Clan Rising

Morton Family Champion

H. V. Morton(1892–1979)

Henry Canova Vollam Morton

The newspaperman who wrote In Search of England in 1927, sold a million copies of it, and built the inter-war popular travel-writing tradition.

Henry Canova Vollam Morton was born at Ashton-under-Lyne in July 1892, the son of a journalist who moved the family to Birmingham. He joined his father's paper at sixteen, moved to London in 1912 to work on the Daily Mail and then, from 1921, on the Daily Express, and at thirty-one gave the Express the first English newspaper interview with Howard Carter at the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb. He was the rising star of British popular journalism.

The book that made him came out of an illness on assignment. Taken ill while reporting from Palestine in 1923 and expecting the worst, he made an internal promise that if he recovered he would go home and see his own country before he saw any more of anyone else's. He recovered. He drove a Bullnose Morris around England through the autumn of 1926, filed weekly columns for the Express, and collected the pieces in 1927 as In Search of England. It sold over a million copies across thirty-nine printings before the war.

In Search of England rewrote what an English popular travel book could be: chatty, anecdotal, antiquarian, ready to stop the car at every market cross and pub sign, and addressed directly to a readership who had not previously been written for. The follow-ups, In Search of Scotland (1929), In Search of Ireland (1930) and In Search of Wales (1932), sealed the formula and the quartet.

The 1930s extended the range to the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. In the Steps of the Master (1934) retraced the gospel sites; In the Steps of St Paul (1936) followed the Pauline journeys; A Stranger in Spain and A Traveller in Rome came later. Methuen kept him continuously in print from 1927, and the cumulative sales across the catalogue ran into the millions. He was, by a wide margin, the most-read English travel writer of the inter-war years, the figure through whom a generation of readers first saw their own country and the wider world of European Christianity.

He moved to South Africa in 1947 and lived his last decades there, writing a further several books. He died at Somerset West on 18 June 1979, eighty-six years old. The books remain in print. The Morton name, the moor-farm settlement scattered across the Midlands and the north, carries him as the popular travel-writer head of the surname, the man who taught the twentieth-century English reader to go and look at the country around them.

Achievements

  • ·First English newspaper interview with Howard Carter at the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb, 1923
  • ·In Search of England published, 1927; over a million copies before 1939, thirty-nine printings
  • ·In Search of Scotland (1929), Ireland (1930) and Wales (1932) completed the British quartet
  • ·In the Steps of the Master published, 1934; defined the popular Holy-Land travel book
  • ·Kept continuously in print by Methuen from 1927; the most-read English travel writer of the inter-war years
  • ·Author of a further several books from South Africa; works still in print

Step Into History

Walk the streets and halls H. V. Morton knew — a photoreal walk through time, on foot.

Step Into History · New

Walk London in 1818Enter →

St Paul's, Covent Garden and the gaslit West End — Regency London, soot-hazed and horse-drawn.

Where this story lives

Frequently asked

What is H. V. Morton famous for?

The newspaperman who wrote In Search of England in 1927, sold a million copies of it, and built the inter-war popular travel-writing tradition. Henry Canova Vollam Morton was born at Ashton-under-Lyne in July 1892, the son of a journalist who moved the family to Birmingham.

When was H. V. Morton born?

H. V. Morton was born in 1892 in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. The full biographical record sits on the dedicated page on Clan Rising, set alongside the wider history of the Morton family.

When did H. V. Morton die?

H. V. Morton died in 1979. That gave a lifespan of about 87 years.

How long did H. V. Morton live?

H. V. Morton lived for around 87 years, from 1892 to 1979. The page records the substantive years in full, with the achievements and the geography that frame the life.

Where was H. V. Morton born?

H. V. Morton was born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire. The atlas links the birthplace to its tile page so the surrounding geography and other families of the area can be explored from the same record.

Where did H. V. Morton live and work?

H. V. Morton's life and work were concentrated in Greater Manchester, Birmingham & the Black Country and London. Each location has its own page on the atlas with the broader historical context for the area.

What is H. V. Morton's connection to the Morton family?

H. V. Morton is recorded on Clan Rising as a Morton Family Champion, a figure whose life is inseparable from the surname. The Morton family page sets the wider context for the name and links through to every other notable bearer.

What did H. V. Morton achieve?

Headline achievements recorded for H. V. Morton include First English newspaper interview with Howard Carter at the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb, 1923, In Search of England published, 1927; over a million copies before 1939, thirty-nine printings, In Search of Scotland (1929), Ireland (1930) and Wales (1932) completed the British quartet and In the Steps of the Master published, 1934; defined the popular Holy-Land travel book. The full list and the surrounding biographical record sit on the dedicated champion page.

Was H. V. Morton a Morton?

Yes. H. V. Morton is filed on Clan Rising under the Morton family. The naming convention follows the surname a diaspora reader would search for today; titles, particles and pen names sort under that same canonical surname.