C. W. Blubberhouse

{{Short description|Fictional poet and author}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}

Chapman Winston Blubberhouse is a fictional poet and author, created by R. B. Russell and Mark Valentine."Blubberhouse (And How He Returned to Haunt Me)", by R. B. Russell, The Hotspur (The Parish Magazine of St John's Healey) June 2008. In 1993, Russell published a Brief Biography of Blubberhouse which was privately circulated, and thereafter letters started to appear under the name of C. W. Blubberhouse in the pages of The Independent,[https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/letter-cereal-comedy-1412411.html The Independent, July 8 1994] Daily Mail,The Daily Mail, 22 December 1993 & 7 September 1994. The Stage,The Stage, January 1994. and Time Out,Time Out, 13–20 July 1994. among other national UK newspapers and magazines. Blubberhouse was also listed in an Oxford College yearbook and appeared in a literary guide.

In 1994, The Sunday Times attacked the Times Literary Supplement for publishing a letter from Blubberhouse,Times Literary Supplement, 12 August 1994. and sent a reporter to the correspondent's address to investigate. They claimed Blubberhouse was "too good to be true", and declared him a hoax.The Sunday Times, 21 August 1994.

At the funeral of Oxford bookseller Rupert Cook in March, 1999, it was revealed that he had been partly responsible for the Blubberhouse letters.Obituary in The Lost Club Journal, No.2, Winter 200/2001. (It has subsequently been revealed that Roger Dobson was his co-conspirator.) Russell appeared on John Peel's Home Truths programme on Radio 4 in 2001 to tell the story.BBC Home Truths, 22 September 2001 and 29 September 2001. In a follow-up comment on Home Truths a correspondent used the adjective "Blubberhoused" to suggest that somebody had been hoaxed.