Tottenham Court Road, London

Tottenham Court Road is a major road in central London, running from St Giles Circus (the junction of Oxford Street and Charing Cross Road) north to Euston Road, near the border of the City of Westminster and the London Borough of Camden, a distance of about three-quarters of a mile. It has for many years been a one-way street: all three lanes are northbound only, the equivalent southbound traffic using the parallel Gower Street. It is generally regarded as marking the boundary between Bloomsbury and Fitzrovia, linking Somers Town with Soho at either end. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry makes reference to the road in the 1940 Under The Volcano; Peering at nothing with a telescope, save the Tottenham Court Road, counting the waves.." (Pg. 75).

Lowry makes reference to the road in Chapter 2 of his novel Under The Volcano; "very good on the bridge of a British Q-ship — peering at the Tottenham Court Road through a telescope, only figuratively speaking of course, day in and day out, counting the waves...." (Pg. 64) and again in Chapter 6;  "What about the way you treated poor old Bolowski,the music publisher, remember his shabby little shop in Old Compton Street, off the Tottenham Court Road?" (Pg. 157) and "He had not played one, and Hugh could play almost any kind of guitar, for four or fiveyears, and his numerous instruments declined with his books in basements or attics in Londonor Paris, in Wardour Street night-clubs or behind the bar of the Marquis of Granby or the oldAstoria in Greek Street, long since become a convent and his bill still unpaid there, in pawnshops in Tithebarn Street or the Tottenham Court Road....." (Pg. 158)

Lowry also refers to the road in a letter to Jan Gabrial; "“My darlingest Janl…I write this about half an hour after leaving you, eating a steak pie with your half crown in a thieves’ kitchen. It is only to say that I love you and that I shall never love anybody else. Outside, the fiends of Tottenham Court Road are howling in the blackness, imprisoned in the crewless winds.There is comfort in just speaking your name…” (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 36)

Peekshill, New York

Peekskill is a city in Westchester County, New York. It is situated on a bay along the east side of the Hudson River, across from Jones Point.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco and Ossining. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Ossining, New York

Ossining is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. As a village, it is located in the Town of Ossining.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Mount Kisco, New York

Mount Kisco is a community that is both a village and a town in Westchester County, New York, United States.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story. Lowry spells the village as Mount Kisko.

Mamaroneck, New York

Mamaroneck is a town in Westchester County, New York,  There are two villages contained within the town: Larchmont and the Village of Mamaroneck (part of which is located in the town of Rye). The majority of the town's land area is not within either village, constituting an unincorporated area, although a majority of the population lives within the villages.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mount Kisko, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Dobbs Ferry, New York

Dobbs Ferry is a village in Westchester County, New York, United States. The Village of Dobbs Ferry is located in, and is a part of, the town of Greenburgh.

Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Chappaqua, New York

Chappaqua is a hamlet in northern Westchester County, New York. Chappaqua is located in the town of New Castle.

Long associated with "old money” and some of the country's wealthiest families for generations. Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Dobbs Ferry, Larchmont, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisco, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Larchmont, New York

Larchmont is an affluent village in Westchester County, New York. It is located within the Town of Mamaroneck, on the shore of Long Island Sound, 18 miles (29 km) northeast of Midtown Manhattan. Read more on Wikipedia

Long associated with "old money” and some of the country's wealthiest families for generations. Referred to by the newspaperman in Lowry's short story 'In Le Havre' as well as other towns in county of Westchester; Chappaqua, Dobbs Ferry, Mamaroneck, Mount Kisko, Ossining and Peekshill. Not visited by Lowry at time of story. Possibly influenced by Jan Gabrial who had helped Lowry write the story.

Dinner At Eight 1933

Jan Gabrial states that her and Lowry went to see the film in London in 1933; "Later that week, after seeing Dinner At Eight and downing several cocktails, Malcolm became drunk and didactic and, of course we quarreled and separated." (Inside The Volcano Pg. 35).

Dinner at Eight is a Pre-Code 1933 comedy of manners/drama starring Marie Dressler, John Barrymore, Wallace Beery, Jean Harlow, Lionel Barrymore, Lee Tracy, Edmund Lowe, and Billie Burke, and produced by MGM Studios. The film was adapted to the screen by Frances Marion and Herman J. Mankiewicz from the play by George S. Kaufman and Edna Ferber, with additional dialogue supplied by Donald Ogden Stewart. Produced by David O. Selznick, it was directed by George Cukor. Read more on Wikipedia

Dinner at Eight presents intersecting stories set during America's Great Depression that illustrate the rough passage from the old aristocracy, based on European customs and ancestral wealth, to the new aristocracy, hewn out of the free-for-all of 20th-century capitalism. Packed with capable actors allowed to shine in intimate, dialogue-heavy, extended takes, the movie offers an interesting study of culture, a thoughtful lesson on life, and an entertaining series of touching and amusing tales.

Cavalcade 1933

Jan Gabrial states that in November 1933 that she and Lowry went to see Coward's Cavalcade in London. We must assume that she is referring to the film rather than the stage production which ended its run in September 1932. The film version was directed by Frank Lloyd. The screenplay by Reginald Berkeley and Sonya Levien is based on the 1931 play of the same title by Noël Coward.

The film shows a view of English life from New Year's Eve 1899 through New Year's Day 1933, the film is presented from the point of view of well-to-do London residents Jane and Robert Marryot. Several historical events serve as background for the film, including the Second Boer War, the death of Queen Victoria, the sinking of the Titanic, and World War I.

The cast includes:


Diana Wynyard as Jane Marryot
Clive Brook as Robert Marryot
Una O'Connor as Ellen Bridges
Herbert Mundin as Alfred Bridges
Irene Browne as Margaret Harris
Margaret Lindsay as Edith Harris
John Warburton as Edward Marryot
Bonita Granville as Young Fanny
Douglas Walton as Soldier

Pudovkin's Deserter

The Deserter is a 1933 Soviet film directed by Vsevolod Pudovkin.

Jan Gabrial states that her and Lowry went to see the film in London in 1933. (Inside The Volcano Pg. 34)

The film chronicles the tale of a strike on Hamburg's docks that was inspired by leftists. Livanov, their leader, finds that his weak heart cannot stand the strain of the strike; he must return to Russia to rest. While he is gone, the strike situation becomes more serious. The German government uses violent measures to repress the strike. Livanov feels he cannot lie idly by while his comrades are in danger. He returns to Germany to join them.

Cast:

Boris Livanov - Karl Renn
Vasili Kovrigin - Ludwig Zelle
Aleksandr Chistyakov - Fritz Muller
Tamara Makarova - Greta Zelle
Semyon Svashenko - Bruno
Dmitri Konsovsky - Strauss
Yudif Glizer - Marcella Zelle
M. Oleshchenko - Bertha
Sergey Martinson - Passer-by
Maksim Shtraukh
Sergei Gerasimov
Sergei Komarov - Worker
Vladimir Uralsky
Ivan Lavrov - Richter
Ivan Chuvelyev
A. Besperstny

In 1929, four years before making this film, V.I. Pudovkin and Sergei Eisenstein had collaborated on a Sound Manifesto that called for a radical use of asynchronous sound effects, which would be used in counterpoint to the screen image, rather than supporting it, as is normally the case. In DESERTER, Pudovkin put this theory into practice. Starring Boris Livanov as German dockworker Karl Renn, the film focuses upon a politically unconscious figure who learns the error of his ways. Renn becomes involved in picketing and demonstrating on the dock but walks out on his comrades one day, doubtful about the value of this kind of political activity. A kindly communist offers to send him to the Soviet Union as a member of a German delegation, and he eagerly accepts. When the delegation returns from the Soviet Union, Renn chooses to stay behind, finding a secure job as a specialist in a factory. Not long thereafter, he learns that the police have killed his closest friend, revolutionary Ludwig Zeile (Vasili Kovrigin), and he realizes that he must return to Germany and rejoin the fight. The soundtrack, which Pudovkin wrote at length about in FILM TECHNIQUE AND FILM ACTING, has an unusual density and complexity because of the technique of asynchronous montage; it could serve as an early example of musique concrete. Rotten Tomatoes

Victoria Railway Station, London

Victoria station also known as London Victoria, is a central London railway terminus and London Underground complex. It is named after nearby Victoria Street. The mainline station's most important longer-distance destinations include Brighton, Hove, Worthing, Eastbourne, Canterbury and Dover. In 1898 the LB&SCR decided to demolish its station and replace it with an enlarged red-brick Renaissance-style building. Since widening of the station was prevented by the existing LCDR station and the Buckingham Palace Road, increased capacity was achieved by lengthening the platforms and building crossovers, to allow two trains to use each platform simultaneously. Work was completed in 1908, and included the rebuilding of The Grosvenor Hotel at the same time. (Read more on Wikipedia)

Jan Gabrial arrived at the station on the 22nd September 1933 from Paris with the intention of meeting Lowry; "Malcolm not only failed to meet the channel ferry but even to return to London." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 22) and "Malcolm ..contended, not too convincingly, that we'd managed to miss each other...at Victoria Station." (Pg. 23).

South Hill Park Gardens

South Hill Park Gardens is a street in the Hampstead district of London. It is within the London Borough of Camden, and some of its houses overlook Hampstead Heath

South Hill Park was developed in 1878, when the street was laid out on land belonging to South End Farm owned by the dean and chapter of Westminster. The new Victorian houses were built with their better rooms facing the road rather than looking out over the wild Heath. The road forms a loop at its upper end, and originally the central area was a public garden. Later as the development gained in popularity, this garden was built upon and the new development was called South Hill Park Gardens, leading to the anomaly of a residential street with a different name on each side of the road. During the Second World War a V2 bomb destroyed several of the old Victorian houses. The hole left by the V2 on the west side of the road lay empty and forgotten for many years.

In the Autumn of 1933, Lowry went to live with Hugh Sykes Davies at South Hill Park Gardens . Sykes Davies had been approved by Arthur Lowry to act as a "guardian" so that Lowry could stay in London after his problems in Devon during the Summer of 1933. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 165). Sykes Davies was living with Betty May at the time - Sykes Davies told Gordon Bowker; "There was one other person present ...connected rather with me than with him. She had a tendency to drink rather a lot, too - one of Epstein's old models." (Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg. 68). Lowry told Jan Gabrial that he Sykes Davies and Betty May had "enlisted him as caretaker, though who was to care for whom may well have been the matter under discussion in Leicester." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 34). Jan's reference is to Lowry's meeting with his father to sanction the "guardianship" of Sykes Davies. 

Jan Gabrial visited and briefly stayed at the flat in South Hill Park Gardens; "Later we had supper with Hugh Sykes Davies and Betty May.... We are invited back for dinner tomorrow together with an ex-lover of hers, Edgell Rickword...." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 33); Jan and Lowry stayed at South Hill Park Gardens in early November 1933 while Sykes Davis and Betty May where away; "I had a bath and we finished the third of four bottle, then having borrowed one of Betty's gowns, I crawled into bed beside Malc." (Pg.35);

John Edgell Rickword

John Edgell Rickword, MC (1898-1982) was an English poet, critic, journalist and literary editor. He became one of the leading communist intellectuals active in the 1930s.


He was born in Colchester, Essex. He served as an officer in the British Army in World War I, having joined the Artists' Rifles in 1916, being awarded a Military Cross. He was a published war poet, and collected his early verse in Behind the Eyes (1921).He went up to the University of Oxford in 1919, staying only four terms reading French literature, and leaving when he married. He then took up literary work in London. He reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement, which led to his celebrated review of T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land. Read more on Wikipedia

Jan Gabrial refers to her and Lowry meeting Rickword at Hugh Sykes Davies and Betty May's flat at Southill Gardens in a diary entry dated Sunday, October 29th 1933; "We are invited back for dinner tomorrow together with an ex-lover of hers (Betty May), Edgell Rickword. I wish Malcolm could be as relaxed as Hugh about these overlapping relationships." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 33).

Betty May

In the Autumn of 1933, Lowry went to live with Hugh Sykes Davis at South Hill Park Gardens in Hampstead, London. Sykes Davies had been approved by Arthur Lowry to act as a "guardian" so that Lowry could stay in London after his problems in Devon during the Summer of 1933. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 165). Sykes Davies was living with Betty May at the time - Sykes Davies told Gordon Bowker; "There was one other person present ...connected rather with me than with him. She had a tendency to drink rather a lot, too - one of Epstein's old models" (Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg. 68).

Born in the East End of London, Betty May became the model and muse to the bohemian elite of London. She sat for Augustus John, Jacob Kramer and caught the attention of Jacob Epstein at the Café Royal where they were all "regulars".She was known as the Tiger Woman - because of her party trick: putting a saucer of brandy on her back, on all fours. Boundary Gallery

Betty May by Epstein 1919

Tiger Woman My Life by Betty May; A beast of a book - literally, because it is very hard to find and also because its value derives from its connection to the Great Beast himself, Aleister Crowley. Briefly, Betty May was born in in Canning Town, (around Tidal Basin) London where she endured an extremely rough childhood. She became an artist's model, moved in decidedly bohemian circles and migrated to Paris where she hung out with the Apaches (motorised robbers mostly). She was known among the Apaches as 'The Tiger-Woman.' Five feet tall and of a witchy appearance she was not a woman to cross, at one point she threatened to murder Crowley. She was married three times, her second husband divorced her because of her overuse of cocaine; having cleaned up she married again for love. Her third husband Raoul Loveday whom she had met at the Harlequin club in London was a young Oxford graduate and keen Egyptologist. Together they made a fateful journey to Crowley's retreat Thelema Abbey in Cefalu, Sicily.


Betty May writes that she detested Crowley but it appears that Loveday was captivated by his personality. Loveday died at Thelema after an illness in slightly mysterious cicumstances. Betty May surmises it was after drinking tainted water at a nearby monastery but the rumour (completely false) was that he expired after drinking cat's blood in a magick ceremony. The newspaper went mad in England and America with headlines such as 'Varsity Lad's Death. Enticed to 'Abbey'. Dreadful ordeal of a young wife...' This is where Crowley's reputation as the Great Beast was made. Betty May, obviously no innocent, was cast as the 'Young English bride' 'Girl-wife' 'Parlour Puss' and Loveday as her 'boy-husband.'  Bookride

Betty May's life was still affected by Crowley while Lowry was living at South Hill Park Gardens.(Read more here)

Jan Gabrial refers to her and Lowry meeting Betty May several times in the Autumn of 1933;  in her diary on Sunday, October 29th 1933 she wrote; "Later we had supper with Hugh Sykes Davies and Betty May, the famous "Tiger Woman". She was a favourite of Jacob Epstein's  and is said to have known everyone, even Ernest Dowson and Oscar Wilde, though this seems impossible. But she is fascinating, warm, friendly, and very very attractive, as well as a wizard cook. We are invited back for dinner tomorrow together with an ex-lover of hers, Edgell Rickword. I wish Malcolm could be as relaxed as Hugh about these overlapping relationships." (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg. 33); Jan and Lowry stayed at South Hill Park Gardens in early November 1933 while Sykes Davis and Betty May where away; "I had a bath and we finished the third of four bottle, then having borrowed one of Betty's gowns, I crawled into bed beside Malc." (Pg.35); "Betty May returned, radiant, just as we were setting off for the Palladium and an indifferent show" (Pg. 35). Jan also related how she and Lowry went to the Marquis of Granby and The Plough pubs with Betty May and Edgell Rickword after Kleinfled's (Fitzroy Tavern). Betty then took them to Smokey Joe's, "a non-alcoholic speakeasy-cum-lesbain pub" (Pg. 36).

The Belle of New York

The Belle of New York is a musical comedy in two acts, with book and lyrics by Hugh Morton and music by Gustave Kerker, about a Salvation Army girl who reforms a spendthrift, makes a great sacrifice and finds true love. Read more on Wikipedia

In letter to Jan Gabrial in August 1933 written at the Vernon Court Hotel, Torquay, Lowry tells Jan that he went to see a "dilapidated musical comedy called The Belle of New York just so as I could think about the title-" (Collected Letters Volume 1 Pg.138). According to the the St Davids Players website - the only production of the play that year was by the Brixham Operatic and Dramatic Society which performed plays during the summer season at the Brixham Theatre.


Act 1
Ichabod Bronson is a weathy hypocrite who preaches virtue to the young, so as to leave more scope for dissipation among the old. His son, Harry, is a feather-brained spendthrift, engaged to Cora Angelique, the Queen of Comic Opera. After a riotous stag night, Harry ends up with Fifi, the daughter of Fricot the confectioner. Ichabod discovers them together and disinherits Harry. Deserted by all but Fifi, Harry wanders into Chinatown in New York, where his fickle fancy is taken by a young Salvation Army woman, Violet Gray. She finds her vocation difficult because, though she tries to persuade men to follow her blameless ways, they persist in following her blameless figure. Ichabod discovers that Violet is the daughter of an old friend and announces his intention to leave his huge fortune to her.

Act 2
Harry has taken a job as a salesman in a candy store on Broadway. Violet and her Salvationist colleagues enter the shop, all decked out in short skirts. She knows that Harry is engaged to Cora and wants the couple to be happy. She tells Harry that she is going to change Ichabod's mind about leaving his money to her. On the beach at Narragansett Casino, she sings a risqué French song, scandalising an audience including Ichabod. The effort of performing the song causes her to faint. Matters are further complicated by the persistent attempts of a German lunatic to kill people, particularly Ichabod, and by the quarrels of Portuguese twins, who keep trying to fight duels with one another. Harry has indeed been much influenced by Violet's virtue and has fallen for her. He explains to his father why Violet has behaved so uncharacteristically, and Ichabod forgives him his earlier sins on condition that he marries Violet, which he is now happy to do.

Torquay, Devon

Torquay is a town in Devon, England. It lies 22 miles (35 km) south of Exeter along the A380 on the north of Torbay, 38 miles (61 km) north-east of Plymouth and adjoins the neighbouring town of Paignton on the west of the bay. The town's economy was initially based upon fishing and agriculture as in the case of Brixham across Torbay, but in the early 19th century the town began to develop into a fashionable seaside resort, initially frequented by members of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars while the Royal Navy anchored in the bay and later by the crème de la crème of Victorian society as the town's fame spread. Renowned for its healthful climate, the town earned the nickname of the English Riviera and favourable comparisons to Montpellier. Read more on Wikipedia

Lowry stayed in the resort at the Vernon Court Hotel while recuperating after his admittance to the Morteonhampstead Cottage Hospital in June 1933. He stayed in the resort up until late September. The recuperation was arranged and paid for by Arthur Lowry. Lowry did occasionally go to London and elsewhere though he was supposed to be confined to the resort. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 163). He acquired a MG F-Type Magna from Tom Forman while he was staying in Torquay. Lowry was visited in Torquay by Bob Pocock who he met through James Travers who also visited. Lowry went swimming in Torre Abbey Sands Beach while recuperating. Lowry wrote to Jan Gabrial asking her to visit him in Torquay and to travel there via Plymouth from France onboard the Paris. (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano Pg.22).

According to Bowker, Lowry was very unstable while staying in Torquay. (Pg. 164). He suffered paranoia whilst out swimming off Torre Abbey Sands.

Lowry wrote to Jan Gabrial in August 1931 from the Vernon Court Hotel;  "Torquay "a funny, tawdry place, on the sea, like a pub picture of China gone crazy, only its got speedboats & plenty of sea & diving boards & this afternoon a cruiser, god knows where that came from. And we shall spend some blue sea mornings here." (Collected Letters Volume 1 Pg. 137). Lowry may be referring to the visit of HMS Renown to Torbay in July 1933 when King Feisal of Iraq visited the ship.


In another letter to Jan in August 1933, Lowry wrote; "I told you that Torquay was drab in daytime but at night like a picture postcard of China. Its a loveable & laughable kind of tawdriness though: harbours full of immense toy battleships, quite cuckoo." (Collected Letters Volume 1 Pg. 138). He also tells Jan that he went to see an "American crook film" and a "dilapidated musical comedy called The Belle of New York just so as I could think about the title-" (Pg.138). 

Vernon Court Hotel, Torquay, Devon

The hotel is located in Warren Road, Torquay - "TORQUAY VERNON COURT HOTEL (unlicensed). Overlooking Princess Gardens, Pavilion Harbour, Town Gardens and Tennis Courts. Electric lift to all floors. Greatly enlarged and re-furnished. Magnificent balcony ( Royal Automobile Club guide and handbook) and TORQUAY.— Vernon Court Hotel ; 1 South aspect ; h.and c. all bed, garage. From 3 guineas. (National and English review: Volume 102). The hotel has now been converted into apartments offerings fantastic panoramic views across The English Riviera, including Torquay marina to the left, Brixham and Paignton across the water, and Torre Abbey beach below. The hotel is to the centre of Torquay and Torre Abbey Sands can be accessed from directly below the hotel via a path.


Lowry stayed with his friend James Travers who owned a silver-fox farm near Chagford in early June 1933. On the 12th June, Lowry was admitted to Morteonhampstead Cottage Hospital suffering from "dysentry" contracted in Spain, though Clarissa Aiken reported that he had gone in for drying out. (Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 159). Lowry left the hospital after several days to recuperate at the Vernon Court Hotel in Torquay. The accommodation was arranged and paid for by Arthur Lowry. Lowry garaged his MG F-type Magna at the hotel's garage. He was visited here by James Travers and Bob Pocock during the Summer of 1933. Lowry went swimming on the nearby Torre Abbey Sands.

Lowry wrote to Jan Gabrial from the hotel and 6 letters survive (Collected Letters Volume 1 Pgs.133-138)

MG F-Type Magna

The MG F-type Magna was a six-cylinder-engined car produced by the MG Car company from October 1931 to 1932. It was also known as the 12/70. Fitted with 1 in (25 mm) twin SU carburettors it produced 37.2 bhp (27.7 kW) at 4100 rpm at first, later increased to 47 bhp (35 kW) by revising the valve timing. Drive was to the rear wheels through a four-speed non-synchromesh gearbox of ENV manufacture. The chassis was a 10-inch (250 mm) longer version of the one from the MG D-type with suspension by half-elliptic springs and Hartford friction shock absorbers all round with rigid front and rear axles. Wire wheels with 4.00 x 19 tyres and centre lock fixing were used. The car had a wheelbase of 94 in (2,388 mm) and a track of 42 in (1,067 mm). With its sloping radiator and long bonnet the F-Type is an attractive car capable of reaching 70 mph (110 km/h). 188 of the cars were supplied in chassis form to outside coachbuilders such as Abbey, Jarvis, Stiles and Windover. Read more on Wikipedia 

After Lowry was released Morteonhampstead Cottage Hospital, he decided that he needed a car like (James) Travers but better (Draft Dark as the Grave Wherein Lies My Friend Pg 692). Lowry recalled the MG Magna that Tom Forman wanted to sell and went to London. However, Tom Forman gave him the car as a present. Somehow, Lowry with the help of James Travers got the car down where he was staying at the Vernon Court Hotel in Torquay Devon.(Gordon Bowker Pursued By Furies Pg. 160). Though he took instruction from Travers, Lowry was too nervous to drive the car alone.

In September, Travers invited him to a pub crawl with Bob Pocock and told Lowry to bring the car. Lowry drove from Torquay by himself to Chagford embarking on a drinking spree with Travers and Pocock. After leaving the Three Crowns Hotel in Chagford, Lowry crashed the car on a narrow road while following Travers back to his farm - 'disembowelled it on a great tombstone of a rock' (Gordon Day Malcolm Lowry Pg. 181). Jan Gabrial recalled the car; "He'd wrecked his short-lived MG Magna, but was fortunately unhurt. Thank God I had not been with him when he crashed!" Jan says that though the car was a wreck, Lowry still talked about driving in it to the South France; "When we go to the South of France we must take the MG" (Jan Gabrial Inside The Volcano" Pg. 22). Arthur Lowry arranged for the car to be towed back to Liverpool.

Lowry refers to the car in his novel Under The Volcano; "......The English "King's Parade" voice, scarcely above him, the Consul saw now, of an extremely long low car drawn up beside him, murmurous: an MG Magna.....(Pg. 84); in October Ferry to Gabriola; "Nor their towing the MG away — it was still the same one (and one of the few of its kind, that special 1932 four-seater convertible MG Magna "University" model), like the sporting hearse..." (Pg. 115)

Birmingham, England

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England.


Lowry, Jan Gabrial and Tom Forman stayed overnight in the city after being forced to land at Castle Bromwich Aerodrome en route from Heston to RAF Hooton Park as part of their trip to North Wales in September/October 1933. Jan recalled the stay when she was interviewed by Gordon Bowker; "Finally we landed in Birmingham. Birmingham and Bismark, North Dakota, I think, will go down in my memory as the two most God-awful places that I have ever been to in my life. We had steak and kidney pie, which was cold and which I threw up as soon as I got to my room, and it was an utterly disastrous town and gloomy." (Gordon Bowker Malcolm Lowry Remembered Pg. 94)