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The Hayburn Family
The year is 1900, and as the old century ends and Queen Victoria's reign draws to a close. Henry Hayburn wants his son, Robin, to follow in his footsteps and take over the running of the shipyard-but Robin is a determined young man who has other ideas. He wants to be a writer, and the conflicting ambitions of father and son seem destined to end in tragedy ...
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1952
8 people are currently reading
16 people want to read
About the author
Guy McCrone
21 books4 followersGuy Fulton McCrone was born in 1898 in Birkenhead, of Scottish parents.
He was educated at Glasgow and then Cambridge University and after his studies he appears to have gone to Vienna to study singing. He eventually returned to Glasgow where he was very much involved in the musical and theatrical life of the city. He became the first managing director of the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, which was founded in 1943, and his play Alex Goes to Amulree was first performed at the Rutherglen Repertory Theatre in May 1944.
His 1947 novel Red Plush was a Book of the Month Club selection in New York and his Wax Fruit trilogy, the English title of Red Plush, is probably his best known work. His writings were often inspired by his interest in music and the theatre and they all had a Glasgowesque feel to them. The Glasgow Herald wrote of him "McCrone recaptures the atmosphere of the period most effectively."
He moved to the Lake District in 1968 and died there in 1977.
I tracked down an interview he gave in middle age and it went as follows:-
"I was born in Birkenhead, England, in 1898, of Scottish parents. A temporary job had taken my father there, and the household went with him. But I spent my early childhood running in the woods and farmlands of central Ayrshire. I describe this pleasant countryside in my books. It is the Burns country. Our nearest village was Mauchline, where Robert Burns first took up house with his wife, Jean Armour. The poet's haunts are well known to me and his Aryshire Scots is very familiar in my ears.
"I have no illustrious ancestors. But one of my family interests me. He was my grandfather's cousin, a certain John Macrone (writing the name thus) who went to London, established himself at 3, St James Square, became a publisher, encouraged the young Charles Dickens to collect his first newspaper pen sketches, and published them under the Macrone imprint as 'Sketches by Boz'. [Bettie, I knew I recognised the name from somewhere and when I remembered, that is what made me trace some more.]
"I went to school in Glasgow, passing the entrance examination for Cambridge, England, in the middle of World War I. But being ineligible for the army, I went to scrub floors and sell cigarettes in soldiers' YMCA in Normandy and Paris. When the war was ended, I duly went up to the university, where I took a degree in economics as it was intended I should be a business man.
"I began writing after I married in 1931. I had the good fortune to have the script of my first novel read by Michael Sadleir [another of my favourites], himself a distinguished biographer, novelist and publisher. He invited me to London, then tore my work to pieces, neither showing mercy nor predicting a future for it. It was a shattering experience; but I pulled myself together, came home to Glasgow, rewrote my book and sent it back to him. He replied almost at once that he congratulated me on being able to take instruction, that he was pleased with what I had done and would like to publish. It was on Sadleir's suggestion that I wrote a trilogy, 'Red Plush', which was chosen as Book-of-the-Month in New York for December 1947.
"People have asked me why I continue to write almost exclusively about my own kind of people, my own city of Glasgow and the countryside in which I was reared [shades of John Buchan]. Here is my reason. I had not gone far with the study of the novel before I saw that a novelist, especially if he has a recording talent and not a talent for fantasy, writes best about the place that has been his home; that is, the home of his childhood and adolescence. I found endless examples of this among other writers. I believe in travel and wide horizons, of course. But in the end these mostly serve only to pur the novelist's home background into the right proportion for him. And it is there, I firmly believe, that his creative talent can be used with the greatest forc
He was educated at Glasgow and then Cambridge University and after his studies he appears to have gone to Vienna to study singing. He eventually returned to Glasgow where he was very much involved in the musical and theatrical life of the city. He became the first managing director of the Glasgow Citizens' Theatre, which was founded in 1943, and his play Alex Goes to Amulree was first performed at the Rutherglen Repertory Theatre in May 1944.
His 1947 novel Red Plush was a Book of the Month Club selection in New York and his Wax Fruit trilogy, the English title of Red Plush, is probably his best known work. His writings were often inspired by his interest in music and the theatre and they all had a Glasgowesque feel to them. The Glasgow Herald wrote of him "McCrone recaptures the atmosphere of the period most effectively."
He moved to the Lake District in 1968 and died there in 1977.
I tracked down an interview he gave in middle age and it went as follows:-
"I was born in Birkenhead, England, in 1898, of Scottish parents. A temporary job had taken my father there, and the household went with him. But I spent my early childhood running in the woods and farmlands of central Ayrshire. I describe this pleasant countryside in my books. It is the Burns country. Our nearest village was Mauchline, where Robert Burns first took up house with his wife, Jean Armour. The poet's haunts are well known to me and his Aryshire Scots is very familiar in my ears.
"I have no illustrious ancestors. But one of my family interests me. He was my grandfather's cousin, a certain John Macrone (writing the name thus) who went to London, established himself at 3, St James Square, became a publisher, encouraged the young Charles Dickens to collect his first newspaper pen sketches, and published them under the Macrone imprint as 'Sketches by Boz'. [Bettie, I knew I recognised the name from somewhere and when I remembered, that is what made me trace some more.]
"I went to school in Glasgow, passing the entrance examination for Cambridge, England, in the middle of World War I. But being ineligible for the army, I went to scrub floors and sell cigarettes in soldiers' YMCA in Normandy and Paris. When the war was ended, I duly went up to the university, where I took a degree in economics as it was intended I should be a business man.
"I began writing after I married in 1931. I had the good fortune to have the script of my first novel read by Michael Sadleir [another of my favourites], himself a distinguished biographer, novelist and publisher. He invited me to London, then tore my work to pieces, neither showing mercy nor predicting a future for it. It was a shattering experience; but I pulled myself together, came home to Glasgow, rewrote my book and sent it back to him. He replied almost at once that he congratulated me on being able to take instruction, that he was pleased with what I had done and would like to publish. It was on Sadleir's suggestion that I wrote a trilogy, 'Red Plush', which was chosen as Book-of-the-Month in New York for December 1947.
"People have asked me why I continue to write almost exclusively about my own kind of people, my own city of Glasgow and the countryside in which I was reared [shades of John Buchan]. Here is my reason. I had not gone far with the study of the novel before I saw that a novelist, especially if he has a recording talent and not a talent for fantasy, writes best about the place that has been his home; that is, the home of his childhood and adolescence. I found endless examples of this among other writers. I believe in travel and wide horizons, of course. But in the end these mostly serve only to pur the novelist's home background into the right proportion for him. And it is there, I firmly believe, that his creative talent can be used with the greatest forc
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 15, 2025
Being the last in the saga of the Moorhouse family as outlined in the Wax Fruit trilogy and Aunt Bel.
This instalment starts in 1900 and focuses on Robin Hayburn, adopted son of shipyard owner Henry Hayburn. Though Robin is Henry’s natural son from a liaison he had in Vienna and has been officially adopted by Henry and his wife Phœbe (the youngest of the Moorhouses) after his mother died in a fire at the Opera House, his true origins have been kept from him. Henry wishes his son to follow him into the shipyard business but Robin is more inclined to poetry and writing, a prime source of conflict between them. To give some temporal colour, Aunt Bel is worried by the fact her son Tom Moorhouse is a soldier serving in the war against the Boers in South Africa.
When Robin develops signs of consumption it is decided to send him to Mentone in the south of France for its beneficial air. While there he meets Denise St Roch, friend of Lucy Hamont, the former Lucy Rennie, with whom Robin’s uncle David Moorhouse nearly made a fool of himself in The Philistines. At thirty, the experienced Denise is much older than Robin but she is a writer herself and has contacts in publishing. She offers him encouragement and a place to write in. Of course he falls for her.
There is nothing demanding about these books. They are designed to be easy reading and to bolster the sense of Glasgow its middle classes held of the city and themselves. None of the characters are drawn with sufficient depth to be more than pawns in the author’s hands. Sometimes that is all that is needed, though.
This instalment starts in 1900 and focuses on Robin Hayburn, adopted son of shipyard owner Henry Hayburn. Though Robin is Henry’s natural son from a liaison he had in Vienna and has been officially adopted by Henry and his wife Phœbe (the youngest of the Moorhouses) after his mother died in a fire at the Opera House, his true origins have been kept from him. Henry wishes his son to follow him into the shipyard business but Robin is more inclined to poetry and writing, a prime source of conflict between them. To give some temporal colour, Aunt Bel is worried by the fact her son Tom Moorhouse is a soldier serving in the war against the Boers in South Africa.
When Robin develops signs of consumption it is decided to send him to Mentone in the south of France for its beneficial air. While there he meets Denise St Roch, friend of Lucy Hamont, the former Lucy Rennie, with whom Robin’s uncle David Moorhouse nearly made a fool of himself in The Philistines. At thirty, the experienced Denise is much older than Robin but she is a writer herself and has contacts in publishing. She offers him encouragement and a place to write in. Of course he falls for her.
There is nothing demanding about these books. They are designed to be easy reading and to bolster the sense of Glasgow its middle classes held of the city and themselves. None of the characters are drawn with sufficient depth to be more than pawns in the author’s hands. Sometimes that is all that is needed, though.
September 15, 2024
The conclusion of the Hayburn/Moorhouse family saga, and whilst not as good as the first two novels in the series, it is still an enjoyable book.
Set at the movement from the Victorian to Edwardian eras, it takes place in Glasgow and the French Riviera. I think that Phoebe is one of the strongest characters in the series and the fact that she only appears sporadically in this book probably diminishes it - alongside that much of the spark seems to have left her character.
However, the book moves along well, but you could tell that the author was running out of steam.
Set at the movement from the Victorian to Edwardian eras, it takes place in Glasgow and the French Riviera. I think that Phoebe is one of the strongest characters in the series and the fact that she only appears sporadically in this book probably diminishes it - alongside that much of the spark seems to have left her character.
However, the book moves along well, but you could tell that the author was running out of steam.
June 16, 2020
I found this a wonderful glimpse into the turn of the century and the perils of TB.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews