A Nonagenarian’s Story

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31908, 8 February 1969, Page 4

A Nonagenarian’s Story

Over The Hills. By W. Kebie Martin. Michael Joseph. 16S pp. Index.

It is not given to many men of modest, if any, ambition to achieve fame in their late eighties. Yet this is the experience of the Rev. W. Kebie Martin, who, a few years ago, wrote a book entitled “The Concise British Flora in Colour,” and has now, at the age of 91, completed his auto- ■ biography. The first work ■ which embodied the garnered • experiences of the author’s • lifelong interest in botany, , and was lavishly illustrated i with his own flower-paintings, ' was given a spur to popular- ; ity by the Duke of Edinburgh, . who kindly wrote a foreword; i it became a best seller. It is ’ now a standard work of refer- , ence for young people of • school age with botanical • leanings. Mr Kebie Martin ■ comes of clerical and aca- ■ demic stock. He is the grand- . son of Dr George Moberly—- . one time headmaster of WinI Chester, and later Bishop of Salisbury. The Champer- ; n wnes of Dartington Hall , (now so renowned as a centre of cultural and artistic activities) also figured in Mr Martin’s pedigree, and his father was a lecturer in Greek philosophy at Christchurch College, Oxford, and later headmaster of Radley. The author himself determined to take Holy Orders at

an early age. and has spent most of his long life in ministering to the spiritual needs of parishes as far apart as Darfield in Yorkshire, and Coffinswell and Milber in South Devon. His chief interest, outside his clerical duties, has always lain in collecting and painting his beloved wild flowers, and to this end he went as far afield as Scotland in search of specimens, sketches of which appear in these pages. The reminiscences of his early days, describing his first marriage and the raising of a family, are necessarily a little fragmentary, though the human mind can retain an, astonishing number of recol-i lections over a span of threequarters of a century. Mr and Mrs Martin had to cope with the discomforts of living in enormous and uncomfortable rectories (most of them lacking in any kind of modern convenience) on the small stipends awarded to its Min-' isters by the Established [ Church, but they had spent fifty happy years together before Mrs Martin died in 1962. Yet, after his second marriage, to a widow—Mrs Florence Lewis—in 1965 this rather remarkable octogenarian was to have a second lease of life which has been relatively prosperous and fraught with interest. After the success of his book in 1966 he was asked by the P Jstmaster-General to design postage stamps for the forthcoming Christmas season, and was also invited to participate in some of the doings of the literary world, all of which exertions he seems to have taken in his stride! The last chapter of his book is devoted to a naturalist’s interpretation of the Scriptures. The reader is left with an impression of an unassuming but resolute personality, who still takes occasionally a service in the church to which he has devoted his life, and who is blessed with a wealth of interests not commonly afforded to human beings in the 10th decade of their age. N.Z. PERIODICALS Landfall Volume 22. Edited by Robin Dudding. Caxton Press. Since the beginning of 1967, when Robin Dudding took over the Landfall editorship, the magazine has maintained its reputation. The covers have improved considerably, and it will be interesting to see how long it is before the typographers have exhausted their own imagination (and Caxton’s resources) in spine lettering. The most significant “find” has been Warren Dibble, who has had poems, short stories, and plays included, all of them impressive for a somewhat baffling maturity of technique. The December issue (No. 88) is the best Landfall for several years, and contains a controversial new play by Dibble which is to be produced on television next year. One of the editor’s most difficult tasks must be to assess which young writers are worthy of inclusion, and here Mr Dudding has shown unerring discernment: Bill Manhire, lan Wedde, Howard Press, and Sam Hunt have air fully deserved their introduction to the circle of Landfall poets, and their work is a feature of No. 88. It seems almost superfluous to recommend Landfall: with its imaginative lay-out, its consistently high standard of review and comment (which extends into the artistic, social, and political spheres), and its progressive literary policy it has established a well-deserved reputation.