Nom légal: Mavor, Elizabeth Osborne
Date de naissance: 1927-12-17
Date de décès: 2013-05-22
Sexe: female
Nationalité: Scotland
Pays (pour la carte): UK
Lieu de naissance: Glasgow, Scotland, UK
Lieux de résidence: Watlington, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Études: St. Leonard's Ladies' College
University of Oxford (St. Anne's College)
Professions: novelist
biographer
editor
Courte biographie: Elizabeth Osborne Mavor was born in Glasgow, Scotland, to the family of a prosperous director of a mine engineering company. She was educated at St. Leonard's School and read Modern History at Oxford University, where she edited the independent student newspaper, Cherwell. After graduation, she worked for Argosy magazine for several years, wrote reviews for newspapers, and began writing fiction. In 1953, she married Haro Hodson, an illustrator and cartoonist, with whom she had two sons. Her debut novel, Summer in the Greenhouse, was published in 1959. Other novels included The Temple of Flora (1961), The Redoubt (1967), A Green Equinox (1973), and The White Solitaire (1988). Her biographies included The Virgin Mistress: A Study in Survival (1964), about Elizabeth Chudleigh, Duchess of Kingston; and her most famous book, The Ladies of Llangollen: A Study in Romantic Friendship (1971) about Lady Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby. Her other nonfiction works included edited journals of Fanny Kemble and Katherine Wilmot.

Membres

Critiques

A Green Equinox par Elizabeth Mavor

https://archive.org/details/greenequinox0000mavo

Signalé

lulaa | Sep 1, 2023 |

The Ladies of Llangollen: A Study in Romantic… par Elizabeth Mavor

Absolutely fascinating biography of the famed Ladies of Llangollen- two 'romantic friends' who fled Ireland in 1770s and set up home in Wales. Both had a difficult home life- orphaned Sarah Ponsonby was being brought up by a well-meaning aunt - and an uncle who was making unwelcome advances to the 17 year old. Meanwhile Eleanor Butler (scion of the wealthy Ormonde family) was a disappointment to her mother - 'masculine' and unmarriageable - and was being urged to enter a convent.
Facing considerable opposition, they eventually escaped to Wales where, on a very limited income (many of their relatives cut them off) they nonetheless established a charming rural retreat (which they rarely left), their days devoted to culture, walking, self-improvement - and later farming. Many famous folk came to visit, charmed by their life. "Their system bound them never to leave home, to devote hearts and minds to self-improvement, to eschew the vanity of society, to beautify their surroundings and to better, in so far as they could, the lot of the poor and unfortunate." Lest they sound improbably saintly, Mavor's biography certainly makes mention of fallings out with acquaintances, the rather acerbic personality of Miss Butler and the sometimes excessive numbers of visitors. Highly interesting and a rather lovely life.… (plus d'informations)

Signalé

starbox | 4 autres critiques | Sep 5, 2019 |

The Ladies of Llangollen par Elizabeth Mavor

The elopement was an immediate scandal. On the night of 30 March 1778, Sarah Ponsonby – then aged 23 – climbed from the window of her guardians’ house near Inistioge, County Kilkenny, dressed as a man and carrying a pistol and her pet dog. In a nearby barn, her dear friend Eleanor Butler – aged 39 – was waiting for her, having likewise escaped from her family at Kilkenny Castle. The two women were tracked down by their panicking relatives two days later at Waterford, on the brink of boarding the ferry to England. Swept back home in disgrace, Sarah promptly fell desperately ill, while Eleanor was threatened (not for the first time) with dispatch to a French convent. As the locality buzzed with rumours, the two friends were driven by desperation to another madcap act, and Eleanor managed to evade her family once again in order to join Sarah at her guardians’ house. After ignoring all appeals of propriety and ‘reason’, the two women announced that they were determined to go away and make a life together. By early May, their exhausted families had accepted this decision and, in early May, they once again travelled to Waterford and thence to Wales. An initial tour of the country led them to the pleasant vale at Llangollen in northern Wales, where they rented a cottage which would remain their home – and bring them increasing notoreity – for the next six decades...

For the full review, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2017/03/16/the-ladies-of-llangollen-elizabeth-mavor/… (plus d'informations)

Signalé

TheIdleWoman | 4 autres critiques | Jun 3, 2017 |

Die Ladies von Llangollen par Elizabeth Mavor

Eine Studie über romantische Freundschaft

Signalé

Buecherei.das-Sarah | 4 autres critiques | Nov 23, 2014 |

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