James Broom-Lynne

Islington-born Broom-Lynne was the son of James William Broom, a master bookbinder and Esther (née Slaughter).[2][3] As a child he attended Eden Grove and St. Aloysius schools, later going on to Saint Martin's Schools of Art. In 1948 he married Catherine Joan Redmore with whom he had two daughters (Victoria and Kate) and one son (Luke).[4][5] He also had one previous daughter, Gale (b.1940) with Joan Mary Murray (later the mother of novelist Lisa St Aubin de Terán).

Upon his death in 1995 he was cremated and his ashes laid to rest in the graveyard of the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, in the village of East Bergholt, Suffolk, UK, where he and his wife Catherine had lived for over 40 years.[6][3]

It not known why or when James Broom choose to append Lynne to his birth name. It may have simply been to distinguish himself from his father with whom he shared an identical name. Although he signed his artwork and illustrations without the hyphen, official records show the correct form as a hyphenated surname. As a novelist he chose the pseudonym of James Quartermain for books published in the American market. This pseudonym is thought to have been derived from his grandmother's surname, Quarterman.[6]

Broom-Lynne learnt his craft at St. Martin's School of Art. He was prolific as a book illustrator, with over 200 dustcovers to his name, particularly for the publishing houses of Heinemann, Macdonald and Michael Joseph. He supplied cover artwork for, amongst others, Anthony Powell, Henry Williamson and H. E. Bates, with whom he collaborated on numerous works including the Larkin family series of novels, The Cruise of the Breadwinner and Love for Lydia.[6]

Of Broom-Lynne's series of dust jackets for Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time Powell's biographer, Hilary Spurling, observed, that Broom-Lynne produced "a series of bold, grainy, instantly recognizable dust jackets that made Music of Time look quite unlike other novels."[7]

During World War II Broom-Lynne served as a warden with the Civil Defence Service in Westminster (1940–1945).[8] It was at this time that he may have first exhibited his work to the general public. Both The West London Press and Chelsea News and The Hampstead News and Golders Green Gazette record artworks credited to Broom-Lynne in exhibitions of civil defence artists in 1941 and 1942 respectively.[9][10]

His post-war career spanned both freelance and permanent roles.[4][5][6][3] He created the book jackets for the first editions of all twelve novels in the sequence A Dance to the Music of Time by Anthony Powell.[11]

• William Larkins Studio, London, England, art director, 1960–1961
• Service Advertising, London, storyboard director, 1962–1966
• Macdonald & Co. (publishers), London, art editor, 1966–1969
• Art school lecturer in London, 1970–1972
• Art school lecturer, Ipswich School of Art, 1972–1981

In 1959 he provided the illustrations for a front cover of Punch Magazine.[12] On the occasion of its independence from the UK in 1981, he was commissioned to design the interior pages of the passport of Belize[13]

It was in 1960 that he took his first foray into commercial writing when he entered a competition run by The Observer to write an hypothetical broadcast script. His entry titled "Dixon in Disgrace" won first prize.[14] This was followed by a number of plays including The Trigon in 1962, which received mixed reviews although the theatre critics in The New Statesman,[15] The New York Post[16] and Newsday[17] were positive. By 1967 Broom-Lynne had penned his last play and shifted focus onto writing novels.

• Horne, Alan (1994). The Dictionary of 20th Century British Book Illustrators. United Kingdom: Antique Collectors' Club. OCLC 848940139.
• Peppin, Brigid; Micklethwait, Lucy (1998). Dictionary of British Book Illustrators. John Murray. ISBN 0719539854, 978-0-719539-85-5
• Vinson, James (1973). Contemporary Dramatists. London: St. James Press. ISBN 978-0-900997-17-4. OCLC 231964348
• Moorhouse, Geoffrey: "Getting inside the jacket." (The Guardian. 3 April 1967, p. 5).
• 1964 BBC radio interview.

• James Broom-Lynne
• James Broom-Lynne at Suffolk Artists
• James Broom-Lynne at H.E. Bates
• James Broom Lynne at IMDb