When I was young, I didn’t know much about my grandfather. All I knew was that Robert Keable had been a well-known popular novelist in the 1920s, since forgotten, and that he had run away to live in Tahiti after the First World War, and died there. If I ever told anyone the little I knew, they would invariably say something along the lines of: ‘oh, just like Gauguin.’ 

Robert Keable in Tahiti 1927

It all seemed very exotic that my grandfather could be like Gaug…

You wait 4 years to publish a new book and then two come along in the same month! Well not quite two whole books. There is my non-fiction story of 1920’s writers and artists in Tahiti – Guys like Gauguin - published by Troubador Publishing next month and then also my contribution to a book on African fiction.

There Came a Time 3 … Fiction as Memory

Three years ago, I was asked by Anne Sansom the co-ordinator of the Great War Africa Association (GWAA) if I would be inter…

In my new book, Guys like Gauguin, I look at the writers and artists who lived in Tahiti in the 1920s. But I begin the book by considering the writers and artists who helped create the image of Tahiti as an island paradise. And I look at how the timing of the ‘discovery’ of Tahiti by Europeans was so significant occurring during the Age of Enlightenment and when Neoclassicalism art was at its peak.

Neoclassicalism

The four major Western art movements between 1600 and 1850s wer…

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…

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…

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…

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 …

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…