Synopses & Reviews
This is the first biography of a remarkable writer and incorrigible rebel. Evelyn Sharps story encapsulates the shifts in opportunities for talented Victorian women who survived into the mid-twentieth century.
She was born into a privileged family in 1869 and became a very popular writer of schoolgirl fiction. Extremely versatile, she also produced fairy tales alongside stories for the infamous Yellow Book. A Manchester Guardian journalist for over four decades, Evelyn Sharp became the first regular contributor to its iconic Womens Page. Before and during the First World War she was a leading suffragette, editing the newspaper, Votes for Women.
This biography draws on Evelyn Sharps publications, as well as letter and diaries vividly describing experiences such as famine relief in Soviet Russia and daily life in wartime Kensington for and elderly woman. It will be of interest to gender and social historians as well as to those interested in childrens and womens literature.
Review
“This is a fascinating account of a forgotten feminist. Evelyn Sharp was an 1890s ‘new woman who became a militant suffragette before 1914 and became renowned both as a journalist and childrens writer. Angela V. Johns lucid and scholarly biography brings her back into view, illuminating the social and political history of her era while skilfully weaving into the story Sharps long, secret love affair with the Guardian journalist she eventually married -- Henry Nevinson.” --Professor Shelia Rowbotham
About the Author
Angela V. John is Honorary Professor of History at Aberystwyth University.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations * Acknowledgements * Abbreviations * Evelyn Sharps Life * Introducing the Rebel Woman * From Evie to Becky Sharp* Writing for the young * Fellow traveller: meeting Henry Nevinson * Words in Deed: womens suffrage * Working with war * The relief of peace: in Weimar Germany * Irish Rebels * Somewhere in Russia: fiction and famine * Still rebelling: women, writing and politics in the 1920s * The Child Grows Up: configuring childhood in the inter--war years * Defying time and the times * War and widowhood: Chipping Campden and Kensington * Appendix 1 Evelyn Sharps major publications * Appendix 2 The Cheap Holiday. A short story by Evelyn Sharp.