Fascinating! This is one of those obituaries that remind me of the Tom Lehrer quote about obituaries - “It’s people like that who make you realize how little you’ve accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years.”
Any good biographies of her, I wonder? Someone who could sort out the truth from the self-invention?
I’m reminded of that recent book on Claire Booth Luce “A Rage for Fame.” As an example, the author discovered a tragic teenage seduction followed by a ghastly abortion that almost certainly screwed up her relations with men for the rest of her life.
“She was much piqued when the local authority renamed the avenue after Katherine Mansfield, whom she detested.”
LOL! That would indeed be most irritating.
May this lady RIP, she seems to have lived an exciting life.
What a character! An incurable romantic. She could have been the inspiration for Kathleen Turner’s Joan Wilder (The Wilder Shores of Love, get it?) in Romancing the Stone and Jewel of the Nile, who wrote herself into her adventures. Blanch’s husband was no mean writer either...Gary’s Lady L and Ski Bum are good reads.
Lacking in team spirit, eh? Tsk, tsk.
Very interesting! I’d never heard of this lady until now (may she rest in peace) but will be looking in the library for her books.
RIP.
But she was a good writer and well worth the read. It gives a glimpse into the isolated , deprived lives of British women who had (and fortunately still have) a very active fantasy life they are more willing to share these days.
A life that could only be English, wherever transplanted, and a fine example of obituary art.