Jennifer Dawson and Isobel English: Tell Tell

can anyone tell me anything about these authors?. I have never heard of them, and I'm familiar with all the others mentioned in the description.

Hi Almigwin,

Try this link for Isobel English....and she happens to be published by Persephone Books!

http://www.persephonebooks.co.uk/pages/authors/isobel_english.htm

Cate

"ISOBEL ENGLISH', born June Jolliffe in 1920, was the daughter of a Welsh businessman and a 'strong-willed, striking' Australian singer. As a child, she was ill and went to France to recuperate; later she attended a convent boarding school, was presented at Court, worked as a secretary, and was tutored in English literature before marrying Ronald Orr-Ewing, a young civil servant.

Her daughter was born in 1942; meanwhile she began writing short stories and, with her husband's advice and encouragement (which continued after their divorce), under the pseudonym of Isobel English wrote three novels between 1954 and 1960 including Every Eye in 1956.

By now a convert to Catholicism, in 1953 she married the writer Neville Braybrooke and lived a literary life in London with friends such as Stevie Smith, Muriel Spark and Olivia Manning. Her short stories Life After All (1973) won the Katherine Mansfield Prize. She died in 1994."

Taken from the Persophone site...it fits quite well within this group given her affiliation with Muriel Spark!

I know very little about Jennifer Dawson. I found out about her while reading a Sylvia Plath bio. I think Plath was reading Dawson's The HaHa when she wrote The Bell Jar. I just saw the name and found a few of her books in my local library. She's very dark compared to some of the others on my list. Her best book in my opinion is The Upstairs People. If anyone has any information about her I'd love to know more about her.

I also found out about Isobel English through a biography--Muriel Spark's Curriculum Vitae. That book was actually a great source for authors for me, like Evelyn Waugh and Ivy Compton-Burnett. These people don't seem to be widely read where I live and do not even exist as far as the English department at my university is concerned.

DameMuriel, which Plath bio were you reading? I love finding these types of "gems" within books.

I'll have to pick up a copy of Muriel Spark's Cirriculum Vitae as well, based on your imput.

Thank you!

Hmm...I can't remember exactly but it seems like it was "Giving Up: The Last Days of Sylvia Plath" by Jillian Becker. I'll look at it this weekend to make sure.

The Jennifer Dawson mention was in the Jillian Becker Plath memoir. It seems she was reading The Ha Ha not long before she died.

Thank you DameMuriel!