Explore the vast range of titles available.

J B Priestley was immensely popular in the 1930s and 40s--a household name, indeed, for his weekly radio program Postscripts during wartime were listened to by millions. After the war he could afford to indulge himself by writing whatever he liked. His ostensibly light fiction sometimes had increasingly political undertones. A recurring theme was concern at the encroaching effect of 'Admass', his term for the invasion of American mass-market culture to the detriment of England's own. In addition he produced essays, historical books, plays and broadcasts; they flowed from him effortlessly. He traveled extensively, was a founder member of both the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the forerunner of the Arts Council, and was one of the British representatives at early UNESCO conferences. Here, Beavis uncovers Priestley's love of music, and particularly that of Frederick Delius.

Beavis talks about Max Julius Delius, the youngest of the Delius brothers. Max, who was born two years after Frederick in 1864, was a typical naughty little boy. The pair attended preparatory and grammar schools together before being sent to the International College at Isleworth, where they failed to excel at anything except cricket and, in Frederick's case, music. In 1879 Max managed to avoid being confirmed by claiming to be a Unitarian, whereas Frederick meekly submitted. Max didn't seem to be growing out of his childhood trait of avoiding anything vaguely undesirable or resembling hard work. Possibly capitalizing on youngest son syndrome, he made it clear that going into the family business was not for him.

In DSJ 170 a funeral notice state that as an alternative to flowers, donations were invited to 'Alcohol Concert'. Here, Beavis shares the ideas of several readers on music at such a concert.

Beavis presents a variety of places, organizations and objects which use Frederick Delius' name. There was quite a variety, the most notable being German businesses run by other members of the extended Delius clan. Among other things, Delius GmbH began in Bielefeld in 1722 as a linen trading house owned by the forebears of the Bradford Deliuses. It has evolved into a private textile-manufacturing company, managed by the ninth generation of the family. Today Delius GmbH manufactures furniture and upholstery fabrics for commercial customers worldwide.

Beavis features other notable 20th and 21st century Deliuses around the world who are prominent in their own communities or specialist areas of expertise. Some of those are scientists. The technical nature of their activity can make it difficult to give much more than a short summary of their work, or an indication of the highly specialized field in which they carry out research.

The name of Delius is ever-present in the lives of hundreds of people up and down the country who have never heard his music. This is because they live in roads called Delius. There are 23 Delius Avenues, Closes, Crescents, Drives, Gardens, Groves, Roads, Streets, Walks and Ways spread across the land. Beavis decided to review the other Delius roads to see if he could find any connections with the composer. His search encompassed England, Wales and Scotland, though he found no composer roads in the latter. Indeed, only three were in the north.

Beavis describes his discovery of William Stott's Le Passeur, a painting of Grez-sur-Loing. The picture was privately owned at the time of the Hayward exhibition, but in 2016 it was acquired by the Tate, as one of \"several outstanding additions to the historic British collection\". Their gallery label gives this summary, which compounds the melancholy.

An article in DSJ 162 referred to a story about a telegram sent by a newspaper correspondent in France to alert his editor that Delius's body was coming back to England to be interred at Limpsfield. The news was mistakenly consigned to the racing page, because the telegram saying, 'Delius arrives Folkestone 2.30', was assumed to be about a racehorse of that name. It was standard practice then to inform the press which horses had reached the racecourse stables (and were, therefore, likely to run). Unfortunately this story is apocryphal. No racehorse called Delius was running at the time. However, there have been a few racehorses called Delius over the years. A horse called Delius was running in 1892-93 but it seems unlikely that he was named after the composer. The surname may have been better known in England via Delius Textiles, a business dating back to 1722 based in Bielefeld, his parents' birthplace.