Early Richard Batterham - RB mark England stamp

Phil: what was "...Janet Leach hurricane.."?

I think she was considered a force of nature and following her arrival c. 1956 I think things would have been more lively.
She was a Texan by birth but she also studied under Hamada for 2 years in Japan prior to coming to the UK.

Basically it destroyed the family. Bernard Leach was 69 in 1956, Janet Leach was 38. Old man marries much younger woman after divorcing his wife. It would be a noticeable story nowadays. Back in the puritanical 1950's (it WAS a different world back then!) it was a Big Scandal. David Leach left in bitterness, the whole family unit disintegrated in geat bitterness.
Then in that atmosphere addd Janet Leach's character as Neil says. She was an irascible, quick tempered, hard nosed Texan who was a match for any man! She had to take over the full every day running of the pottery. Getting the pottery to work, and people to obey her by sheer foce of will! There must have been
many arguments! Hurricane indeed!

And don't forget, hard drinker. Many stories of her carousing down the pub and not keeping an eye on the kiln. And wasn't she his 3rd wife? He was quite the womaniser

Was his third wife but given she was a lesbian it was clearly a business arrangement… marriage of convenience..
I have heard more stories about Janet than Bernard …. Not that it was a bad thing for me she was brill, a character and a great potter.
She is probably the top of my list that I wished I had met and never could!

Hi Neil, Janet was not lesbian but bisexual ,Bernard was her second marriage and it was not a marriage of convenience, they both had respect and affection for each other and lived a normal married life for a while, unfortunately she neglected to tell Bernard of her bisexuality. I took an interest in Janet's life and work a few years ago and have managed to contact a couple of people who knew her for information .

croker wrote:Hi Neil, Janet was not lesbian but bisexual ,Bernard was her second marriage and it was not a marriage of convenience, they both had respect  and affection for each other and lived a normal married life for a while, unfortunately she neglected to tell Bernard of her bisexuality. I took an interest in Janet's life and work a few years ago and have managed to contact  a couple of people who knew her for information .

Funny you should say that but I’ve spoken with people who knew her and Boots and that’s not how they described them.
I have total respect for both Bernard & Janet’s work and the fact she preferred her own sex has no real relevance.
You say it wasn’t a marriage of convenience I wasn’t around and I don’t believe you were so it’s a moot point which we’ll have to disagree about.
Whether she was affectionate towards Bernard is a whole different discussion. 
I think your information that she was bisexual but neglected to mention that to Bernard is difficult to reconcile with your assertion they were a loving couple.

croker wrote:Hi Neil, Janet was not lesbian but bisexual ,Bernard was her second marriage and it was not a marriage of convenience, they both had respect  and affection for each other and lived a normal married life for a while, unfortunately she neglected to tell Bernard of her bisexuality. I took an interest in Janet's life and work a few years ago and have managed to contact  a couple of people who knew her for information .

Funny you should say that but I’ve spoken with people who knew her and Boots and that’s not how they described them.
I have total respect for both Bernard & Janet’s work and the fact she preferred her own sex has no real relevance.
You say it wasn’t a marriage of convenience I wasn’t around and I don’t believe you were so it’s a moot point which we’ll have to disagree about.
Whether she was affectionate towards Bernard is a whole different discussion. 
I think your information that she was bisexual but neglected to mention that to Bernard is difficult to reconcile with your assertion they were a loving couple.
I’ve just read Philpot’s post and I agree with what he says. A couple of years ago I met a well known antiques expert and we got talking about Janet. They were both (Janet and the expert) witnesses in a trial concerning forgeries of Bernard’s work.
He described how she basically took cover the court and lectured the Judge in the proceedings, which sounds very much like the lady Philpot describes.

We are looking back to the mid-50's here. They were very different times. Much more puritanical and strait laced. Homosexuality was not declared legal until 1968. Turing was imprisoned for homosexuality only a few years earlier. So how much of Janet Leach's sexuality was fully discussed then is a debateable. 20 o  even 10 years later might well be a different matter'
          Meanwhile ahem!   We are talking about Richard Batterham!

I had to start reading the thread again ….lost the plot… totally correct Philpot!!