Sam Hanna Bell
Sam Hanna Bell was a Scottish-born Northern Irish novelist, short story writer, playwright, and broadcaster.
Early life
Bell was born in Glasgow to Ulster Scots parents. Following the sudden death of his father in 1918, he was brought at the age of seven to live near Raffery in the Strangford Lough area of County Down. He lived with his mother and two brothers in a cottage with no electricity or running water. This was the setting of his acclaimed novel of Ulster rural life, December Bride. He moved to Belfast in 1921, where he worked at a variety of manual jobs before securing a post with the BBC in 1945. He was a co-founder of the left-leaning literary journal, Lagan, in 1943.Writing career
His first collection of short stories, Summer Loanen and Other Stories, was published in 1943. His novels include December Bride, The Hollow Ball, A Man Flourishing and Across the Narrow Sea.Bell was recruited to the BBC, in 1946, along with fellow writer, W R Rodgers, by poet and radio producer, Louis MacNeice.. Some of his work as a radio producer was highly innovative. This is Northern Ireland, An Ulster Journey is a classic radio feature incorporating actuality, poetry, music and narration. in later work Hanna Bell incorporated the voices of 'ordinary people' in his attempt to paint a picture of Ulster as rooted in the lives and traditions of its people. His collaboration with W R Rodgers, The Return Room is one of the most important post-war Irish radio features and shows the influence of Dylan Thomas on Rodgers the poet.
Along with his BBC colleague John Boyd, the essayist Denis Ireland, actors Joseph Tomelty and J. G. Devlin, poets John Hewitt and Robert Greacen, and the Rev Arthur Agnew, in the 1940s Bell was one of an intellectual set, "the club of ten" Linen Hall Library members that used to meet weekly next to the library in Campbell's cafe.
In 1977, he was honoured with an MBE in recognition of his contribution to the cultural life of Northern Ireland.