Greville MacDonald

Greville MacDonald (1856 in Bolton – 1944), was the son of influential fantasy writer George MacDonald and his wife Louisa (née Powell). He has provided some interesting insights into his father's life and circle of friends. Greville was a notable ear, nose and throat doctor. In later life Greville became involved in the Peasant Art movement in Haslemere.

Biography Greville is famous for having read Alice in Wonderland when "Uncle Dodgson" – Reverend Charles Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll – was wondering whether to publish it. Louisa Powell MacDonald read the book to her children to gauge its worth if published, and Greville remembers his "braggart avowal that I wished there were 60,000 volumes of it". Carroll was uncertain of its potential for publication until he tried the manuscript with the MacDonald children and learned of the enthusiastic reception.

Alex Munro used Greville as a model for his 1865 sculpture in Hyde Park of a boy with a dolphin. Greville attributes his understanding of Latin to Octavia Hill (who became a co-founder of the National Trust in 1895, along with Haslemere's Sir Robert Hunter) who joined the family on holiday in 1867 at Bude, and became a lifelong friend of Greville. Despite suffering from partial deafness which degenerated with age, Greville became an ear, nose and throat doctor of some distinction, becoming President of the British Medical Association's nose division. He resided at 85 Harley Street and he retired from medical practice in 1904.

In 1919 he moved to Wildwood, Weydown Road, Haslemere. Greville's autobiography describes him as a "consulting physician to Kings College Hospital" and "Fellow and Emeritus Professor, King's College, London". It was edited by his friend Maude Egerton King.

Works MacDonald's writings varied in subject matter from medicine to ethical issues to fairy tales—not including editorial contributions to his father's works. On the Respiratory Functions of the Nose and Their Relation to Certain Pathological Conditions (1889) A Treatise on Diseases of the Nose and Its Accessory Cavities (1890) Tree in the Midst: A Contribution to the Study of Freedom (1904) The Religious Sense in its Scientific Aspect (1904) The Ethics of Revolt (1907) The Child's Inheritance: Its Scientific and Imaginative Meaning (1910) "Character and Machinery" (c. 1914) The Sanity of William Blake (1920) George MacDonald and his Wife (1924) Children and the Stress of Life (1929), by Macdonald and Helen Gibb Reminiscences of a Specialist (1932)

Fiction: The Magic Crook, or The Stolen Baby (1911) Trystie's Quest, or Kit, King of the Pigwidgeons (1912) Jack and Jill: A Fairy Story (1913) How Jonas Found His Enemy: A Romance of the South Downs (1916) The North Door: A Romance (1920) Billy Barnicoat: A Fairy Romance for Young and Old (1922) Count Billy (1928) – sequel to Billy Barnicoat The Wonderful Goatskin: Being a Tale of Saint George in the Fourth Century A.D. (1944)