In honour of Edith Olivier's birthday this month, 31st December, I have compiled a collection of books about her life and works. An English writer and novelist, also noted for acting as hostess to a circle of well-known writers, artists, and composers in her native Wiltshire, including Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, Stephen Tennant, Siegfried Sassoon, Osbert Sitwell and John Betjeman.
Country Moods and
Tenses
"Miss Edith Olivier has adopted the terminology of the English syntax as a framework for this sensitive and deeply revealing study of the life, background and psychology of country people at the present time. Her book falls into five main divisions which are given the titles of the five grammatical moods: Infinitive, Imperative, Indicative, Subjunctive and Conditional. Each of these reflects some different aspect of life or scene; and the author's personal knowledge and understanding will enable the townsman to visualise very graphically these lights and shades of existence on or near the land.
The book is illustrated by a choice of 76 delightful photographs and prints, and there is a colour frontispiece from an old painting. The jacket was designed by Rex Whistler."
Without knowing
Mr. Walkley
"Nowadays, one meets fewer 'Characters' than of old, and life seems to be far more uniform. Everyone knew some oddities in their childhood, curious people who looked and behaved quite unlike others, but such pronounced individuality is rare to-day."
"In this mesmerising autobiography, acclaimed novelist Edith Olivier describes her remarkable life, which spanned the last decades of the nineteenth century, two world wars, and the birth of modern Britain. The daughter of a stern, traditional and fiercely charismatic Victorian rector, her journey begins with a childhood rooted in the timeless traditions of the Wiltshire countryside. From the start, Olivier's account is a treasure trove of historical knick-knacks and engaging anecdotes: from her studies at Oxford University in 1895 to her friendships with famous First World War poets, energetic efforts on behalf of the Women's Land Army and supernatural experiences on the Salisbury plains. Edith Olivier's wry and witty narrative vividly conjures the oddball characters, smells, sounds and sights of a bygone era."
The Seraphim Room
"The Seraphim Room, by Edith Olivier, is the story of Lilian and Emily, two half-sisters who live together under the watch of their domineering father. Together they whittle their days away under the claustrophobic roof of the dusty and decaying Chilvester House.
Shut away from the wider world, it looks like the two siblings might grow to be old spinsters together. That is until Emily encounters the charming Christopher Honythorne on a rare evening out. Emily basks in her new-found freedom and realises that there is a whole other world beyond the isolated existence she has experienced. But when Emily quickly becomes infatuated with Christopher, their tangled interactions could soon bring more misery than joy to Emily's secluded life. Particularly as Chilvester House already has a very unfortunate life expectancy for the women who live under its roof . . ."
Edith Olivier:
from her journals 1924-48
"Though Laurence Olivier was her second cousin, the association that propelled Edith Olivier to fame was with London’s Bright Young Things—most particularly, Rex Whistler, Cecil Beaton, and Stephan Tennant. They inspired her, and she them. In fact, it was Olivier who helped Beaton secure the lease on his now legendary country residence Ashcombe. Olivier kept a journal for over sixty years and these excerpts are filled with gossip and insight into Beaton, Whistler, and Tennant and many other fashionable people of her era. Includes photographs and other illustration (with many by Rex Whistler)."
The Love-Child
"What was she? Not a child, for she was seventeen, and taller than Kitty: not a girl, for she floated like a feather, and flew into trees like a bird; not a spirit - she was human to touch. But to-night she was all made of mischief and magic, remote form him, and yet calling him to here . . .' At thirty-two, her mother dead, Agatha Bodenham finds herself quite alone. She summons back to life the only friend she ever knew, Clarissa, the dream companion of her childhood. At first Clarissa comes by night, and then by day, gathering substance in the warmth of Agatha's obsessive love until it seems that others too can see her. See, but not touch, for Agatha has made her love child for herself alone.
No man may approach her elfin creation of perfect beauty. If he does, the love which summoned her can spirit her away . . . The Love Child (1927) was Edith Olivier's first novel, acknowledged as a minor masterpiece: a perfectly imagined fable and a moving and perceptive portrayal of unfulfilled maternal love."
Night Thoughts of a Country Landlady
"When the War drove her to fill the house with strange guests, it also drove her to fill her diary with strange thoughts... This broadened hospitality, and these unaccustomed contacts, completely changed for the time the character of English country life." In this fascinating work, Edith Olivier explores the diaries left to her by her friend and neighbour, Miss Emma Nightingale. The account explores the arrival of both evacuees and soldiers to Miss Nightingale's village after the outbreak of World War II.
Her musings on acting as a boarding house during this time are vivid and appealing chronicles of both rural life in World War II, and the varied and engaging individuals who were involved in this great struggle. This is a record of the war as told through the people left behind in England to live their lives against its all-encompassing backdrop, and who did so with quiet contemplation and an overwhelming sense of hospitality."
A Curious Friendship Charlotte Thomasson
"The winter of 1924: Edith Olivier, alone for the first time at the age of fifty-one, thought her life had come to an end. For Rex Whistler, a nineteen-year-old art student, life was just beginning. Together, they embarked on an intimate and unlikely friendship that would transform their lives. Gradually Edith's world opened up and she became a writer.
Her home, the Daye House, in a wooded corner of the Wilton estate, became a sanctuary for Whistler and the other brilliant and beautiful younger men of her circle: among them Siegfried Sassoon, Stephen Tennant, William Walton, John Betjeman, the Sitwells and Cecil Beaton - for whom she was 'all the muses'.
Set against a backdrop of the madcap parties of the 1920s, the sophistication of the 1930s and the drama and austerity of the Second World War and with an extraordinary cast of friends and acquaintances, Anna Thomasson brings to life, for the first time, the fascinating, and curious, friendship of a bluestocking and a bright young thing."
I hope you have found something of interest amongst this collection of books, but if not, there may be something more to your tastes in the Compendium's Library.
Comments