GK Chesterton and the Gibraltar Literary Festival

In March 2013, Chesterton was approached by Her Majesty’s Government of Gibraltar to be a foundation sponsor of the first international Literary Festival on The Rock which is taking place on the 25th - 27th October 2013. It was a natural fit given the high profile of GK Chesterton, a member of the renowned real estate family, in the literary world.

The event, commissioned by Government, is being organised by the organisers of The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival and the Blenheim Palace Literary Festival.

Reflecting Gibraltar’s unique history, located between the cultures of Europe and North Africa, and at the crossroads of the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, the Festival will celebrate these fusions, as well as Gibraltar’s centuries as a British Citadel and as a great staging post for international travel and commerce.

A set of three commemorative stamps were issued by Gibraltar in May to mark the Festival.

More than 70 novelists, authors and writers will be flying into Gibraltar to speak at the Festival from the UK, the USA, India, Morocco, Spain, Italy, Sri Lanka, France and The Netherlands and will be joined by Gibraltar writers. Kate Aide, Joanne Harris, Peter Snow (remember the election swingometer?!), Madhur Jeffrey, Ken Hom, Stefanie Powers, Peter Kemp (chief fiction critic for the Sunday Times), Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connorare just some of the many literary folk who have already confirmed their involvement.

D.J. Taylor

Chesterton Estate Agents Gibraltar is pleased to sponsor a special talk on GK Chesterton at this year’s Literary Festival. It will be given by the distinguished literary critic, biographer and novelist, D.J. Taylor. Acclaimed for his biographies of Thackeray and George Orwell (winner of the Whitbread prize), Taylor has written nine novels and four acclaimed works on 20th century British fiction. He is currently working on a study of major inter-war British novelists.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, author, wit and social critic was born in London, England on the 29th of May, 1874. He was a tall man, six foot two inches and stout, weighing nearly three hundred pounds. He dressed unconventionally in a wide-brimmed slouch hat and flowing cloak and carried a swordstick. Famous at only thirty-two, with a leonine head and a straggly blonde moustache he was instantly recognisable in public and in caricature. His paternal great grandfather, grandfather and father were engaged in the family business of selling property, which was established in London in 1805 and is now worldwide, including in Gibraltar since 2008.

Chesterton was a prolific writer. He wrote around 80 books, several hundred poems, 200 short stories and 4,000 essays. He later credited the strong influence of the Junior Debating Club (of which he was Chairman) on his youthful development. The club met weekly at the home of one of its dozen teenage members and following tea, one of them read a paper which was then debated. Chesterton’s first prose and verse were printed in ‘The Debater’ and his essays on Milton, Pope, Gray, Cowper, Burns and Wordsworth were of particular merit.

Chesterton never fought shy of defending his beliefs. He achieved public recognition early on as he was one of the few journalists to oppose the Boer War. Chesterton converted to Catholicism in 1922. On the same day he wrote his celebrated poem “The Convert”.

Chesterton had an active interest in politics. He began by fighting the sale of peerages as a means of secretly raising party funds, and denounced every other form of political corruption. He resigned from the Liberal owned Daily News after making statements regarding the Liberal party leaders which include: “Some of them are very nice gentlemen, some of them are very nasty old gentlemen, and some of them are old without being gentlemen at all” and again, “The best of His Majesty’s Ministers are agnostics, and the worst are devil worshippers”. Most of the government were Church of England men so this comment hit hard.

Chesterton was a champion against corruption and the socio-economic conditions prevalent at the time and formulated his own programme: Distributism. This was in reaction to the law of private ownership whereby a law was introduced, namely ‘the law of enclosure’ which ensured five million acres ceased to be the common property of the poor and became the private property of the rich. In Chesterton’s strong opinion, and he expressed it succinctly, every man ought to be allowed to own “three acres and a cow”.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton had a huge personality, he was exuberant and maintained warm friendships even with people he disagreed with vehemently (George Bernard Shaw and H.G.Wells for example). His work schedule was highly pressurised with a constant stream of lecture engagements, far and wide and to almost every type of organisation – religious, social, literary and even political. He was famous, he was in demand and he could never say ‘no’. He fitted in his writing at odd moments and the newspaper essays almost overran their deadlines. Notoriously absent-minded, he would send his wife telegrams en-route to appointments. A typical one read: “Am in Market Harborough. Where ought I to be?”

GK Chesterton was indeed gifted and he exercised his talents across a wide and varied spectrum. From all accounts, he did so with humility and charity. Indulge in the fantasy and fiction of Chesterton’s works and consign realism away from the celebrity and back to the ordinary – therein you will discover a realm of magic and wonder.

The focus for the inaugural Festival will be the Garrison Library, founded in 1793 for officers of the Garrison and opened by HRH The Duke of Kent in 1804. Transferred to HM Government of Gibraltar in 2011, the Library’s handsome ballroom has now been restored and will be the Green Room for the Literary Festival. Other Festival venues will include: King’s Chapel; City Hall; St Andrew’s Church; King’s Bastion; the Anglican Cathedral and John Mackintosh Hall.

An event programme and further information on how to obtain tickets for the GK Chesterton talk and all other events will be issued in due course by the organisers.

But for now, I finish this with just two of my many favourite GK Chesterton quotes:

“When it comes to life the critical thing is whether you take things for granted or take them with gratitude.”

“There are two ways to get enough. One is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.”

Research on GK Chesterton is credited to author and journalist Chryselle Brown