The Curse of Peter Haining

Some things anger me, even though I know it is pointless. One of these is a book that was published in 1982, entitled The Lost Stories of W.S. Gilbert.

The actual stories are fine, and it's great that they have been properly reprinted in modern times. But the Introduction by Peter Haining is a criminal disgrace. It misattributes a significant number of stories. For instance Haining says the short story "Foggerty's Fairy" was first published in Temple Bar in March 1880. I tried to track this down and was puzzled to be unable to find the story in the relevant volume. It took me some time to accept that the information was utterly and inexplicably wrong. In fact the story, under the title "The Story of a Twelfth Cake", was published in the Graphic Christmas Number, 1874. I am still unable to imagine how the mistake could have happened.

I mention all this because the Curse of Haining has struck again. The Curse of Haining takes place whenever someone writing about Gilbert and Sullivan makes the mistake of trusting the information Haining provides. In Carolyn Williams's new book Gilbert and Sullivan: Gender, Genre, Parody, which is generally excellent, she says that Gilbert's short story "An Elixir of Love" was first published in the Graphic Christmas Number, 1869. Right publication, wrong year: it was actually 1876. Why does Williams say 1869? Because Haining said 1869, of course. The misinformation is perpetuated, and will continue, for ever and ever, because Peter Haining scribbled a pile of criminal rubbish in 1982.

I may add, as a footnote, that Haining (who died a couple of years ago) also wrote a book about Sweeney Todd in which he claimed the case was real. The evidence and quotations from newspapers that he provided appear to be fabricated. If I could bear to look upon the man kindly, I would suggest he was a rogue. As it is, I have no words for him.