Enid Bagnold | |
|---|---|
 Bagnold in the 1910s | |
| Born | Enid Algerine Bagnold (1889-10-27)27 October 1889 Rochester, Kent, England |
| Died | 31 March 1981(1981-03-31) (aged 91) |
| Spouse | |
| Family | Ralph Bagnold (brother) |
Enid Algerine Bagnold, Lady Jones,CBE (27 October 1889 – 31 March 1981) was a British writer and playwright best known for the 1935 storyNational Velvet.
Enid Algerine Bagnold was born on 27 October 1889 inRochester, Kent,[1] daughter ofColonel Arthur Henry Bagnold and his wife, Ethel (née Alger), and brought up mostly inJamaica. Her younger brother wasRalph Bagnold. She attended art school inLondon, and then worked as assistant editor on one of the magazines run byFrank Harris, who became her lover.[2][3] Harris and Bagnold are both portrayed inHugh Kingsmill's novelThe Will to Love (1919).[4]
As an art student in Chelsea, Bagnold painted withWalter Sickert and was sculpted byGaudier Brzeska. During theFirst World War she became aVoluntary Aid Detachment nurse;[5] she wrote critically of the hospital administration, which won her fame, and was dismissed as a result. After that she was a driver inFrance for the remainder of the war years. She wrote about her hospital experiences in her memoirA Diary Without Dates,[5] and about her experiences as a driver in her first novel,The Happy Foreigner.[6][7]
On 8 July 1920, she married SirRoderick Jones,[8] chairman ofReuters, but continued to use her maiden name for her writing. They lived at North End House,Rottingdean, nearBrighton (previously the home of SirEdward Burne-Jones), enjoying a glamorous social life. The garden of North End House inspired her playThe Chalk Garden. The Joneses' London house from 1928 until 1969, seven years after Sir Roderick's death, was No. 29Hyde Park Gate, which meant that they were the neighbours for many of those years ofWinston Churchill andJacob Epstein.
The couple had four children. The eldest was Laurian (born 1921, later the Comtesse d'Harcourt) who illustratedAlice & Thomas & Jane at the age of nine andNational Velvet at 14.[9] Their great-granddaughter isSamantha Cameron, wife of the formerPrime Minister andConservative Party leaderDavid Cameron.[10]
Bagnold published her autobiography in 1969. She died on 31 March 1981 frombronchopneumonia[11] and was cremated atGolders Green.[12] Her biography, by Anna Sebba and published in 1987, revealed some of the more problematic and contradictory aspects of her life: literary feuds, her marriage, her approach to motherhood, pre-war Nazi sympathies, her morphine addiction, and her contempt of the many leading actors who appeared in her plays.Cecil Beaton called it "a strange, remarkable, original and warped life."[13]
National Velvet (1935), is the story of a young girl who wins theGrand National steeplechase. A highly successfulfilm version came out in 1944, starring the youngElizabeth Taylor. However, Bagnold's work includes a broad range of subject matter and style.[14]The Squire is a novel about having a baby. Bagnold's biographer Anne Sebba says that "although always described as a novel, the serious effort to discover the motivations of a mother and the instincts of children leadsThe Squire close to the realms of documentary." The feminist weeklyTime and Tide described it as "a mark in feminist history as well as a fine literary feat."[15]The Loved and Envied (1951), is a study of approaching old age in which the protagonist, Lady Ruby MacLean, is thought to have been based onLady Diana Cooper.[16]
An adaptation ofNational Velvet for the theatre was produced and directed byAnthony Hawtrey for hisEmbassy Theatre at Swiss Cottage in 1946, and published in Volume 2 of hisEmbassy Successes (1946).[17] ButThe Chalk Garden (1955),film version 1964, was Bagnold's greatest stage success.The Chinese Prime Minister was presented on Broadway in 1965 withEdith Evans.[18]A Matter of Gravity, originally titledCall Me Jacky, played on Broadway as a star vehicle forKatharine Hepburn in 1976.[19] These three plays, along withThe Last Joke - a notable flop at thePhoenix Theatre in 1960 despite its star cast ofJohn Gielgud,Ralph Richardson andAnna Massey - were collected together byHeinemann asFour Plays by Enid Bagnold in 1970.[20]
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