The few years after leaving Broadstairs were difficult times for Denton. He wrote in his journal of “those endless days and nights of 1936 alone and desperate”. He wasn’t alone, as Evie was keeping house for him, but she was a devout Christian Scientist and didn’t believe that pain existed, so probably wasn’t especially empathic. I keep coming back to, and marvelling at, Denton’s youth. Severely injured, just turned 21, with none of the talking therapies or rehabilitation that would be offered today. Surely anyone would find it very difficult to rebuild body and mind following such a major trauma without love and support. JMC makes a passing reference to a suicide attempt soon after Denton moved into Hadlow Road, and I can quite see how this could come about. I can’t imagine why JMC doesn’t tell the story in the biography instead of mentioning it in the notes. It’s not that I want the distressing detail of a young man’s despair, but it’s a significant event.
Happily, Denton settles down in Tonbridge and builds a circle of friends. Gerald Mackenzie visits regularly. Significantly, Francis Streeton stops Denton in the street to make his acquaintance. Most people in the street today would assume that Francis was a chugger and do their best not to engage, but Denton did. They became friends, but it appears to have been uncomfortably one-sided. Denton was extremely rude about Francis’s idiosyncratic appearance and behaviours, and as far as I can tell Francis was nothing but a good friend to Denton.
Speaking of idiosyncrasy, Ronald Benge, one of his acquaintances, wrote my favourite thumbnail of Denton. Writing to JMC for the biography, he said “One was impressed by his intense interest in everything and everybody. There was, of course, most noticeable this extraordinary vivid quality, compounded by his appearance and high-pitched excitable speech. He was like some exotic tropical bird and his dress was flamboyant, so that some of his acquaintances were embarrassed to be with him in public – the small slight figure limping along and full of spontaneity and laughter”
I love love love this description of Denton! It’s so easy to picture him, perhaps with a cape flying behind him, greeting acquaintances and listening, bright-eyed and inquisitive, to their news. I associate Denton at this time with vitality and activity. Never does he get onto his bicycle and ride it; he always jumps onto his bike and pedals it. I have so much respect for his determination to live life to the full despite his pain and frequent illness.
1940 saw Denton move away from Tonbridge and the embarrassment of his behaviour towards Dr Easton. A new chapter began, quite literally. Denton began to write Maiden Voyage.