Sir Compton Mackenzie

Howard J. Booth (University of Manchester)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.08: English Writing and Culture of the early Twentieth Century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Chris Baldick (Goldsmiths College, University of London), Peter Childs (Birmingham Newman University), Louise McDonald (Birmingham Newman University), Andrew Radford (University of Glasgow)

Dates

Born 17 Jan 1883
Died 30 Nov 1972
Activity 1907-1972

Places

Born in England
Active in England; Italy; Scotland; Greece

Activities

Primary

Autobiographer
Music critic or historian
Novelist

Other

Film/TV Script-writer/ Screenwriter

Resources

Mackenzie's Works

Save to Bookshelf

During a long life Compton Mackenzie produced 112 books and was active in many areas. His enthusiasms were as varied as religion, spying, ancient and modern Greece, islands, the gramophone, Scottish nationalism, the Indian army under the Raj and new broadcast media. Over time his writing often represented, and helped to pay for, these passions. His early work, such as

Carnival

(1912) and

Sinister Street

(2 vols., 1913, 1914), was a critical success, and after 1940 he gained a new audience with well-crafted comedies such as

The Monarch of the Glen

(1941) and

Whisky Galore

(1947). Mackenzie was one of the last voices to speak from memory of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. His ten-volume autobiography covers

the period from the 1880s to the early 1970s.

Both Mackenzie's parents,

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2884 words

Citation: Booth, Howard J.. "Sir Compton Mackenzie". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 23 June 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2857, accessed 24 November 2024.]