Horatio Bottomley and the Far Right Before Fascism (Routledge Studies in Fascism and the Far Right)

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Hyman, Alan (1972). The Rise and Fall of Horatio Bottomley. Littlehampton, West Sussex: Cassell & Co. ISBN 0-304-29023-8. Why can't we get to work at once, Houston?" he exclaimed impatiently. "We are losing money and wasting time." The 1946 relaunch featured covers that encapsulated post-war Britain and employed some of Britain's finest illustrators. During this period, the magazine also included short stories by major British authors such as H. E. Bates, Agatha Christie, Nicholas Monsarrat, N. J. Crisp, Gerald Kersh, J. B. Priestley and C. S. Forester. As for Bottomley’s journalistic ethics, they were exposed in the case against the solicitor who acted for Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, the most famous murderer of the first decade of the twentieth century. Bottomley, through John Bull, paid for Crippen’s defense, on condition that the solicitor procure Crippen’s written confession of his crime should he be found guilty. Bottomley had absolutely no scruples in publishing a gross and clear forgery. Porter, Dilwyn (January 2011). "Marks, Harry Hananel". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (onlineed.). Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/ref:odnb/47898. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015 . Retrieved 17 June 2014. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)

Following the 2019 general election, Bottomley was the longest-serving MP and therefore Father of the House. Recognising the signs, a former partner of his from his old lotteries referred to the Victory Bonds Club as “Horatio Bottomley’s latest swindle”. Horatio foolishly sued the man and lost, which led inevitably to an investigation and his own trial for fraud. After having dodged prosecution so often, Horatio might have expected this to be another chance to show off in court and walk out a free time. However, there was at least one major difference this time. Horatio had developed a serious drinking problem – bad enough that he actually had to negotiate a fifteen minute break each day to allow him to drink a pint of champagne and stave off withdrawal. As a result, though the prosecutor was far more adept than any of his previous opponents he later commented: “It was not I that floored him, but drink”. A court drawing of Horatio being sentenced. His energy was unbounded, and for days he was desperately restless because a short time had to elapse before all the arrangements could be completed.

In 1869 Bottomley was placed in Sir Josiah Mason's Orphanage in Birmingham. According to his biographer, A. J. A. Morris: "To help alleviate his misery and humiliation Bottomley created a world of fantasy from which he never again entirely escaped. When at fourteen he ran away from the orphanage he was shunted between the homes of relatives and various lodging houses in Birmingham and London." Office Boy Horatio Bottomley, the only son of William King Bottomley (1827–1863), a tailor's cutter, and his wife, Elizabeth Holyoake, was born at 16 St Peter's Street, Bethnal Green, on 23rd March 1860. His father, who suffered from mental problems, died in a "fit of mania" in Bethleham Hospital, three years later. His mother died of cancer when he was only four years old.

Houston argued in his book, The Real Horatio Bottomley (1923): "He began to accept what were practically music hall engagements disguised as recruiting meetings, and I was very definitely of the opinion that he was drifting in the wrong direction. Nevertheless for some time it went on... Bottomley insisted that a substantial contribution (from the income generated from the meetings) went to his War Charity Fund... Three years later I discovered that the fund did not receive a penny of the money." In the end, to have an independent mind is always advisable, especially for journalists. But the hardheaded conclusion in modern conditions is that even independent-minded party MPs remain stranded on the margins. The prospect of enduring success is depressingly limited.Horatio Bottomley was a sincere believer in all things English. And like all genuine patriots he chose the best way to act on his patriotism which was to enrich himself as fast as he could. If he did so more fabulously than others it was only because better opportunities provided themselves to him. In 1874, when Horatio was 14 and due to leave the orphanage, he ran away without waiting for the formalities. His aunt Caroline Praill—his mother's sister—who lived in nearby Edgbaston, gave him a home, while he worked as an errand boy in a Birmingham building firm. This arrangement lasted only a few months before Horatio, impatient to be reunited with his sister from whom he had been separated for six years, went to London where he began an apprenticeship with a wood engraver. [11] Early career [ edit ] First steps [ edit ] S. Theodore Felstead Horatio Bottomley: A Biography of an Outstanding Personality (London, 1936), ch. 1.

The periodical continued production during the First World War; [13] Howard Cox estimates its sales by August 1914 at in excess of three quarters of a million copies a week. [14] By the end of October 1914 the cover of John Bull was '"boasting that the magazine’s circulation was the largest of any weekly journal in the world". [ citation needed]

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During John Bull's run it incorporated other magazines, such as Illustrated (1958), Passing Show, and Everybody's Weekly (1959). Though he was capable of conceiving grandiose schemes - many of them quite impracticable, by the way - he could form no conception of the detail work necessary to carry them through. That always had to be left to others, and H.B. was very much at their mercy so far as the detail work was concerned. And then, surprisingly, the man who had prided himself so greatly on being the county’s most effective recruiting sergeant adds: Bottomley was, at least for a year or so, a diligent parliamentarian who spoke on a range of issues, and from time to time teased the government as when, during the Irish Troubles, he asked whether, "in view of the breakdown of British rule in Ireland, the government will approach America with a view to her accepting the mandate for the government of that country". [110] On other occasions he helped the government, as when in January 1919, he was called upon in his role of "Soldier's Friend" to help pacify troops in Folkestone and Calais who were in a state of mutiny over delays in their demobilisation. [111] [112] Downfall [ edit ] John Bull advertises Bottomley's "Victory Bonds" scheme, 12 July 1919. Bottomley published a book of prison poems after his release, called Songs of the Cell, with a preface by Lord Alfred Douglas, who after all had a strong personal connection with prison poetry. Bottomley was in apostolic succession, as it were, to A. E. Housman and Oscar Wilde in their poetic accounts of execution by hanging: