John Davys Beresford (17 March 1873 – 2 February 1947) was an English writer, now remembered mainly for his early science fiction and some short stories of the horror story and ghost story genres. Beresford was a great admirer of H. G. Wells, and wrote the first critical study of Wells in 1915.Michael R. Page, The Literary Imagination from Erasmus Darwin to H.G. Wells:Science, Evolution, and Ecology Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2012 (p. 191) . His Wellsian novel The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911) was a major influence for the author Olaf Stapledon.Brian Stableford, The Hampdenshire Wonder in Frank N. Magill, ed. Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Vol. 2. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1979. pp. 945–949. His other science-fiction novels include The Riddle of the Tower, about a dystopian, hive-like society.Brian Stableford, The Riddle of the Tower in Frank N. Magill, ed. Survey of Science Fiction Literature, Vol. 4. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Salem Press, 1979. pp. 1780–1783.
Life His father, John James Beresford (1821 – 1897), was a Fellow of St John's College, Cambridge, and Rector of Castor. His mother was Adelaide Elizabeth Morgan."CAMBRIDGE: MARRIED. On the 18th inst., at Brighton, the Rev. John James Beresford, M.A., Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge, and Rector of Castor, to Adelaide Elizabeth, youngest daughter of the late Thos. Morgan, Esq.", Bury and Norwich Post, Tuesday 23 May 1865, p. 6 J. D. Beresford was affected by infantile paralysis, which left him partially disabled.Stanley J. Kunitz and Howard Haycraft, Twentieth Century Authors, A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Literature, (Third Edition). New York, The H.W. Wilson Company, 1950, (pp. 130-131)George M. Johnson, J. D. Beresford. Twayne Publishers, 1998 . (p.2) He was educated at Oundle.
After training to become an architect, he became a professional writer, first as a dramatist, and journalist. During early adulthood, he rejected his father's theism and became a "determined but defensive" agnostic.SF Encyclopedia article In 1903 Beresford read the book Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death by the psychical researcher Frederic W. H. Myers, which Beresford later stated had an enormous influence on his thought."Beresford, J. D.", by Johnson, George M. In Johnson (ed.) Dictionary of Literary Biography Volume 197: Late-Victorian and Edwardian British novelists. Detroit : Gale Research, 1999. (pgs. 15-30). He combined a life in Edwardian literary London with time spent in the provinces, in particular Cornwall, where D. H. Lawrence had an extended stay in his Porthcothan cottage. During the period around the First World War Beresford befriended several British writers, including Dorothy Richardson, Walter de la Mare, Naomi Royde-Smith and May Sinclair. Later in life Beresford abandoned his earlier agnosticism and described himself as a Theosophist and a pacifist.
Beresford was also interested in psychology, and attended several meetings organised by Alfred Richard Orage to discuss psychological issues. Other attendees at these meetings included Havelock Ellis, Clifford Sharp, David Eder and Maurice Nicoll.Mathew Thompson, Psychological Subjects: Identity, Culture, and Health in Twentieth-Century Britain. Oxford University Press, 2006. (p. 78-80).
Beresford also contributed to numerous publications; in addition to being a book reviewer for The Manchester Guardian, he also wrote for the New Statesman,Bashir Abu-Manneh, Fiction of the New Statesman: 1913 – 1939, Lexington Books, 2011 . (p. 37) The Spectator, Westminster Gazette, and the Theosophist magazine The Aryan Path.Johnson, ( p.177) At one time, Beresford was offered the editorship of the pacifist magazine Peace News but refused because he claimed he "would be a bad editor".Johnson, p. 30.
Beresford's interest with spiritualism and philosophy may be illustrated best by the publisher's notes to his novel, On A Huge Hill:
"Mr Beresford's readers have long known that that for him there are more things in heaven or earth than are dreamt of in official medical philosophy. He has used his novelist's skill to convince the sensitive reader that the age of miracles is not over, and that, in certain circumstances, the spirit may exercise what seem to us miraculous powers over the substance of the body. This he did in 'The Camberwell Miracle' and 'Peckover'; and in this absorbing novel, he returns to the theme, with the study of a man fitting himself to become a great healer."
Personal life Beresford was married twice, first to Florence Linda Brown (1870 – 1916) and then to Eveline "Trissy" Beatrice Auford Roskams (1880 – 1975) In 1930, he was reported as the father of four children."J. D. BERESFORD", Clarion, Wednesday 01 October 1930, p. 5
At the time of the census of 1921, the Beresford family was living at White House, East Claydon, Buckinghamshire, with three servants living in and with two visitors, the illustrator Alan Odle and his wife the novelist Dorothy Richardson."Marcus James Beresford" in the 1921 England Census1921 United Kingdom census, White House, East Claydon, Winslow, Ancestry.com, accessed 20 November 2025
Elisabeth Beresford (1926–2010), children's writer and creator of The Wombles, was Beresford's daughter. Through his son, writer Marc Brandel (Marcus Beresford), he is the great-grandfather of American actors Griffin Newman and James Newman.
Reception and influence Upon publication in 1911, The Hampdenshire Wonder was lauded by George Bernard Shaw.
Reviewing Beresford's novel 1921 Revolution, Virginia Woolf criticised the novel's characterisations, but praised its "intellectual efficiency". In 1924, the French writer Abel Chevalley lauded Beresford as a writer " most equally endowed with that intelligence and that imagination of life which make good writers of fiction."Johnson, George M. Dynamic Psychology in Modernist British Fiction London, Palgrave Macmillan 2005 (pg. 144)
Dorothy L. Sayers quotes from Beresford's book Writing Aloud in her book on theology, Mind of the Maker; Sayers calls Writing Aloud "an extraordinarily fascinating book."Dorothy L. Sayers, Mind of the Maker, Continuum, 2005 (p. 25). Reprint of 1941 edition. She also mentions him in passing in Whose Body?.Dorothy L. Sayers, Whose Body?, Gollancz, 1947 (p. 141). Reprint of 1928 first edition.
John Betjeman, reviewing The Riddle of the Tower for the Daily Herald, called the book "a great feat of the imagination."
George Orwell in 1945 described him as a "natural novelist", whose strength, particularly in A Candidate For Truth, was his ability to take seriously the problems of ordinary people."Good Bad Books" Tribune 2 November 1945
In 1971 Graham Greene wrote that "The Hampdenshire Wonder remains one of the finest and most neglected novels of this period between the great wars."
Works The Early History of Jacob Stahl (1911), the first of a trilogy of novels with A Candidate For Truth and The Invisible Event The Hampdenshire Wonder (1911) Novel A Candidate For Truth (1912) Goslings: A World of Women (1913) Novel The House in Demetrius Road (1914) Novel The Invisible Event (1915) Novel H.G. Wells (1915) criticism These Lynneskers (1916) Novel William Elphinstone Ford (1917) biography, with Kenneth Richmond House Mates (1917) Novel Nineteen Impressions (1918) stories God's Counterpoint (1918) Novel The Jervaise Comedy (1919) Novel The Imperfect Mother (1920) Novel Signs and Wonders (1921, Golden Cockerel Press) stories Revolution (1921) Novel The Prisoners of Hartling (1922) Novel The Imperturbable Duchess and Other Stories (1923) Monkey Puzzle (1925) That Kind of Man, or Almost Pagan (1926) Novel The Decoy (1927) Novel The Instrument of Destiny (1928) mystery novel All or Nothing (1928) Novel Writing Aloud (1928) Non-fiction Real People (1929) Novel The Meeting Place and Other Stories (1929) Love's Illusion (1930) The Next Generation (1932) Novel The Old People (1932) Novel The Camberwell Miracle (1933) novel Peckover (1934) Novel On A Huge Hill (1935) Novel Blackthorn Winter and other stories (1936) Cleo (1937) Novel What Dreams May Come (1941) Novel A Common Enemy (1941) Novel Men in the Same Boat (1943) (with Esmé Wynne-Tyson) The Riddle of the Tower (1944) (with Esmé Wynne-Tyson) (reprinted by Solar Press in 2023) The Gift (1947) (with Esmé Wynne-Tyson) The Prisoner Love's Pilgrim The Tapestry
References
Further reading Frank Swinnerton, "Oliver Onions and J.D. Beresford", in The Georgian literary scene, 1910–1935. London, : London, Heinemann (1935). George M. Johnson, "J.D. Beresford". Dictionary of Literary Biography. British Short-Fiction Writers 1915–1945. Ed. John H. Rogers. Detroit: Gale Research (1996). Richard Bleiler, "John Davys Beresford" in Darren Harris-Fain, ed. British Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers Before World War I. Detroit, MI: Gale Research, (1997). George M. Johnson, J.D. Beresford New York : Twayne Publishers. (1998) George M. Johnson, "J.D. Beresford". Dictionary of Literary Biography. Late-Victorian and Edwardian British Novelists, Second Series. Ed. George M. Johnson. Detroit: Gale Research, (1999). George M. Johnson, Dynamic Psychology in Modernist British Fiction. Palgrave Macmillan, U.K., 2006. George M. Johnson, "The Other Side of Edwardian Fiction: Two Forgotten Fantasy Novels of 1911". Wormwood: Literature of the fantastic, supernatural and decadent. U.K., No. 16 (Spring 2011) 3–15. George M. Johnson, "Evil is in the Eye of the Beholder: Threatening Children in Two Edwardian Speculative Satires". Science Fiction Studies. Vol. 41, No.1 (March 2014): 26–44.
External links
J. D. Beresford, The Online Books Page, University of Pennsylvania
Digitized works by J. D. Beresford at Toronto Public Library Play by J. D. Beresford and Kenneth Richmond on Great War Theatre