Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Elizabeth Jenkins
-
Standard Name: Jenkins, Elizabeth
Birth Name: Margaret Elizabeth Heald Jenkins
EJ
, whose productive period extended from just after World War Two into the twenty-first century, was the author of half a dozen historical biographies and twice that many novels (several of which portray women in the position of victims of one kind or another), besides a play, book reviews, and a memoir. Some of her works have been often reprinted.
Elizabeth Jenkins
observed that EB
, elegant as she was in style, was highly sexed and attractive to men. She bore about her the aroma of passionate experiences.Molly Keane
wrote that at parties all...
death
Theodora Benson
Her brother-in-law persuaded a reluctant Elizabeth Jenkins
to write her Times obituary.
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson, 2004.
139
Family and Intimate relationships
Antonia White
This was three months after the annulment of AW
's first marriage came through. Eric had a job with the Foreign Office
.
Dunn, Jane. Antonia White: A Life. Jonathan Cape, 1998.
94-5
Vaux, Anna. “Biscuits. Oh good!”. London Review of Books, 27 May 1999, pp. 32-4.
32
They were married for five years, successfully, without any sexual...
Friends, Associates
Stella Gibbons
In 1954 SG
became concerned that her literary career was running down. At the instigation of her friend and fellow novelist Elizabeth Jenkins
, she enlisted a new literary agent, Curtis Brown
, who helped...
EB
loved Oxford (where she and her husband spent ten years) and became a social success there. She met and became friends with John
and Susan Buchan
, and it was through them that she...
NL
rarely associated with other authors, though she was a friend of the popular writer Elizabeth Jenkins
, whose interests, like her own, were historical.
qtd. in
Contemporary Authors: New Revision Series. Gale Research, 1981–2024, Numerous volumes.
80
Friends, Associates
Theodora Benson
TB
enjoyed a wide circle of friends both literary and non-literary. The former included Rose Macaulay
and Howard Spring
. She met her future collaborator Betty Askwith
(daughter of an old friend of her mother's)...
Laski, Marghanita, and Georgina Battiscombe, editors. A Chaplet for Charlotte Yonge. Cresset Press, 1965.
11, 13
Literary responses
Theodora Benson
Richard Sunne
wrote in the New Statesman and Nation of Shallow Water, Miss Benson's soufflé is perfect, and she serves it under a magical salamander, so that each piece retains its lightness and its...
Literary responses
Mollie Panter-Downes
MPD
's contemporary the future novelist Elizabeth Jenkins
later remembered devouring the successive instalments of this book in the Daily Mirror.
Beauman, Nicola, and Mollie Panter-Downes. “Introduction”. One Fine Day, Virago, 1985, p. vii - xvi.
ix
Reviewers were impressed: the Times was surprised at such maturity of style...
Literary responses
Theodora Benson
Her friend Elizabeth Jenkins
referred years later to Benson's amateurish but charming novels.
Jenkins, Elizabeth. The View from Downshire Hill. Michael Johnson, 2004.
59
She wrote that TB
had enjoyed a succès d'estime with her early works in the pensive, débutante style. After that she...
Literary responses
Stella Gibbons
The publisher had no shortage of praise to quote in advertising material. Elizabeth Goudge
called the book the most exciting story and generally agreed with Elizabeth Jenkins
's point that it achieved a truly remarkable...
Literary responses
Theodora Benson
Elizabeth Jenkins
wrote that The White Sea Monkey was not only the most terrifying story I ever read, but the most characteristic expression of her, in its agonized compassion and its understanding of the human...
Timeline
25-26 June 1483: The child King Edward V was deposed, and...
22 July 1949: The house in the village of Chawton in Hampshire...
Women writers item
22 July 1949
The house in the village of Chawton in Hampshire where Jane Austen
lived with her mother and sister from 1809 until her death was opened to the public, having been bought for three thousand pounds...
Early 1957: John Braine's novel Room at the Top was published...
Writing climate item
Early 1957
John Braine
's novel Room at the Top was published by Gollancz
after eight rejections, on the advice of Elizabeth Jenkins
in her capacity as publisher's reader.