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Myers Literary Guide:
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The North-East
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IAN HAY (1876 - 1952) The pseudonym of John Hay Beith, born in Manchester. Hay joined Durham School in 1902 as junior science master, and also coached the rugby and boating crews. Durham featured in one of his best books The Housemaster (1936), which includes the famous differentiation between ‘funny peculiar’ and ‘funny ha-ha‘. Hay was a sociable man and enjoyed great popularity, throughout a long literary career. Hay later taught at Fettes, spending much of his leisure time in writing. His light novels combined humour and shrewd observation, with an English tolerance of eccentricity and suited the taste of the age (he collaborated with P.G.Wodehouse) His most famous book The First Hundred Thousand (1915) dealt with the lighter side of life in the WWI trenches. It became one of the most popular books of the period.
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