James Wentworth Day

James Wentworth Day (21 April 1899 – 5 January 1983) was a British author and broadcaster, a promoter of Agrarian Right politics and essentially a High Tory. He lived for most of his life in East Anglia. He had a particular interest in wildfowling, and at one time owned Adventurers' Fen, a piece of marshland in Cambridgeshire. He was also a ghost hunter, and wrote several books about this interest. He may be remembered best for his journey around the farms of East Anglia on horseback during World War II, as detailed in his book Farming Adventure (later reprinted with the title Wartime Ride), while for many years he was associated with the magazine East Anglian. Early life Born in Exning, Suffolk he was educated at Newton College in Newton Abbot before seeing active service in World War I. He became a journalist after his war service, working for Daily Express newspapers and the magazine Country Life (as well as other sporting publications). He edited the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News. He also became personal assistant to Lucy, Lady Houston and for a time shared some of her extreme ideas endorsing Benito Mussolini, although he was suspicious of Adolf Hitler. He became a propaganda adviser to the Egyptian government in 1938 and spent the Second World War as a correspondent in France and as Near East correspondent of the BBC until he was invalided during 1943. Post-war activity During 1950 and 1951 he was an unsuccessful Conservative candidate for the constituency of Hornchurch, now in Greater London but then in Essex, and often spoke on behalf of the Tory cause at elections. He worked for a number of British newspapers, had senior jobs with the magazines The Field and Country Life, and was both owner and editor of the periodical Saturday Review. Day had a confrontation with Labour Party chairman Harold Laski in 1945, putting questions to him at a meeting in Newark, Nottinghamshire which resulted in Laski seemingly endorsing socialism by means of violent revolution. As such he was an important witness in the Laski libel lawsuit of 1946.