ANGELA THIRKELL'S WORLD

This page provides links and comments about Angela Thirkell's world - who she was and what she wrote about - since hers is intensely personal fiction. The following is a list of books associated with the life, times, and family of Angela Thirkell, recommended by Angela Thirkell Society subscribers as interesting to other readers. They are listed in order of number of votes. Margot Strickland's biography, A Portrait of the Lady Novelist was the most frequently recommended book. This page also contains links to other web-sites that you may find interesting.

STRICKLAND, Margot, Angela Thirkell: A Portrait of a Lady Novelist

BALDWIN, Monica, I Leap Over The Wall
BRITTAIN, Vera, England's Finest Hour
CHRISTIE, Agatha, Come Tell Me How You Live
DAKERS, Caroline, Clouds: The Biography Of A Country House
GRAVES, Robert, The Long Weekend
LAMBERT, Angela, Unquiet Souls.
RAVERAT, Gwen, Period Piece
SNOWDEN, Cynthia, Going to Barsetshire

ASQUITH, Lady Cynthia, Diaries
BRITTAIN, Vera, Testament of Youth
BROWKAW, Tom, The Greatest Generation
CHESTERTON, G.K., The Everlasting Man
CHURCHILL, Lady, Biography of Jenny
CHURCHILL, Winston, Memoirs of the Second World War
CLOUD, Stanley & Olson, Lynn, A Question of Honor…
COLLINS, Laura Roberts, English Country Life in the Barsetshire Novels
COLVILLE, John, The Fringes of Power
CONWAY, Jill Ker, The Road from Coorain
DELAFIELD, E.M. Provincial Lady books
DENNYS, Joyce, Henrietta's War: News From The Homefront 1934-1942
DENNYS, Joyce, The Henrietta Books
FAIRBROTHER, Nan, The House
FAVIELL, Frances, A Chelsa Concerto
FERGUSON, Rachael, Passionate Kensington & Royal Borough
FITZGERALD, Penelope, The Knox Brothers
FITZPATRICK, Sir Percy, Jock Of The Bushveld
FOREMAN, Michael, After The War Was Over
FRASER, Antonia, The Lives Of The Kings & Queens Of England
FRASER, Flora, Maud: The Illustrated Diary of a Victorian Woman
GARNETT, David, The Golden Echo
GODDEN, Rumer, A Time To Dance, A Time to Weep & A House With Four Rooms
GOULD, Tony, Inside Outsider: The Life & Times of Colin McInnes
HANFF, Helene, 84, Charing Cross Road
HUGHES, Molly, A London Family Between Wars
KEITH, Agnes Newton, Three Came Home
KINROSS, Lord, Ottoman Empire
LAMBERT,Angela, 1939: The Last Season of Peac e
LAST, Nella, Nella Last's War
LEWIS,C.S., The Great Divorce
LOVELL, Mary S., The Saga of the Mitford Sisters
MacKAIL, Dennis, Life With Topsy
MASSIE, Robert, Nicholas & Alexandra
McINNES, Graham, Finding a Father
MERTON, Thomas, Thomas Merton Journals
MITFORD, Jessica, Daughters and Rebels
MORRIS, Jan, Pax Britannica: Climax of An Empire
MURPHY, Carles J.V. & BRYAN III, J., The Windsor Story
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY, This England
NEWBY, Eric, Something Wholesale: My Life in The Rag Trade
NICHOLS, Beverly, Down The Garden Path
NICHOLSON, Nigel & SACKVILLE WEST, V, Portrait of a Marriage
SHUTE, Neville, A Town Called Alice
TAYLOR, Ina, Victorian Sisters: The Remarkable MacDonald Women .
TODD, Pamela, Pre-Raphaelites at Home
TORR, Cecil, Small Talk at Wreyland
TUCHMAN, Barbara, Proud Tower
TWEEDSMEER, Susan, The Edwardian Lady
WOLF, Virginia, A Room of One's Own
YATES, Dornford, As Berry and I Were Saying
ZEIGLER, Phillip, London at War
(Compiled by Carol Haskell)

Angela Thirkell, Family and Friends
The Internet has many easy to find links and Wikipedia is an easy resource. These links are either not so easy to find or link to a more literary site.

Rudyard Kipling was a family friend and cousin.

H.H. Asquith was the Prime Minister at the time of Angela's first marriage. His second son was married to Cynthia Charteris who sat for Burne-Jones as a model. At this World War I site, read a bio of H.H. Asquith.

George Eliot was her Grandmother's friend.

The Countess of Wemyss was the model for Lady Emily Leslie. Their family had a huge collection of masterpieces, one of which was donated to the National Gallery. Read a little about them and the painting at The Annunciation and A Procurator of Saint Mark's,The National Gallery.

See her Sargent Portrait by John Singer Sargent, and more of his work at the John Singer Sargent site.

Elizabeth the Queen Mother was a friend of Angela's second husband, George Lancelot Thirkell.

Information about one of her three sons, Colin MacInnes, is available from a variety of sources. Anthony Burgess thought he was a significant author, including Colin in his 99 Novels: The Best in English Since 1939". Dennis Potter, a British journalist, wrote a review of the movie version of "Absolute Beginners" for the "Daily Herald" in August of 1961. Read a review at this Colin MacInnes site. A movie, which includes Davie Bowie in its cast, is available on video. There used to be a review by Leonard Maltin, but I can no longer find it. If you ever come across it, would you e-mail the URL to us at the below address?

Comparisons to other writers:

Trollope is her own spiritual antecedent.

She is often compared to Dickens. Link to: The Dickens Society.

And, of course, Jane Austen. See the site for The Jane Austen Society.

People who love her books may also like EF Benson. Read a review from the Washington Post. A fan site with links to other sites.

Another close associate of Angela Thirkell is John Buchan.

SIR EDWARD BURNE-JONES
Three books are recommended for those who are interested in his life and works:

EDWARD BURNE-JONES, Victorian artist-dreamer, by Stephen Wildman and John Christian, 361 pp. Thames and Hudson, 48 Pounds.

BURNE-JONES, the life and work of Sir Edward Burne-Jones 1833-1898, Christopher Wood, 160 pages, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 25 Pounds. This book is described as a "well-illustrated, well-written account of Burne-Jones life and work."

EDWARD BURNE-JONES, by Penelope Fitzgerald, 320 pages, Stroud-Sutton, Paperback, 14.99 Pounds. The sympathetic book by Penelope Fitzgerald was written in 1975 and re-issued for the centenary.

Some interesting facts:

Burne-Jones was a major influence on Picasso.

He was the inspiration behind Gilbert and Sullivan's "Patience".

A quote from Angela Thirkell's grandfather: "A beautiful romantic dream of something that never was, never will be--in light better than any light ever shone, in a land no one can define or remember, only desire."

See some of his work at the Carol Garten Fine Arts site: Burne-Jones Paintings. We also found these sites: a Burne-Jones site , and a WebMuseum site.

Angela Thirkell's son, Colin MacInnes, was also a writer. Details in The Colin MacInnes Papers provide a list of his papers which have been contributed to the University of Rochester; it also provides a brief biography. One item in the list of the contents is: "In everything she is and does, Remarkable."

"Angela Thirkell: Portrait of a Lady Novelist", by Margot Strickland is the complete biography of Angela Thirkell and although not currently being printed, it is widely available. .

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