Eric de Bellaigue, man of letters who published a book of prison writing

Eric de Bellaigue, who has died aged 95, was a stockbroker by profession and a man of letters by predilection; a lifetime of literary fascination was crowned when, at the age of 89, he published Guarded Words, which examined writings composed in prison.

The authors concerned included, in England, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Thomas More, King Charles I and John Bunyan; in France, Mirabeau and Voltaire; and in Russia, Alexander Solzhenitsyn.

One of de Bellaigue’s most curious subjects was William Chester Minor, an American doctor whose mind had been gravely disturbed by traumatic experiences in the American Civil War. These led to two and a half years in the Hospital for the Insane in Washington. Released in 1871, he made his way to England, with a letter of introduction to John Ruskin.

Minor’s mental health, however, remained unpredictable, and in 1872 he shot dead a harmless passer-by on a London street. Afforded two cells in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Crowthorne in Berkshire, Minor was able to bring over his book collection from America. To one of his visitors his accommodation seemed like a prison Athenaeum.

Between 1885 and 1910 Minor provided some 12,000 illustrative quotations for the emerging Oxford English Dictionary. For much of that time the editor, James Murray, was unaware that he was being supplied with references from a lunatic asylum.

Eric de Bellaigue was born in Paris on March 12 1931, the elder of twin sons of Vicomte Pierre de Bellaigue, and his wife Marie-Antoinette, née Willemin. During the Second World War Pierre de Bellaigue served with distinction as an officer in the Free French navy.

In May 1940 Mme de Bellaigue was on holiday with her sons in Belgium when the Germans invaded. She and her two boys were among the last wartime emigrants to leave Calais.

In England, in 1942 she was selected to teach the French language and European history to the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret.

Queen Elizabeth II, she would later recall, “always had from the beginning a positive good judgment. She was her simple self, très naturelle. And there was always a strong sense of duty mixed with joie de vivre in the pattern of her character.”

Mme de Bellaigue continued to tutor the princesses until 1948. Both she and her husband became British subjects. Their marriage, however, ended in divorce.

Eric de Bellaigue’s twin Geoffrey also entered royal service, becoming Surveyor of the Queen’s Works of Art and ending his career as Director of the Royal Collection; he was appointed KCVO in 1986.

Eric’s boyhood was troubled by sinusitis, which did not prevent him from becoming captain of boxing at Wellington. He read economics and political science at McGill University in Montreal, where he also proved a formidable debater.

De Bellaigue began his career as a journalist on The Montreal Star, before joining the Bank of Montreal’s economics department. Still in Canada, he then worked for five years as an analyst for Greenshields stockbrokers.

Moving back to London, de Bellaigue continued his career as a financial analyst, first with Schroder Wagg (1962-66), and then with Buckmaster & Moore (1966-78). His last two appointments in the City were with Grenfell & Colegrave (1978-89) and as head of research at Panmure Gordon (1989-96).

In 1981 he produced The Business of Publishing: The Bellaigue Report, and in 2004 the British Library issued his British Book Publishing as a Business Since the 1960s, in which he addressed the threat to traditional publishers from the new multi-media groups. He also contributed articles to The Bookseller and the literary journal Logos.

Eric de Bellaigue was delightful company, his conversation spiced with sly wit and anecdote. Little passed him by, and there were often hints of an unspoken subtext to his observations.

He married first, in 1962, Sylvia Rodney. They had two sons but divorced in 1985. He married secondly, in 1986, Nike Kent Taylor.

Eric de Bellaigue, born March 12 1931, died May 6 2026

[Source: Daily Telegraph]