English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
After a long visit to Davos, Colonel Munro returned with his family to
England and settled in North Devon, where he devoted himself during the
next two years to directing the studies of his son and daughter. Then
came another long visit to Davos, after which Hector left England and
joined the Burmese Mounted Police. He once told me of the feeling of
loneliness he experienced when he first arrived in Burmah, using almost
the same words in which he described Bassington’s sense of isolation in
the colony to which he was sent. That account of the young Englishman
looking enviously at a native boy and girl, racing wildly along in the
joy of youth and companionship, is one of the rare instances of
autobiography in Munro’s works. He was unable to support the Burmese
climate and, after having fever seven times in eleven months, was forced
to return to England. He remained at home for a year and hunted
regularly with his sister during the winter. He then came to London with
the intention of making a literary career for himself. His talent was
recognised by Sir Francis Gould, to whom a friend had given him an
introduction, and he soon began to write for the _Westminster Gazette_.
Two years after he settled in London the publication of the political
satires, based on _Alice in Wonderland_, brought him into prominence as a
wit and a writer to be counted with. Mr. Balfour was his chief butt in
these pieces. He was still, as he always remained, a Conservative, but
he held at the time that Mr. Balfour’s leadership was a weakness to the
party.
In 1902 Munro went to the Balkans for the _Morning Post_, and later he
became the correspondent of that paper in St. Petersburg, where he was
during the revolution of 1905.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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