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…

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…

Out of the blue I received an email from Dr Iain Macdonald asking whether I knew of any connection between Robert Keable and his great uncle. Iain was in Tahiti launching his new book William Alister Macdonald, Watercolours from Thurso, the Thames and Tahiti about the life and work of the artist and he had just come across my book about my grandfather. In my ignorance I had never heard of the artist nor have I ever come across his name in connection with Robert Keable. But the similarities betw…

Robert Keable claimed in the introduction to the American edition of Simon Called Peter that his intention was to ‘lift the veil’ on the life behind the lines during the war. He argued that the horror of war made men and women less restrained, ‘reckless’ and willing to throw ‘conventions to the winds’. And he suggested life in France was like the pages of La Vie Parisienne:

A man arrived, weary and dirty and craving for excitement, in some unknown town; in…

Robert Keable was a full-time writer for the last few years of his life having previously been a priest and rising star on the Anglo-Catholic section of the Church of England. However, he was also a historian and for four terms in the early 1920s a history teacher.

His father was a successful businessman who retrained as a priest, moving to Croydon at the turn of the century. Keable embraced his parents’ evangelical faith and threw himself into the life of the church, preaching in the…

Did Robert Keable teach at Dulwich College?

When I first started to research the life of Robert Keable almost 25 years ago, I began by reading his obituaries written back in 1927. All of them mentioned that he taught at Dulwich College in South London. I was surprised therefore when I came across a letter from the then archivist at the school WJ Wright to Dr Douglas dated 26^th October 1959.

I cannot find a trace of him, no mention in the Alleynian, nor is he included in the list of Assist…