My interest in Tahiti comes from the fact that my grandfather Robert Keable, an Englishman, lived there in the 1920s. As I show in my book Guys like Gauguin (coming out in August 2026) there were a number of English and American writers and artists who settled on the island during that decade. Part of the attraction of Tahiti at that time was that it was French. It meant high quality food, cheap wines and spirits and officials who seldom interfered. But why was the island French and not English…

While researching for my book Guys like Gauguin I spent some time in the National Archives in Kew looking at the British consul’s papers from the 1920s. Much of the consul’s time was spent looking after the upkeep of the consul buildings and the petty disputes between British citizens and locals on the island but occasionally he was drawn into more serious matters. Two possible suicides attracted my attention.

The first was the death of Archibald Morrison. In June 1922 …

Guys like Gauguin, my book on British and American ex-pats who moved to Tahiti in the 1920s, published by Troubador is coming out in August 2026.

My interest in 1920s Tahiti arose out of research into the life of my grandfather, Robert Keable. I was particularly intrigued by his book Tahiti, Isle of Dreams. Keable arrived in Tahiti at the end of 1922 with his common-law wife Jolie Buck, having just separated from his newly converted catholic wife Sybil. He spent the first…

In my book Guys like Gauguin, I look at the lives and work of some of the artists and writers who travelled to live and work in Tahiti in the 1920s.

Paul Engdahl

Engdahl was born in the small historic city of Kristinehamn in Sweden in 1888. As a young man he joined the Rackstad art colony who were at the forefront of a new Swedish art movement, National Romanticism, which focused on nature, Nordic folklore and national identity.

He arrived in Tahiti in the early 1920s and Robert K…

In my book Guys like Gauguin, I look at the lives and work of some of the artists and writers who travelled to live and work in Tahiti in the 1920s.

Adriaan Herman Gouwe

Gouwe born in the Netherlands in 1875 was a Dutch Luminist, painting glorious sunrises and sunsets often with his trademark ox and plough. He was highly rated as a painter, mentioned in the same breath as his Dutch contemporary Piet Mondrian, and yet in 1927 he ran away to Tahiti and lived on the nearby island of Raiatea …

My new book Guys like Gauguin will be published in August 2026. Below is the index of chapters

Part One: The Enduring Image

1. The creation of the image of Tahiti: first visitors

2. Tahiti in the 19^th century

3. Repeating the image: 19^th-century writers and artists

4. Paul Gauguin      

5. Tahiti at the beginning of the 20^th century

Part Two: The 1920s Craze

6. The books that started the craze

7. The South Seas and Tahiti…

Just how famous was Robert Keable in New Zealand and how popular was his bestselling novel?

Robert Keable, Simon Called Peter and New Zealand

Simon Called Peter was first published in the UK in April 1921. The book caused quite a sensation in England as people started to realise that a former Church of England priest and World War One chaplain had written a novel about a military chaplain having an adulterous relationship with a nurse, in France, during the war. Although the novel was pre…

Robert Keable and Chat GPT

My intention with this website is to put Robert Keable and Simon Called Peter on the map. One hundred years ago he was a well-known author who had published a famous scandalous novel. The novel was a bestseller, mentioned in The Great Gatsby and spawned a Broadway play and the sequel a Hollywood movie. Today, despite my efforts, Keable and the novel are practically unknown. As if proof were needed, I asked ChatGPT for help.

During a brief conversation ChatGPT m…

April 10th, 2025 is the hundreth anniversary of the publication of The Great Gatsby. In the 1920s Simon Called Peter was a considerably more popular novel but was seen as immoral by Scott Fitzgerald and has been virtually forgotten today. The accusation of immorality, from Fitzgerald of all people, has always concerned me. Below is my examination of the accusation.

Is Simon Called Peter any more immoral than The Great Gatsby?

Simon Called Peter, best known for being referenced in The Grea…

Although I usually write everything on my blog I thought I would repost Ian Kellett's kind blog promoting my talk at the Shaftesbury Gold Hill Museum 

5th January 2025 by Ian Kellett

F.Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, published in April 1925, is widely regarded as a literary masterpiece and a classic example of the Great American Novel. By 2020 it was thought to have sold nearly 30 million copies worldwide, and 500,000 annually. Through the eyes of n…

Audiobooks by Robert Keable

In August 2024 I was invited to speak at a monthly meeting of the Weston Turville U3A at Aylesbury Rugby Club. This was my 28^th U3A talk about my grandfather Robert Keable and his scandalous novel Simon Called Peter. It is rare for anyone attending my talks to have heard of Robert Keable, or any of his novels, but occasionally one of the U3A members has prepared for my talk by reading or at least starting to read Simon Called Peter. Up until this point no one had …

Did Gauguin inspire 1920s visitors to Tahiti?

Robert Keable lived in Paul Gauguin’s house in Tahiti for a year in 1923 twenty-five years after Gauguin had left the island for the last time. But who was Gauguin and how famous was he by 1923? Two recent excellent books, Wild Thing, A life of Paul Gauguin by Sue Prideaux and Gauguin and Polynesia by Nicholas Thomas, have shed more light on the life of Gauguin. I am currently preparing a talk on American and British writers and artists who…