The Rather Lost Peter Blundell

This is one of those posts where I’m rather hoping someone knows something – as I know next to nothing. Talking of George Orwell in yesterday’s post I happened to be rereading his essay Good Bad Books, first published in Tribune in 1945. In the essay Orwell looks at popular books that are not considered good literature. Among those he cites as having been rather forgotten (even in 1945) are the works of “…Peter Blundell, who wrote in the WW Jacobs vein about Far Eastern seaport towns, and who seems to be unaccountably forgotten, in spite of having been praised in print by HG Wells.’ Jacobs remains well known for the horror story, The Monkey’s Paw (1902) but mostly wrote fiction around the misadventures of seamen in the East End of London and on their voyages.

But who was Blundell? A bit of a mystery to me but anyone who writes about Far Eastern seaport towns has to be of interest and worth pursuing. His books seem to be remarkably rare and hard to get and even a complete list and description of them seemingly impossible to find. In reality it seems Blundell was a certain Frank Butterworth (1875-1952) a seaman and engineer who ended up working in the Malay States, especially Brunei, between 1905 and 1913. Hence several of his books appear to be about Malaysia including On the Fringe of the Eastern Seas, Kidnapped and The Banja Pirates among others. Not too sure how many books he wrote, when exactly (mostly around the 1920s it seems) and whether he covered other “Far Eastern seaports” other than Brunei?

He does indeed seem to have been quite popular at one time – the National Portrait Gallery in London has his portrait (below), but I really know nothing else about him or if the books are worth tracking down. However, if Orwell and Wells thought him worth a read who am I to disagree…