The HV Morton Society

HV Morton with wife Mary and son Timothy at home
in Somerset West, Christmas, 1966
(Picture courtesy of Mrs Jo Walters and Kenneth Fields)

The HV Morton Society was founded on 15th December 2003 by small a group of admirers keen to gain recognition for this now sadly underappreciated author. The membership has grown steadily ever since and is fully international. The aims of the society are simple – to promote interest in and exchange information on the life and works of writer and journalist HV Morton (HVM).

How the society works:

In essence the society is a group of like-minded friends. We are entirely internet based and membership is free. On joining, members are signed up to our Google Group and then start receive regular bulletins from the coordinator (that’s me!).

New members are first introduced to the rest of the society in a welcome bulletin when their email address and any biographical information provided are circulated to allow others to get in touch direct. The email address of any member who contributes material for bulletins will also be included at the end of the piece so that members receiving it can submit comments direct to the author.

This encourages a spirit of openness among members and to the best of my knowledge has never been abused. In fact, as a result of this policy, over the years there are a number of members who have become firm internet friends.

No member’s email address will ever be given by the coordinator to anyone outside the society and none are ever posted on our blog.

Society bulletins:

Bulletins cover a wide variety of subjects from significant global events such as the Atlantic Charter Conference and the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun to more informal subjects such as, for instance, the connection between HV Morton, Marilyn Monroe and the scooter ridden by Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck in the film A Holiday in Rome! We also explore Morton the man, look at his family history, his personality and his motivation. His travels, ocean cruises and friendships are discussed; books are reviewed, correspondence scrutinised and lesser known works made accessible. Some bulletins, but by no means all, are later posted on the blog in the public domain.

The Blue Plaque commemorating HV Morton, situated in Henry Square, Ashton under Lyne

The Google Group:

Our Google Group is set up as a distribution group, not a discussion forum, to emulate the early days when emails were simply sent to members en masse. Replies to bulletins are most welcome, they will come to the coordinator only rather than to the whole group and it’s the job of the coordinator to collate these replies and distribute them back to the group. As you would imagine this involves a fair degree of work and I am currently considering ways for members to exchange views more directly. The Google Group has its own website where members can access a complete archive of bulletins dating back to 2014.

If you’d like to join:

If you’d like to join the HV Morton Society please let me know by completing the form below.

Please include the region or city or country you live in as well as a paragraph or two about yourself, how you first discovered HV Morton, what you particularly enjoy about him, that sort of thing. It’s good to have some details which will serve as an introduction to the rest of the members. Thank you in advance for joining and a warm welcome to the HV Morton Society!