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The Littlehampton Saga
Comprises Lancaster's 'Saracen's Head', 'Drayneflete Revealed' and 'The Littlehampton Bequest'.
- GenresHumor
236 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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About the author
Osbert Lancaster
129 books5 followersBorn in London, Osbert Lancaster was educated at St Ronan's School, and then at Charterhouse and Lincoln College, Oxford.
He graduated with a fourth-class degree in English after an extra year beyond the normal three years of study. Intending a career in law, he failed his bar exams and instead entered the Slade School of Art in London.
Lancaster initially worked alongside Betjeman at 'The Architectural Review'. In 1936 he published 'Progress at Pelvis Bay', the first of his many books of social and architectural satire.
In 1939 he became cartoonist at the Daily Express, where he pioneered the Pocket Cartoon, a single-panel, single-column topical drawing appearing on the front page, since imitated in several British newspapers. In these he sympathetically mocked the British upper classes, personified by his characters William (8th Earl of Littlehampton, formerly Viscount Draynflete) and his wife Maudie.
During his Express career Lancaster drew some 10,000 cartoons over a period of 40 years.
During World War II, he worked in press censorship, then in Greece as a Foreign Office press attaché. During the war years his cartoons provided comic relief from the privations of rationing and bombing raids.
He received a knighthood and his other honours included a CBE in 1953 and an honorary DLitt from Oxford, as well as honorary degrees from Birmingham (1964), Newcastle upon Tyne (1970), and St Andrews (1974).
He was married twice, first, to Karen Elizabeth Harris, daughter of Sir Austen Harris, with whom he had a son, William and a daughter and second, after Karen died in 1964, to the journalist Anne Scott-James, whom he married in 1967 and who became his widow.
He died of natural causes, aged 77, in Chelsea. The obituary in The Times summed up his career with "The most polite and unsplenetic of cartoonists, he was never a crusader, remaining always a witty, civilized critic with a profound understanding of the vagaries of human nature." He is buried at West Winch, Norfolk.
His drawings and cartoons were the subject of an exhibition marking the centenary of his birth, entitled 'Cartoons and Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster' at The Wallace Collection from October 2008 to January 2009. Curated by James Knox and supported by the John R. Murray Charitable Trust of John Murray (publisher), it coincided with the publication of a new biography with the same title as the exhibition.
He graduated with a fourth-class degree in English after an extra year beyond the normal three years of study. Intending a career in law, he failed his bar exams and instead entered the Slade School of Art in London.
Lancaster initially worked alongside Betjeman at 'The Architectural Review'. In 1936 he published 'Progress at Pelvis Bay', the first of his many books of social and architectural satire.
In 1939 he became cartoonist at the Daily Express, where he pioneered the Pocket Cartoon, a single-panel, single-column topical drawing appearing on the front page, since imitated in several British newspapers. In these he sympathetically mocked the British upper classes, personified by his characters William (8th Earl of Littlehampton, formerly Viscount Draynflete) and his wife Maudie.
During his Express career Lancaster drew some 10,000 cartoons over a period of 40 years.
During World War II, he worked in press censorship, then in Greece as a Foreign Office press attaché. During the war years his cartoons provided comic relief from the privations of rationing and bombing raids.
He received a knighthood and his other honours included a CBE in 1953 and an honorary DLitt from Oxford, as well as honorary degrees from Birmingham (1964), Newcastle upon Tyne (1970), and St Andrews (1974).
He was married twice, first, to Karen Elizabeth Harris, daughter of Sir Austen Harris, with whom he had a son, William and a daughter and second, after Karen died in 1964, to the journalist Anne Scott-James, whom he married in 1967 and who became his widow.
He died of natural causes, aged 77, in Chelsea. The obituary in The Times summed up his career with "The most polite and unsplenetic of cartoonists, he was never a crusader, remaining always a witty, civilized critic with a profound understanding of the vagaries of human nature." He is buried at West Winch, Norfolk.
His drawings and cartoons were the subject of an exhibition marking the centenary of his birth, entitled 'Cartoons and Coronets: The Genius of Osbert Lancaster' at The Wallace Collection from October 2008 to January 2009. Curated by James Knox and supported by the John R. Murray Charitable Trust of John Murray (publisher), it coincided with the publication of a new biography with the same title as the exhibition.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
January 3, 2017
Description: Comprises Lancaster's 'Saracen's Head', 'Drayneflete Revealed' and 'The Littlehampton Bequest'.
August 20, 2024
Trigger warning/Health warning...
In order to appreciate or understand the book it is probably necessary to have a good understanding of history AND, probably, to have been born pre, say, 1970.
This book is an Omnibus of three separate titles - The Saracen's Head, Drayneflete Revealed and The Littlehampton Bequest. The first two were originally published in the later 1940s and the latter in 1973. The concept is a highly satirical, imaginary, history of the Courantsdair family and their rise in society across almost a century. The final section is a 'catalogue' of family portraits 'in the style' of the various leading artists of each period.
All very clever but...
The earliest volume, as the title implies, deals with the family's involvement with the Crusades and there are references both in the text and in the accompanying cartoon-style illustrations which are probably not suitable for a modern audience. The second title is an antiquarian-style history of the village/town of Drayneflete, the ancestral seat of the Courantsdair family, and also charts the rise in fortune of the family across the centuries. Again there are references which are not 'politically-correct' by modern standards
Probably due to its more recent publication date, the final section is rather less controversial, but some younger readers (or those of a particularly nervous disposition) might also find distasteful.
Being of more advanced years and being a historian and (probably) having a rather warped sense of humour, I enjoyed most of the content in the spirit that it was originally intended, but the book is probably best avoided by younger or more sensitive readers
In order to appreciate or understand the book it is probably necessary to have a good understanding of history AND, probably, to have been born pre, say, 1970.
This book is an Omnibus of three separate titles - The Saracen's Head, Drayneflete Revealed and The Littlehampton Bequest. The first two were originally published in the later 1940s and the latter in 1973. The concept is a highly satirical, imaginary, history of the Courantsdair family and their rise in society across almost a century. The final section is a 'catalogue' of family portraits 'in the style' of the various leading artists of each period.
All very clever but...
The earliest volume, as the title implies, deals with the family's involvement with the Crusades and there are references both in the text and in the accompanying cartoon-style illustrations which are probably not suitable for a modern audience. The second title is an antiquarian-style history of the village/town of Drayneflete, the ancestral seat of the Courantsdair family, and also charts the rise in fortune of the family across the centuries. Again there are references which are not 'politically-correct' by modern standards
Probably due to its more recent publication date, the final section is rather less controversial, but some younger readers (or those of a particularly nervous disposition) might also find distasteful.
Being of more advanced years and being a historian and (probably) having a rather warped sense of humour, I enjoyed most of the content in the spirit that it was originally intended, but the book is probably best avoided by younger or more sensitive readers
October 25, 2017
Having known Lancaster as purely a cartoonist, it was a glorious surprise to read The Littlehampton Saga. I admit to not having yet read The Saracen's Head, but Drayneflete Revealed and The Littlehampton Bequest are absolute gems. The humour is sometimes sparkling, sometimes incredibly dry, but always there. The scholarliness of Drayneflete Revealed, in particular is wonderful. Apparently the idea for this came from a lecture by architect and historian Sir John Summerson, and it illustrates (in both senses) the development of the town of Drayneflete from the Bronze Age to the 1940s. The combination of humour and scholarliness (Lord Littlehampton's Folly is genius) is, to my mind, almost unparalleled.
Lancaster's cartoons are well known, but his potted history of western art, as given in the Littlehampton Bequest, is, once again, superb. To have someone such as Sir Roy Strong writing a foreward to a humorous book says much.
Having read two-thirds of the book, my only comment is why has it taken me so long to discover these gems.
Lancaster's cartoons are well known, but his potted history of western art, as given in the Littlehampton Bequest, is, once again, superb. To have someone such as Sir Roy Strong writing a foreward to a humorous book says much.
Having read two-thirds of the book, my only comment is why has it taken me so long to discover these gems.
August 30, 2007
Comprised of The Saracen's Head, Drayneflete Revealed, and The Littlehampton Bequest, this droll book chronicles the lives and misfortunes of the Littlehamptons of Drayneflete. While it's a tad hard to explain, Lancaster traces the family lineage waaay back and the joke is that more or less the same prototypes appear throughout the ages. He also pokes fun at the sort of local history that is written about virtually every English village of any age -- you have to have a familiarity with this sort of thing to see how wonderfully his send up is of the various ages -- Roman, Medieval, and so on.
While his commentary is tongue-in-cheek humorous, it's his illustrations that really make this saga incomparable. There's always some detail that produces giggles when each drawing is looked at closely... or even not so closely. A running joke in this series is a one-legged beggar who appears (identically) in the illustrations for Roman Drayneflete, Drayneflete after the Norman Conquest, 15th Century Drayneflete, Drayneflete at the end of the 17th century, and so on.
Lancaster was something of an architectural authority, and he uses this knowledge to comic effect in his illustrations. He could be describing most any High Street in England, really, or any set of local squires. The chief gag is how accurately he nails both architectural and cultural pretensions -- but at heart you just know he's fond of the history and society he's lampooning.
While his commentary is tongue-in-cheek humorous, it's his illustrations that really make this saga incomparable. There's always some detail that produces giggles when each drawing is looked at closely... or even not so closely. A running joke in this series is a one-legged beggar who appears (identically) in the illustrations for Roman Drayneflete, Drayneflete after the Norman Conquest, 15th Century Drayneflete, Drayneflete at the end of the 17th century, and so on.
Lancaster was something of an architectural authority, and he uses this knowledge to comic effect in his illustrations. He could be describing most any High Street in England, really, or any set of local squires. The chief gag is how accurately he nails both architectural and cultural pretensions -- but at heart you just know he's fond of the history and society he's lampooning.
January 30, 2010
The three little volumes in the Littlehampton Saga are all smile-inducing books that tell the history of the Littlehampton family and the town of Drayneflete from the prehistoric to the 1940s. Osbert Lancaster not only wrote the dry humor of the text but also illustrated the books and together the writing and drawings are a delight. Knowing a little British history, literature, and art would help with understanding the second and third books, but the Crusading story of the Saracen's Head could be enjoyed without any such pretensions.
August 12, 2009
Good fun
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews