ANGELA THIRKELL'S LIFE ANGELA THIRKELL'S LIFE
ANGELA THIRKELL (1890 - 1961)
Angela Margaret Mackail was born on January 30, 1890 at 27 Young Street,
Kensington Square, London. Her grandfather was Sir Edward Burne-Jones the
pre-Raphaelite painter and partner in the design firm of Morris and Company
for whom he designed many stained glass windows - seven of which are in St
Margaret's Church in Rottingdean, West Sussex. Her grandmother was Georgiana
Macdonald, one of a precocious family which included among others, Stanley
Baldwin, the Prime Minister, and Rudyard Kipling. Angela's brother, Denis
Mackail, was also a prolific and successful novelist. Angela's mother,
Margaret Burne-Jones, married John Mackail - an administrator at the Ministry
of Education and Professor of Poetry at Oxford University.
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09/30/02
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Angela married James Campbell McInnes in 1911. James was a professional
Baritone and performed at concert halls throughout the UK. In 1912 their
first son Graham was born and in 1914 a second son, Colin. A daughter was
born in 1917 at the same time her marriage was breaking up. In November 1917
a divorce was granted and Angela and the children went to live with her
parents in Pembroke Gardens in London. The child, Mary, died the next year.
Angela then met and married George Lancelot Thirkell in 1918 and in 1920 they
traveled on a troop ship to George's hometown in Australia. Their adventures
on the "Friedricksruh" are recounted in her Trooper to the Southern Cross
published in 1934. In 1921, in Melbourne Australia, her youngest son Lancelot
George was born. Angela left Australia in 1929 with 8 year old Lance and
never returned. Although living with her parents in London she badly needed
to earn a living so she set forth on the difficult road of the professional
writer. Her first book, Three Houses, a memoir of her happy childhood was
published in 1931 and was an immediate success. The first of her novels set
in Trollope's mythical county of Barsetshire was Demon in the House, followed
by 28 others, one each year.
Angela also wrote a book of children's stories entitled The Grateful Sparrow
using Ludwig Richter's illustrations; a biography of Harriette Wilson, The
Fortunes of Harriette; an historical novel, Coronation Summer, an account of
the events in London during Queen Victoria's Coronation in 1838; and three
semi-autobiographical novels, Ankle Deep and Oh, These Men, These Men and
Trooper to the Southern Cross.
When Angela died on the 29th of January 1961 she left unfinished the last of
her books, Three Score and Ten which was completed by her friend, Caroline
LeJeune. Angela is buried in Rottingdean alongside her daughter Mary and her
Burne-Jones grandparents.