel Kangaroo.
My English literature degree fuelled my interest in Lawrence. Inspired by letters in which he had actually recorded the words of William Henry, I adapted them into short stories for my Creative Writing modules. This would be the first step to writing my novel. Eager to know more, I spoke to my grandmother - William Henry’s daughter - and she spoke quite openly and fondly of her father and the community in Zennor.
Family research
I was conscious that the subject of Lawrence could be a contentious one when approaching members of the family – not only due to potential wariness of his reputation, but largely due to the claims of some American biographers of Lawrence who had approached them. William Henry’s surviving children, my great aunts and uncles, still live on farms along the same stretch of the coast where they grew up.
Henry Hocking was particularly close to his father, having spent much time working on the farm alongside him, and he loves to recall tales his father told him about his youth and life on the farm. He knows little of William Henry’s friendship with Lawrence – it appears that he seldom spoke of his ‘brush with greatness’. I have always approached these conversations with a level of caution, and find that, in avoiding the subject of Lawrence, I inevitably glean some precious nuggets of information about William Henry. He struck me as a fascinating character and I was determined to unearth exactly what it was about him that appealed to Lawrence.
From research to writing
Lawrence’s writings suggest he was a deep thinker of untutored intelligence, a rather restless soul, yearning for some great adventure in life. I started writing my novel during spring 2004, as part of my Postgraduate Diploma in Professional Writing at University College Falmouth. Combining my personal interest with a desire to write fiction, as well as an awareness of the global market for Lawrence-related literature, writing this novel seemed like a logical step to take. It is not the first time this period has been explored in fiction. Unlike Helen Dunmore’s Zennor in Darkness, where Lawrence and Frieda’s wartime experiences are interwoven with the story of a fictional character, my novel takes William Henry as its starting point and inspiration. As his great-granddaughter, I feel I have the authority and a unique perspective to delve into his struggle, and adapt it for fiction.
Untitled as of yet, the novel is an imagined account of William Henry’s life during the time that Lawrence was living in Zennor. Taking the restlessness that Lawrence observed as the main theme, it is a portrait of a community bearing the hardships caused by a distant war and a farmer caught in a conflict between the pressure of generations and the life he yearns for.
My grandmother died before I embarked upon the project, so I turned to Henry for my research. As I spoke to him and he delighted in telling his tales, I built a clearer picture of my great grandfather and the vibrant community of Zennor during the early twentieth century. There were some wonderful stories about the practical jokes and pranks he had staged, which inspired some comic sequences for my novel and added colour to the character of William Henry that was forming in my mind. Beyond Lawrence’s writings and biographical accounts of his experiences in Cornwall, my other sources of inspiration have included library and radio archives. Issues of The Cornishman from 1916-17 have provided the local news of the time and reports from farmer’s markets, as well as the latest reports of the war – global events that were having a direct impact on life in Cornwall.
I have spent much time in Zennor, which, quite fortunately, has seen little change in the 80 years that have lapsed. Local books – both historical and fictional – and old photographs have added authenticity, but my experience of growing up in a Cornish farming community has been my most valuable resource, providing me with the characters and details that bring the story alive.
Two years on, the novel is nearing completion. My aim in writing it - other than producing a good read - is to give William Henry a voice. So much has been speculated upon and I am quite determined to convey what an intriguing, intelligent, deep-thinking and fun-loving character he was, and why a great mind - like Lawrence - would have been fascinated by him."
