Budleigh Past and Present

Admirers of East Devon author R.F. Delderfield’s work may remember Fairlynch Museum’s centenary exhibition devoted to him in 2012 and the talk given in Budleigh by his biographer Marion Lindsey-Noble. A re-edition of her book Butterfly Moments was published to mark the 100 years since Delderfield’s birth. Since then Exmoor-based Marion has been busy. She’d already followed in the footsteps of Delderfield with her first novel, The Green Sari , published in October 2011.  Set in Bangladesh where the former language teacher lived in her twenties, the book was described by its author as a heart-warming read and a bitter-sweet love story. Now Marion has produced a sequel entitled The Banyan Tree, taking the story forward to the next generation of the Khan family who featured in her first book. A large Banyan tree stands in the middle of the orphanage in Bangladesh where Ali and his American wife Martha have taken up their ne...

From time to time I've been asked by the Budleigh Salterton Literary Festival organisers to give a tour of the town's landmarks associated with creative people of the past and present who've lived or who are living in Budleigh. That includes writers, artists, musicians and scientists.  A bit of exercise is involved with some uphill stretches, but there are good views to make up for that, and sometimes some benches. When I've done this sort of thing in the past, people asked if there was a book or leaflet where all that information was written down. Well, there isn't really! So I thought I'd have a go here, but focusing on writers who have used Budleigh Salterton as a setting for their novels or who've described it in their memoirs. Many writers have mentioned Budleigh Salterton or a similar name evoking it, among   the most famous being Noel Coward and J.K. Rowling. If, like me, you think this is one of the most romantic...

  Many people admired the excellent exhibition to mark R.F. Delderfield’s centenary last year, staged by Fairlynch volunteer Margaret Brett with much valuable material contributed by the author's biographer Marion Lindsey-Noble. They may like to know that both Delderfield brothers had dealings with Fairlynch during their lifetime as recently discovered in the Museum's archives.   Pictured above is one of the many books by Eric Delderfield (1909-95). Brought up in Exmouth like his brother Ronald, he published a range of works about the West Country with a focus on local history. Following an approach by the Friends of Fairlynch Secretary Marjorie Evison in April 1971   he gave a talk six months later to the Friends of Fairlynch in the Church Institute next to The Green in Budleigh Salterton. Entitled ‘Historic Houses of the West’ it was based on his book West Country Historic Houses and their Families, ...