Title and statement of responsibility area
Title proper
General material designation
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Title statements of responsibility
Title notes
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Reference code
Edition area
Edition statement
Edition statement of responsibility
Class of material specific details area
Statement of scale (cartographic)
Statement of projection (cartographic)
Statement of coordinates (cartographic)
Statement of scale (architectural)
Issuing jurisdiction and denomination (philatelic)
Dates of creation area
Date(s)
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1910-1980 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
8.39 m of textual records, graphic material and sound recordings
Publisher's series area
Title proper of publisher's series
Parallel titles of publisher's series
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Statement of responsibility relating to publisher's series
Numbering within publisher's series
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Connell, whose real name was John Henry Robertson, was born in 1909 in the West Indies. He was educated at Loretto School in Scotland and Balliol College, Oxford, whence he emerged B.A. to join the London Evening News as a reporter in 1932. He wrote several novels during the 1930s, the first being Lindesay. During his wartime service, Connell acted as Chief Military Censor in India, and directed the British propaganda campaign in the Middle East which was designed to assure the Arab community of Britain's imminent victory. Thereafter the war exercised a strong hold on Connell's mind, evident in the military biographies he wrote later and in his choice of books for review in the London Evening News. In 1950 he won a literary prize for his book W.E. Henley, and in 1956 contributed the booklet on Churchill to the Writer's and Their Work series. Connell's last two works were Auchinleck (1959), and Wavell (1964). Connell died on October 1965, before he could complete the second volume of Wavell.
Custodial history
Scope and content
The fonds contains many manuscripts of Connell's own books and two which he ghosted, the memoirs of the Aga Kahn and Sir Roy Welensky. There is much correspondence with the literary, political and military world described, amounting to some 14,000 pieces. Its Commonwealth associations include Rhodesia, in the Welensky files; India, in the Aga Kahn, Wavell and Auchinleck files; Canada; Kenya and Nyasaland; and Malaysia and the defence of the British Empire. His library has, except for some rare editions, been dispersed into the Mills Library stacks. The books that accompanied the third accrual have been listed but not yet catalogued.
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
The first two accruals were acquired from Bertram Rota Ltd. in 1969 and 1987. The third and fourth accruals were acquired from Michael Belkine, Connell's stepson, in December 1993 and 1995.
Arrangement
There have been four accruals. The first two accruals have been combined and arranged into seven series consisting of: published manuscripts and typescripts; unpublished manuscripts and typescripts; correspondence relating to special subjects, general and literary; radio, television and journalism; personal and miscellaneous files; John Connell, J.A. Brown and miscellaneous correspondence; newspaper articles and press cuttings. The third accrual (01-1994) has been arranged into the following series: correspondence, manuscripts, common place books, photographs, address books, audio reel tapes, realia and materials removed from Connell's books. A separate listing of the books is available. The fourth accrual (52-1995) consists of correspondence including a brief addendum concerning materials that were overlooked from the first two accruals.
Language of material
Script of material
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Availability of other formats
Restrictions on access
There are no access restrictions.
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Finding aids
Associated materials
Accruals
Further accruals are expected.
