George Warwick Deeping (May 28, 1877 - April 20, 1950) was a prolific English novelist and short story writer. His most famous novel is Sorrell and Son (1925).

Born in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, into a family of doctors, he went to Trinity College, Cambridge to study medicine and science, and then to Middlesex Hospital to finish his medical training. During the First World War, he served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. Deeping later gave up his job as a doctor to become a full-time writer.

His early work is dominated by historical romances. His later novels can be seen as attempts at keeping alive the spirit of the Edwardian age.

He married Phyllis Maude Merrill and lived up to his death in Weybridge, Surrey.

Select bibliography

• Uther and Igraine (1903), his first published novel
• Love Among the Ruins (1904)
• The Seven Streams (1905)
• Bess of the Woods (1906)

• The Return of the Petticoat (1907)
• Bertrand of Brittany (1908)
• Mad Barbara (1908)
• The Red Saint (1909)
• The Lame Englishman (1910)
• The Rust of Rome (1910)
• Fox Farm (1911)
• Joan of the Tower (1911)
• Sincerity (1912)
• The House of Spies (1913)
• The Pride of Eve (1914)
• The Shield of Love (1914)
• Martin Valliant (1917)
• Unrest (1918)
• Valour (1918)
• Second Youth (1919)
• The Prophetic Marriage (1920)
• The House of Adventure (1921)
• Lantern Lane (1921)
• Orchards (1922)
• Apples of Gold (1923)
• Suvla John (1924)
• Sorrell and Son (1925)
• Doomsday (1927)
• Kitty (1927)
• Old Pybus (1928)
• Roper's Row (1929)
• Exiles (1930)
• The Road (1931)
• Old Wine and New (1932)
• Smith (1932)
• Seven Men Came Back (1934)
• Sackcloth Into Silk (1935)
• No Hero—This (1936)
• Blind Man's Year (1937)
• The Malice of Men (1938)
• Fantasia (1939)
• Corn in Egypt (1941)
• The Dark House (1941)
• I Live Again (1942)
• The Impudence of Youth (1945)
• Reprieve (1945)
• Laughing House (1946)
• Portrait of a Playboy (1947)
• Man in Chains (1953), published posthumously
• The Old World Dies (1954)
• Caroline Terrace (1955)
• The Sword and the Cross (1957)

Films

Movies based on Deeping's novels belong, with two exceptions, to the silent era. Unrest was filmed in 1920, Fox Farm in 1922, and Doomsday in 1928. Kitty (1929), directed by Victor Saville , was one of the first British talkies (arguably the very first; only the second half of the film had a soundtrack).

Sorrell and Son, based upon Deeping's experiences during the First World War, was filmed three times: It first appeared in 1927 as a silent movie, was remade in 1934 as a sound film, and turned into a TV mini-series in 1984.

External link

• Essay by Mary Grover (Sheffield Hallam University) from The Literary Encyclopedia