THE Keighley-born poet and playwright Gordon Bottomley (1874-1948) seems little remembered now in his home town, possibly because his delicate health caused his family to move to Morecambe Bay in his youth, and he spent most of his adult life at Silverdale.
But he remained grateful for the education he received at the Keighley Trade and Grammar School.
His poem To Iron-Founders and Others used to be much anthologised, while his work ranges from his earlier Pre-Raphaelite lyricism to later experimental drama for performance in churches. He was also influenced by Celtic legend, his play Deirdire being first published in a Gaelic translation.
Two of his verse-plays, Gruach and King Lear's Wife, form imaginative prequels to Shakespeare's Macbeth and King Lear respectively. The former won a French literary prize in 1923. When the latter was performed at His Majesty's Theatre, London, in 1916, Lady Tree took the title role but "shrank" in Bottomley's words, "from expressing too many early British feelings", and the play was censored. At any rate, incidental music was provided by no less than Ivor Novello.
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