[Jerome Betts]

Thank you again, Steve, for a remarkable and memorable post.

Some snippets from trawling booksellers on-line:

The Bsc perhaps ties up with the early piece below. 'The Rhyme and the Resaon' is on the theme of science and poetry. The music ties up with his writing the words for a mixed chorus and piano piece 'Felicity of the Animal World'. Among the novels seems to be 'Two Northern Stories' and possibly 'Good Wives'. There is also 'Nine Legends' 1991. 'A Muezzin From The Tower Of Darkness Cries' may be the American edition of 'Turkey Observed'. 'Allotments' appeared again in a very limited luxury edition in 1991 with a foreword by Alan Titchmarsh, the ubiquitous British gardening guru. There's a 20 page introduction to 'Gengis Khan' about the Mongolian language and RPL's research methods.

The Origin of Species
by R. P. Lister, 1948

At the bottom of a chasm
Long before the birth of Time
Lay a piece of protoplasm
In the paleozoic slime.

The mud flats oozed and bubbled,
And the vapors swirled and stank;
But his conscience was untroubled,
For he neither smoked nor drank.

The air was full of acid
And he breathed it all day long,
But his thoughts were calm and placid
For he never done no wrong.

Very humble was his station
He had never heard of Wells
Yet he fathered all creation
By the splitting of his cells.

Every nation small or splendid
(Even when of Nordic blood)
Is in point of fact descended
From that simple lump of mud.

From that humble organ's splitting
Came both crocodile and cow
Yet I cannot help admitting
They are very different now.

[Ann Drysdale]

I'd like to point out that, for me, the greater part of my pleasure in this adventure lies is the easy grace of Steve's narration. Each entry in his diary of discovery has been a joy to read and I salute his craftsmanship. Thank you Steve, not just for the story but for the skill of the telling.

[Jerome Betts]

Listers seem to crop up everywhere onced you are sensitised. The following is from a geology site. Perhaps some Eratogeologist can tell us what the technical terms are about. (I hope that's enough discussion, Maryann.)

Incidentally, crops up in the London Gazette for April 1945 as an 'Honorary Flight Lieutenant' (if I've understood the entry correctly) so may have been in the RAF in the war.

The Judgement, by R.P. Lister, 1960

I dreamed the judgement came to me by night
They stood around my bed, severe of mien
And asked one question “what is enstatite?”

“It is an orthorhombic pyroxene,”
I said, and as I spoke I heard the jangle
Of planets crashing down the cosmic seas.

I added hastily: “It’s cleavage angle
is eighty-seven (more or less) degrees.
If it were fifty-six, not eighty-seven

We should, quite clearly, have an amphibole.”
At this they swept me, singing up to heaven,
Where angels’ hands received my battered soul.

[Allen Tice]

That poem is sublime!

[Steve Bucknell]

I have just spent the last hour chatting on the telephone to Richard. What a wonderful man! He phoned me out of the blue this evening. My email must have prompted someone to give him my number. I am pleased to say his health remains excellent and his mind remains sharp, although he is not writing. He has great support and many friends. He has invited me down to see him “for a drink and a nosh” which I intend to do before “our birthday” in November.

Coincidence piles on coincidence. He worked as a metallurgist at Samuel Fox’s steelworks in Stocksbridge, near to where I live. He has walked the same walks, been to the same pubs and enjoyed the same landscape. He loved it here, walking by the reservoirs to the local pubs. He lodged at a farmhouse in Upper MIdhope, which I know well. He then worked in his protected profession through the war in London at the Ministry of Aircraft Production. He lived through the Blitz. His account of this in “The Questing Beast” is vivid.

He was a friend of Graham Greene, through his publisher wife Elaine Greene. He describes Greene as “a very nice man, very approachable.” He confirms that he didn’t really mix in literary circles or read much poetry, but he admired Dylan Thomas. His great love was travel. He says his book on Turkey is “O.K. as a guide”, but recommends his “Journey in Lapland” which he says is much more personal, and is also the account of a great love affair with an American woman called Carla, who returned to California. after two months with him. As soon as I finish this post I will be onto Amazon!

I can scarcely describe my feelings as I spoke to him. He was as curious about me as I have been about him. We exchanged cat stories, we discussed psychiatry. I reminded him of his very sceptical take on “trick-cyclists” in “The Questing Beast”. That was just the character, he said; he felt that a psychiatrist he had known had helped him greatly in his younger days. He was pleased that I had “a proper job” as a nurse.
After the war he made a decent living from writing, and gave up working as a metallurgist. He rates the poems he placed in the Boston “Atlantic Monthly “as his best. He thinks “The Idle Demon” is his best collection of verse.

There was so much I wanted to ask! He still loves music. He loves Mozart and Wagner, and Elgar, Britten and Vaughan Williams.
I told him that I had posted poems of his on this site. He was happy and pleased about that, and interested to know that his books were still obtainable on the internet. I got the impression that he knows little about the internet. He is pleased that we are discussing and enjoying his work.

My thanks to all those who have been on this journey with me. To Jerome I pass on the torch as I head off for Corfu this Sunday. To Ann: how’s that for a happy ending? (And I am reading and enjoying your own “Gay Science” at the moment)To Cally: he chuckled with recognition when I talked about his “lack of Circularity.” He lives! To Steph and all others thanks for your praise and encouragement. This is the book to get hold of: LISTER, Richard Percival. A Journey in Lapland. The hard way to Haparanda. [With illustrations by the author.] (pp. 256. Chapman & Hall: London, 1965.)

And thanks Allen. Sublime indeed. I have never seen a “cleavage angle” better described! And it was your "Robespierre" non-thread that set me off on this quest.

I have Richard’s phone number, I have his address. I am honoured and amazed. I will hear his warm chuckling, his descriptions of his “very lucky” life in my head for a long time. At the end I asked the usual, boring question about his longevity. “Oh that, “he said, “walking, lots of walking.” “Come down; come down for a chat and a drink!”

[Janice D. Soderling]

That is so amazing. It almost makes me religious. I am so glad for you. And for him. What a story.

[David Mason]

Damn, this may be one of the best stories ever to come out of the Sphere. Please tell Mr. Lister (I like the ring of that) he has new fans in America, and post a picture if you can. I'm ordering the book.

Dave