"It was Frank's baby - not mine!"

Colleen Richardson

These were the first words that greeted me when I visited Joan Ferneyhough at her cosy white cottage in St Albans.

"It is unbelievable, but Frank has been dead ten years now. He would have been ninety-three if he'd lived. He had been getting quite frail for a number of years before then though - you know leaning on my arm and that sort of thing." Joan told me that they had three children, two sons and a daughter in the middle. Sadly her daughter died the same year as Frank.

"Really the Verulam Writers' Circle was never anything to do with me, though," Joan said. "It was always Frank's baby, although I quite often came along to meetings as a visitor".

I asked Joan how Frank had started out to make his living. Had he always been a writer?

Joan answered proudly. "No he was a railwayman. He worked for British Rail from the age of sixteen. He went through all the training and became a relief stationmaster, travelling round the area. That was all during the war. He was called up twice but he had some sort of nasal problem and they didn't take him; then of course railways were a reserved occupation anyway. We were in Mansfield for about ten years. We met years ago, when I was a student nurse at University College Hospital and Frank came in for a nasal operation. I was the night nurse and it was all very romantic. In fact many years later, when the Verulam Writers' Circle had a competition, I went in for it and wrote a story about meeting him and being his night nurse. And I won it!

"But Frank always wanted to write. He left school, however, at fourteen and it wasn't the sort of thing you did in those days. When we were first married, we lived in Bletchley, where he was stationed. We got married within ten months of meeting each other.

" Frank then got this itch about writing, and we had big discussions about whether we should let him do a correspondence course in writing. We couldn't afford it but we decided to go for it. He did everything he was asked to do and afterwards he really got started on writing. His first effort was writing a series of.......'Why do I like hats? ....or why do I like gardens? Why do I.......? ' He did a lot of research and found the magazines that would publish these pieces.

Top

"Basically he was, and always would be a railway man, as well as wanting to write. His breakthrough came immediately after the war, when the railways started producing house magazines. They were of different types as they were designed to appeal to various grades of railway staff. After he had read one of the new ones, Frank wrote to the editor with quite a few comments, some quite severe comments too. We thought he was going to be torn off a strip, but to our amazement they offered him a job."

Frank's new job was in London where he became a member of the publicity staff of the old British Transport Commission. Subsequently he became head of the public relation projects at the British Railways Board. At the launch of his book "Railways" in 1970 at St Alban's Town Hall, Roger, their son, presented Frank with a cheque for advanced royalties. Roger was the editorial director of the firm that published the book, and when he accepted the cheque, Frank said: 'It's rather fun, after dispensing pocket money for so many years, to have the process reversed'. "Railways" tells the story of the railways from the days before Stephenson's Rocket to the railways of the future. It took him about four months to write - much of it scribbled on the train commuting from St Albans to London.

When we went upstairs to Frank's den, Joan proudly showed me a letter saying that he had won a prize in a competition, to write an essay on "The Effect of Temperance on Character". It was to be presented to him at the Stoke-on-Trent Town Hall by the Mayoress. He was only twelve at the time and Joan said that it somehow had a lasting effect on his life.

"Frank has had about fifteen books published," Joan told me. "They were all about railways.

" When he had the "Liverpool & Manchester Railway 1830 -1930" book published, he dressed up for the part at the launch, complete with uniform and whistle. He wrote two autobiographies. The first was "Steam Up" and the second was "More Steam Up". He also wrote some children's books. There was "Railways - a Picture History" and "Railways of the World" also "Choosing a Job on the Railway" and several others.

"But Frank always had this tremendous amount of energy. One day he went to buy a second-hand typewriter and the chap said he had two, and Frank would have to take them both. When he went to sell the second one by advertising it, Frank had people queuing up to buy it. That gave him the idea of selling typewriters. He quickly bought ten and did them up and sold them straightaway. The business just grew until eventually it became too big for him to work it from home. So he found a shop in Victoria Street and set up a proper business, and called it "The St Albans Typewriter Centre". He sold the business in about 1975."

"Tell me about his writing class. How did that come about?" I asked.

Top

Joan smiled, remembering very happy days in their large house in Hatfield Road.

"We used to live next door to the College of Further Education and our kids used to play with the kids next door, and then we discovered that their father, Donald Newman, was the Principal of the College. In 1953 he introduced a new weekly evening course, 'Writing for Pleasure'. The Tutor was an English master, Philip Heather. He was later deputy headmaster of St Albans School. It was very popular with a few people but gradually the attendances dwindled and the course closed. Frank was very friendly, however, with the students that were still determined to write. Then in 1957, Donald Newman invited Frank to start an evening writing course at the College on 'Writing for the Press'. "

At this point Joan gave me an article that Frank wrote, which had appeared in Hertfordshire Countryside in 1974. In it he wrote about the origins of the Verulam Writers' Circle.

One of the more enthusiastic students of the 'Writing for Pleasure ' class was Lizbeth Phillips and she continued the meetings at her Radlett home. With the backing of Philip Heather and people like Joan Rice, Eileen Elias and Sylvia Battcock (also a tutor at the College) the Verulam Writers' Circle was born in about 1954. Its first president was the Earl of Verulam. Joyce Rolph, Peg Perrins, Betty Puttick, Muriel Miller and Bernard Dumpleton were among several who gave sterling service during those formative years and several professional writers, such as Willis Hall, Arthur Swinson and Alan Prior became vice-presidents for services rendered. Keith Ellis, who read Modern History at Cambridge, was President of the Circle for many years and did much to raise the Circle's professional standards. Then came Frank Ferneyhough. He was a significant influence on the Circle and was also President for many years.

They used to meet in the Town Hall on a Wednesday evening. In those days a prospective member had to submit two manuscripts for assessment before they were allowed to join as a full member.

Joan went on to tell me more about the early days. "Our neighbour, Jean Jolly was a regular member and people like Muriel Miller and Bernard Dumpleton were all chairmen at various times. The Dumpletons were a very well-known family in St Albans There was also someone called Ivy Hughes, who always came to the meetings, and one day Frank said to me: 'I don't know why she comes - she never does anything'. Young Gillian Harland, now Gillian Thornton, was a member of the Freelance writing class and became an enthusiastic member of the newly formed writers' Circle. I know that she has become a successful professional writer."

Top

Joan showed me a photo of a typical meeting in the Town Hall in 1971 in which Muriel Miller received a typewriter, as a prize, for winning a competition on selling freelance articles.

There was a long silence and then Joan said suddenly; "He made me learn to type. He said: 'You'd be a lot more use to me if you learned to type'. He made me do it properly - touch type and that sort of thing, so that I could type his manuscripts while he was creating.

"We use to sit each side of the dining table and both work away. I was thrilled to be helping him. We were very blessed because I was so interested in what he was doing. I had read all his books about three times. He used to make notes for years and he had all these bits of paper with them on, then he'd put them together in chapter form, and they would be passed to me to read."

Joan smiled. Her expression was of regretful longing but happy. "We were so very fortunate to be so happily married, and I'm sure that Frank would say that I helped him with all his books. I like to think I did."

Top