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modified 26.2.2008 The Luck of Thirteen...1916 The story of their work and adventures with the Red Cross in Serbia at the beginning of WW1... republished as two Vagabonds in Serbia and Montenegro, by Penguin in 1939. A Balkan Freebooter...1916 Although written by Jan this is a companion to the Luck of 13. Poor Folk in Spain...1922 The poor folk in question are the authors, not the people of Spain as commonly misconstrued. Republished as Two Vagabonds in Spain 1931. Misadventures with a Donkey in Spain..1924 The follow-on to 'Poor Folk'; both these books are so highly regarded in Spain for their recording of everyday life and events in the Spain of those far off days that they have been reprinted and translated into Spanish by the University of Murcia. Two Vagabonds in Languedoc...1925 The very best of their books, a record of four months in the village of Najac: a real treat of elegant prose and a great example of how Jan and Cora really could paint pictures with words as well as paint; the influence of Tristram Shandy upon Jan Gordon is readily apparent here to those familiar w ith that book; very highly regarded in Najac (www.najac.com) (www.najac.tv) for much the same reasons as their books about Spain are valued in that country. Published in the USA as Two Vagabonds in a French Village; by that name again in England in 1933, and in 2007 reprinted with a preface and introduction by Ken Bryant. please see the links page. Two Vagabonds in the Balkans...1925 In 1922 Jan and Cora returned to the Balkans to paint and record the everyday events of that land....... Two Vagabonds in Sweden...1926 In 1920, Jan and Cora had met an unidentified Swedish art lover in Spain and evidently he invited them to Sweden so 1924 found them venturing into Lapland. Two Vagabonds in Albania...1927 1925 saw the Gordons travelling extensively around Albania; emerging evidence is leading me to believe that there was some other motive behind the deviation from their normal practice - not exactly spying perhaps but certainly reconnoitering ... watch this space On Wandering Wheels...1929 In 1927 Jan and Cora forsook Europe for the USA where they had many friends and a growing fan base. They bought an old car, converted it into living quarters and toured the East Coast; then they worked their way across the USA giving lectures and talks on the radio and doing book signings to pay their way. In 1928 they were on the west coast in another old Franklin car, but ... Stardust in Hollywood...1930 ...in March of 1928 Jan had a heart attack in Los Angeles, where they were forced to stay put and recuperate for some months; as usual Jan and Cora managed to find much light amusement in their situation, and as Jan recovered they got themselves involved in the world of film, at the end of the silent era and the very beginnings of the talkies. Three Lands on Three Wheels...1932 In 1930 they had bought a Sunbeam motor cycle sidecar and set off on a tour of France England and Eire . The motorcycle was a circa 1930 Sunbeam, given the high survival rate of this high quality marque one can only wonder if it has survived somewhere? 
Jan and Cora Gordon on their Sunbeam motorcycle (the Wandering wardrobe) in Eire 1932 Portuguese Somersault...1934 A tale combining two separate visits to Portugal in 1926 and 1933. The London Roundabout...1933 1932 and the falling pound/franc rate combined with Jan's poor health meant that Jan and Cora had to make the hard decision to quit the rue Bagneaux (now rue Jean Ferrandi) in the 6 arrondissement in Paris where they had lived for so long to return to England. They found a flat in Clanricarde Gardens W2 where they were to live until their deaths. On A Paris Roundabout...1927 By Jan Gordon, this is a complex book, on the surface quite simple, but cleverly combining parallel stories about an aggressive rabbit being kept for the pot at a workmen's eating house and the trial of the notorious French murderer Landru; it concerns also the characters and events they met around the Rue Cherche -Midi in Paris around 1920. Reviewed in The Times Literary Supplement Dec 1927 the reviewer wrote of this book... "...This is a character study which would be brilliant from the hand of a Frenchman;as the work of a foreigner it is really extraordinary..." Other books by Jan Gordon Jan Gordon was a prolific writer and in the 1930's his circle of friends included the likes of Peter Cheney and Dorothy L Sayers, both best selling crime novelists. At one of the Gordons famous cocktail parties in their flat Jan and Peter Cheny were arguing the difficulties of their respective genres of writing with the result that Jan was challenged to write within a certain period produce a crime Novel; Jan won the bet and the result was... Theres Death in the Churchyard published by Harrap May 1934 followed by Death in the Wheelbarrow !935 Murder Most Artistic 1937 also published in USA as the Mystery of the Painted Nude ***Written under the nom- de- plume of William Gore henceforth bestowing the nickname of 'Bloody Bill' upon Jan. All these crime novels where very much in the style of the 1930s crime novel which was at its peak; all featured an artist of some kind as the centre figure and as with all Jan's writing the art world and the personalities and types to be found therein figured heavily in the plots. For their kind the are not bad reads, though very dated. They were quite favourably mentioned by Time magazine in the late 1930's. Jan though had to admit that writing these novel drove him potty, finding the crime genre far more difficult than that of travel writing. Jan Gordon also wrote a series of other novels during the 1920's Buddock against London... 1925 Beans spilt in Spain..... 193 Piping George....193? A Girl in the Art Class....1927 also from the prolific pen of Jan Gordon came Some Craftie Arts Modern French Painters Art ain't all Paint (with H M Bateman) Mother and Child.. a monologue to accompany the drawings of Bernard Meninsky And throughout the 1920's he wrote regularly for Blackwoods Magazine, Chambers journal, The Cornhill magazine, several newspapers,and even the childrens annuals produced by the Oxford University press contained short accounts of their travels. |
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