V. Gordon Childe - Personal Life

Personal Life

Childe was never married, and his biographer Sally Green found no evidence that he had ever had a serious relationship with a woman. Nonetheless, she believed that he was likely heterosexual because she could find "no suggestion of any homosexual tendency." He had many friends throughout his life, both male and female, although he remained "rather awkward and uncouth, without any social graces". He enjoyed interacting and socialising with his students, particularly at the Institute of Archaeology, and would often invite them to dine with him or visit his apartment. Despite this, he always found it difficult to relate to his students and to other humans generally. He could speak a number of European languages, having taught himself in early life when he was travelling across much of the continent.

Childe was an atheist, and remained highly critical of religion, something he saw as being based in superstition, a viewpoint shared by orthodox Marxists. In History (1947) he discussed religion and magic, commenting that "Magic is a way of making people believe they are going to get what they want, whereas religion is a system for persuading them that they ought to want what they get."

Childe was fond of cars and driving them, writing a letter in 1931 in which he stated that "I love driving (when I'm the chaffeur) passionately; one has such a feeling of power." He was fond of telling people a story about how he had raced at a high speed down Piccadilly in London at three o'clock in the morning for the sheer enjoyment of it, only to be pulled over by a policeman for such illegal and potentially dangerous activity. He was also known for his love of practical jokes, and he allegedly used to keep a halfpenny in his pocket in order to trick pickpockets. On another occasion he played a joke on the assembled delegates at a Prehistoric Society conference by lecturing them on a theory that the Neolithic monument of Woodhenge had been constructed as an imitation of Stonehenge by a nouveau riche chieftain. Several members of his audience failed to realise that he was being tongue in cheek.

Childe's other hobbies included going for walks in the British hillsides, attending classical music concerts and playing the card game contract bridge. He was fond of poetry, with his favourite poet being John Keats, although his favourite poems were William Wordsworth's "Ode to Duty" and Robert Browning's "A Grammarian's Funeral". He was not particularly interested in reading novels but his favourite was D. H. Lawrence's Kangaroo (1923), a book set in Australia that echoed many of Childe's own feelings about his homeland. He was also a fan of good quality food and drink, and frequented a number of restaurants.

Known for his battered and tatty attire, Childe always wore his wide-brimmed black hat, which he had purchased from a hatter in Jermyn Street, central London, as well as a tie, which was usually red, a colour chosen to symbolise his socialist beliefs. He also regularly wore a shiny black Mackintosh raincoat, often carrying it over his arm or draped over his shoulders like a cape. In summer he instead frequently wore particularly short shorts, with socks, sock suspenders and large boots.