- W. S. Bristowe
William Syer Bristowe (1901-1979), who wrote under the name W. S. Bristowe, was an English naturalist, a prolific and popular scientific writer and authority on
spider s.Late in his life he also had an unexpected but important role in discovering the true story of
Anna Leonowens , the 19th century woman whose memoirs inspired a number of dramatic and fictional works, most notably the musicalThe King and I . Leonowens presented her own account as factual and it was accepted in the west as such, despite being strongly disputed inThailand . In the 1970s, when Bristowe, a regular visitor to the far east in search of spiders, was researching a biography of Leonowen's son, Louis T. Leonowens, he discovered and published evidence that significant parts of the tale were in fact fictional.External links
* [http://www.lynnsplace.freeserve.co.uk/The%20True%20Story%20of%20The%20King%20and%20I.htm The True Story of The King and I]
References
* "Comity of Spiders" (1939, 1941)
*"World of Spiders", W. S. Bristowe, 1976, ISBN 0-8008-8598-8
*"Louis and the King of Siam", W. S. Bristowe, Chatto & Windus, 1976, ISBN 0-7011-2164-5
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