Uploaded March 2021 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Here's 4 Cautionary Tales and a Moral, No.3 Matilda by Hilaire Belloc sung by Harold Williams Baritone from a rare 78 rpm
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (/hɪˈlɛər ˈbɛlək/, French: [ilɛːʁ bɛlɔk]; 27 July 1870[1] – 16 July 1953) was a British-French writer and historian and one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford South from 1906 to 1910. He was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds. Belloc became a naturalised British subject in 1902 while retaining his French citizenship.
Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France to a French father, Louis Belloc (1830-1872) and an English mother. His sister Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes also grew up to be a writer.
His Cautionary Tales for Children, humorous poems with an implausible moral, illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood (signing as "B.T.B.") and later by Edward Gorey, are the most widely known of his writings.[27] Supposedly for children, they, like Lewis Carroll's works, are more to adult and satirical tastes: "Henry King, Who chewed bits of string and was early cut off in dreadful agonies".[28] A similar poem tells the story of "Rebecca, who slammed doors for fun and perished miserably".
The tale of "Matilda who told lies and was burned to death" was adapted into the play Matilda Liar! by Debbie Isitt. Quentin Blake, the illustrator, described Belloc as at one and the same time the overbearing adult and mischievous child. Roald Dahl was a follower. But Belloc has broader if sourer scope. For example, with Lord Lundy (who was "far too freely
Here's 4 Cautionary Tales and a Moral, No.3 Matilda by Hilaire Belloc sung by Harold Williams Baritone from a rare 78 rpm
Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (/hɪˈlɛər ˈbɛlək/, French: [ilɛːʁ bɛlɔk]; 27 July 1870[1] – 16 July 1953) was a British-French writer and historian and one of the most prolific writers in England during the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic faith had a strong impact on his works. He was President of the Oxford Union and later MP for Salford South from 1906 to 1910. He was a noted disputant, with a number of long-running feuds. Belloc became a naturalised British subject in 1902 while retaining his French citizenship.
Belloc was born in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, France to a French father, Louis Belloc (1830-1872) and an English mother. His sister Marie Adelaide Belloc Lowndes also grew up to be a writer.
His Cautionary Tales for Children, humorous poems with an implausible moral, illustrated by Basil Temple Blackwood (signing as "B.T.B.") and later by Edward Gorey, are the most widely known of his writings.[27] Supposedly for children, they, like Lewis Carroll's works, are more to adult and satirical tastes: "Henry King, Who chewed bits of string and was early cut off in dreadful agonies".[28] A similar poem tells the story of "Rebecca, who slammed doors for fun and perished miserably".
The tale of "Matilda who told lies and was burned to death" was adapted into the play Matilda Liar! by Debbie Isitt. Quentin Blake, the illustrator, described Belloc as at one and the same time the overbearing adult and mischievous child. Roald Dahl was a follower. But Belloc has broader if sourer scope. For example, with Lord Lundy (who was "far too freely
