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Monday, April 26, 2021

Something About Bellairs in Bristol: Morris Showing

Really: for refuge straight to Bristol!!!

Several years ago, Bellairsia began retracing John Bellairs's footsteps in England. From June 1967 to January 1968, Bellairs moved to England to write and made Bristol his base of operations for most, if not all, of this time. Bristol is England's sixth and the United Kingdom's eighth most-populous city, and the most populous city in Southern England after London.

The last lead about Bristol also came from Priscilla Bellairs. She mentioned John met David Morris while overseas, described as a "very distinguished-looking older man" and who may have earned his living as a security guard in a factory or hotel – in short, "a job for which he had a uniform, but he was a committed amateur artist and traveler." Bellairs and Morris would meet up again when Bellairs took his family overseas in 1975.

The archives show Sarah Taylor of the Bristol Record Office Archives once again came to the rescue. She already noted they did not have a complete series of Trade/Street Directories, but:
In the 1968-69 directory there were 6 people listed called David Morris. There had been 2 in 1966, and then there were 9 in 1973. I could not begin to guess which might be the correct person.
Neither could anyone on this side of the email apparently. Remembering the characters in The Secret of the Underground Room (1990) easily travel around southwestern England – to Glastonbury, to Wells – who is to say Mr Morris couldn’t have lived there or points in between. Or even north of town in Winterbourne.

I doubt he's still around but we'd love to hear if someone else remembers the gentleman.

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