My favourite unwritten biographies

[Paul McKeown]

I was round at Richard James's yesterday evening (thank you, Richard) and at one point the conversation turned to books that have not yet been written. I suggested that I would love to see proper biographies of William Winter, Sir George Thomas and Jonathan Penrose (and the Penrose family in general), as they all had a large and positive impact on British chess and also its image abroad. Richard suggested that he would like to see a properly researched book on Blackburne.

Is anyone out there up for the challenge?

Or do other people have other, as yet unwritten, biographies?

[John Upham]

I would like to see biographies of Penrose (both Jonathan and Roger would be of interest to myself) plus Julian Hodgson and Mike Basman.

I wonder if IGMRDKOBE would be interested along with Julian Simpole

[Alex McFarlane]

Thought you might like to know that Oliver Penrose continues to play competitive chess in Edinburgh, today winning the Lothians Championship.

[Matthew Turner]

An extremely interesting biography would be David Norwood's. He has given £120 million to British Universities. Quite a remarkable achievement, which one might think was worthy of a gong?

[Jonathan Rogers]

James Pratt told me in 2007 that he was working on a biography on Basman, but I don't know whether he is ready to publish anything yet.

[James Pratt]

Unfortunately the Basman biography, for which I got MJB's permission, had to be abandoned for personal reasons. I also tried to assemble stuff about Penrose but here my problem was technical, he was just so strong, his life so dull! I will willing sell my Penrose findings to anybody interested.

[Paul McKeown]

I will willing sell my Penrose findings to anybody interested.

You are joking, aren't you? No one can make money writing a proper chess biography. Its a labour of love. Why would anyone pay for second hand material?

P.

[TomChivers]

I'd like to see a biography of Nigel Short written by Tony Miles.

[Simon Spivack]

I will willing sell my Penrose findings to anybody interested.

You are joking, aren't you? No one can make money writing a proper chess biography. It's a labour of love. Why would anyone pay for second hand material?

P.

Ouch! Perhaps there is some value in James's source materials, if he has any.

[James Pratt]

I have some terrific stuff on Penrose with any amount of cross referencing and detailed knowledge, I was offered a contract and a GM to work with but declined. Penrose is a very shy man and probably hated the idea of a biography. I respected his privacy but, as I say, did not proceed for other reasons. My notes took about two years to assemble. To the right potential author, of course they'd have value. I think we may be at cross purposes here, Paul McK. Never mind!

James Pratt (Basingstoke!)