 Elizabeth Poston 1905-1987
Elizabeth Poston was born on 24th October 1905, at Highfield House, Pin Green, Stevenage, the site of which is now occupied by Hampson Park. In 1914, a year after the death of her father, she and her brother were taken by their mother, Clementine, to live at Rooks Nest House, childhood home of E.M. Forster. She lived there for the rest of her life, until 1987.
|
|
A highly regarded composer and musicologist, Elizabeth Poston had a distinguished career in radio broadcasting. During World War II she worked for the BBC in London, Bedford and Bristol, ending as a 'secret agent', using gramophone records to send coded messages to allies in Europe. She never revealed the exact nature of this work and it remains secret to this day. After the war, she was one of the team who founded the Third Programme, which became Radio 3. She was an authority on carols and folk-music; her two Penguin books of Christmas carols, published in 1965 and 1970, were regarded as definitive. One of her best-known and loved carols is Jesus Christ the Apple Tree, which is a regular feature of the Christmas Eve service of Nine Lessons and Carols televised from King's College, Cambridge. How many people realise that the composer lived and worked in Stevenage? |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Elizabeth Poston Products Available |
|
|
|
|
There are now five books and a DVD to tie in with Elizabeth Poston and the 2005 celebration. Please scroll down for the books' chapter headings. Newly published (April 2009) is Elizabeth Poston: Letters to William and Sheila Busch by John S. Alabaster (Editor) and Julia Busch. The Forword is by our Chairman, Mervyn Terrett. Her letters make clear how much she relished the tranquility of this part of Hertfordshire. The correspondence also gives many fascinating insights into 1940s musical life. The previous volume is Elizabeth Poston: Her Own Words which focuses on her attachment to the house and surrounding Green Belt Forster Country, drawing on the very large number of letters she wrote to her close friends, particularly to Canadian composer, Jean Coulthard from the 1940s, as well as her incomplete autobiographical drafts. It also includes correspondence from the 1930s relevant to Peter Warlock. |
|
Read more...
|
|
|
Elizabeth Poston 
