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| Sayer was also a close friend of ].<ref name="telegraph"/> Excerpts from '']'' and '']'' were recorded in Malvern in 1952, at the home of George Sayer. The recordings were later issued on long-playing ]s.<ref>Humphrey, C. 1977 '']'' New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-04-928037-6</ref> In the liner notes for ''J. R. R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Ring'', George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the ].<ref>Sayer, G: ''J. R. R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring'' Caedmon 1979 (based on an August, 1952 recording by George Sayer)</ref> | Sayer was also a close friend of ].<ref name="telegraph"/> Excerpts from '']'' and '']'' were recorded in Malvern in 1952, at the home of George Sayer. The recordings were later issued on long-playing ]s.<ref>Humphrey, C. 1977 '']'' New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-04-928037-6</ref> In the liner notes for ''J. R. R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Ring'', George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the ].<ref>Sayer, G: ''J. R. R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring'' Caedmon 1979 (based on an August, 1952 recording by George Sayer)</ref> | ||
| In a 1992 lecture, Sayer recalled, "<blockquote>"If I was there in the right time in the afternoon he would take me to have tea in the drawing room of the floor below, Edith Tolkien's room. The atmosphere was quite different, with hardly any papers and few books. She did most of the talking and it was not at all literary. Frequent subjects were the doings of the children, especially Christopher, the grandchildren, the garden in which I think Ronald enjoyed working, the iniquities of the ], the rising price of food, the changes for the worse in the Oxford shops and the difficulty in buying certain groceries. The road had deteriorated since they moved there. It used to be a quiet cul-de-sac. Now the lower end had been opened up and and lorries and cars rushed through on their way to a building site or to the ]'s football ground. There were some very noisy people on the road. They even had as near neighbors an aspiring pop group. Ronald... told me that when she was younger Edith had been a fine pianist. Some of the conversation was about music. On one occasion she played to us on a very simple old-fashioned ] a record she had just bought. Her husband was relaxed and happy with this domesticity. Anyway, it was an important part of his life. Without a liking for the homely and domestic, he could not have written ''The Hobbit'', or created Frodo and Sam Gamgee, characters that sustain quite convincingly the story of ''The Lord of the Rings'', and link the high romance to the everyday and the ordinary."<ref> ], ''Tolkien: A Celebration. Collected Writings on a Literary Legacy'', ], 2001. Pages 15-16.</ref></blockquote> | |||
| ], a pupil at Malvern College from 1964 to 1968, described Sayer as "the most wonderful, inspirational teacher ... a profoundly decent and compassionate man ... the sort of teacher you dream of having".<ref name ="Guardian">. Retrieved 9 May 2010</ref> | ], a pupil at Malvern College from 1964 to 1968, described Sayer as "the most wonderful, inspirational teacher ... a profoundly decent and compassionate man ... the sort of teacher you dream of having".<ref name ="Guardian">. Retrieved 9 May 2010</ref> | ||
Revision as of 16:21, 20 July 2013
For other people named George Sayer (biographer), see George Sayer (biographer) (disambiguation).George Sydney Benedict Sayer (1 June 1914 – 20 October 2005) was a teacher at Malvern College and is probably best known for his biography of the author C. S. Lewis.
Career
Sayer was born at Bradfield in Berkshire, England. He was educated at Trinity College, Glenalmond, in Perthshire, Scotland, and at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was tutored by C. S. Lewis. He joined the staff of Malvern College in 1945 after having been a Captain in the British Army Intelligence Corps on account of his fluent German. Sayer became Head of English in 1949.
Lewis and Sayer became close friends to the extent that Lewis sought Sayer's advice when considering marrying Joy Gresham. On Lewis's death, Sayer was made a trustee of the Lewis estate.
Sayer was also a close friend of J. R. R. Tolkien. Excerpts from The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings were recorded in Malvern in 1952, at the home of George Sayer. The recordings were later issued on long-playing gramophone records. In the liner notes for J. R. R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his The Hobbit & The Fellowship of the Ring, George Sayer wrote that Tolkien would relive the book as they walked and compared parts of the Malvern Hills to the White Mountains of Gondor.
Jeremy Paxman, a pupil at Malvern College from 1964 to 1968, described Sayer as "the most wonderful, inspirational teacher ... a profoundly decent and compassionate man ... the sort of teacher you dream of having".
Personal life
Sayer's first wife, Moira Casey died in 1977 following a long illness. In 1983 Sayer married Margaret Cronin.
Major work
Sayer, George (1988) Jack: C.S. Lewis and His Times Foreword by Lyle W. Dorsett. Part memoir and part biography. The work is recommended by Douglas Gresham as the very best C. S. Lewis biography available.
References
- ^ Telegraph obitiary Published 7 Nov 2005 Retrieved 9 May 2010
- ^ Guardian obituary 4 November 2005. Retrieved 9 May 2010
- Humphrey, C. 1977 Tolkien: A Biography New York: Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-04-928037-6
- Sayer, G: J. R. R. Tolkien Reads and Sings his the Hobbit and the Fellowship of the Ring Caedmon 1979 (based on an August, 1952 recording by George Sayer)
- rapidnet.com: C S Lewis Retrieved 9 May 2010