Worthing local historian Chris Hare launches new book on Sussex political thinker Hilaire Belloc

At a meeting organised by Worthing branch of the Permanent Protest League, Belloc thundered against what he claimed was ‘the dirtiest company’ it had ever been his misfortune to keep. He was angry against the politics of his day and the social injustice he saw around him; but he also opposed socialism, which, he believed would make people ‘servile’ to the interests of the state and unable to make their own decisions. It is hard enough to take on capitalism, but to take on socialism as well – that is not a task for the feint-hearted.

Political controversy was only one facet of the intricate personality of Hilaire Belloc. He was also a very spiritual man and a great lover of the Sussex countryside. We see these two traits combine in much of his writing. In his celebrated Sussex book, The Four Men, Belloc describes seeing the moon rise one crisp Hallowe’en evening over Chanctonbury Ring; he had left his travelling companions, and ventured alone into the starry night.

“I went out and watched the world. The moon stood over Chanctonbury, so removed and cold in her silver that you might almost have thought her careless of the follies of men; little clouds, her attendants, shone beneath her worshipping, and they presided together over a general silence. Her light caught the edges of the Downs. There was no mist. She was still frosty-clear when I saw her set behind those hills. The stars were more brilliant after her setting, and deep quiet held the valley of the Adur, my little river, slipping at low tide towards the sea.”

In another book, The Cruise of the Nona, Belloc described his love of the sea and how sailing took his mind off the stresses and strains of a busy and controversial life. Shoreham and Littlehampton were his home harbours and he was often seen in his rough sailor’s attire, cap and great boots, making ready to set sail again. The spiritual element was always close at hand in his writing of the sea.

"There, on the sea, is a man nearest to his own making, and in communion with that from which he came and to which we shall return. For the wise men of very long ago have said, and it is true, that out of salt water all things came. The sea is the matrix of creation, and we have the memory of it in our blood.”

"The sea has taken me to itself whenever I sought it and has given me relief from men. It has rendered remote the cares and wastes of the land; for of all the creatures that move and breathe upon earth, we of mankind are the fullest of sorrow. But the sea shall comfort us, and perpetually show us new things and assure us. It is the common sacrament of this world. May it be to others what it has been to me.”

Belloc loved his beer and he loved to sing. The folk songs of the Sussex country people delighted him and he even wrote his own songs in the imitable ‘South Country’ style:

Though times be rude and weather be rough,

And ways be foul and fortune tough,

We are of the stout South Country stuff,

That never can have good ale enough,

And do this chorus cry!

From Crowboro' Top to Ditchling Down,

From Hurstpierpoint to Arundel Town,

The girls are plump and the ale is brown:

Which nobody can deny, deny,

Deny, deny, deny, deny!

If he does he tells a lie!

• Chris Hare is launching his new book, Hilaire Belloc, the politics of living at two free events in December. All are welcome.

Thursday, December 1, 7pm, Worthing Library lecture theatre, book-signing and illustrated talk.

Thursday, December 8, 7.30pm, Steyning Bookshop, Steyning High Street, book-signing and talk.

Chris may also be singing one or two of Belloc’s songs!