Margaret Kennedy

Margaret Kennedy (23 April 1896 – 31 July 1967) was an English novelist and playwright.

Family and education

Margaret Kennedy was born in Hyde Park Gate, London, the eldest of the four children of Charles Moore Kennedy (1857-1934), a barrister, and his wife Ellinor Edith Marwood (1861–1928). The novelist Joyce Cary was a cousin on her father's side.

She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she began writing, and then went up to Somerville College, Oxford in 1915 to read history. Her first publication was a history book, A Century of Revolution (1922). Margaret Kennedy was married on 20 June 1925 to the barrister David Davies (1889–1964), who later became a county court judge and a national insurance commissioner. He was knighted in 1952. They had a son and two daughters, one of whom was the novelist Julia Birley.^[1] The novelist Serena Mackesy is her grand-daughter. Margaret Kennedy died at a friend's house at Adderbury, Oxfordshire on 31 July 1967.

Novels and plays

Margaret Kennedy is best appreciated today for her second novel, The Constant Nymph, which she adapted into a highly successful West End play that opened at the New Theatre, with Noel Coward and Edna Best in September 1926. Coward was replaced by John Gielgud during the run.^[2] It was also successfully filmed in 1928 by Adrian Brunel and Alma Reville, directed by Brunel and Basil Dean, and starring Ivor Novello, Mabel Poulton and Benita Hume,^[3] and again in 1933,^[4] 1938 (for television),^[5] and 1943.^[6]

Kennedy's first novel had been The Ladies of Lyndon (1923). Among her later successes were The Fool of the Family (1930), a sequel to The Constant Nymph, and the psychological novel A Long Time Ago (1932). The Midas Touch (1938) was a Daily Mail book of the month, The Feast (1950) a Literary Guild choice in the United States, and Troy Chimneys (1953) the winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The darkly humorous The Heroes of Clone (1957) drew on Kennedy's experience as a screenplay writer. She also published a biography of Jane Austen and a study of the art of fiction, Outlaws on Parnassus.

Kennedy followed up the stage success of The Constant Nymph (adapted in conjunction with Basil Dean) with three more co-written plays, of which the most successful was Escape Me Never (1934), an adaptation of The Fool of the Family, which was also filmed twice.^[7]

Of her postwar novels, The Feast (1950) introduces the disaster first and the characters who may or may not have perished in it afterwards, as in Thornton Wilder's The Bridge of San Luis Rey. The seaside hotel annihilated by the collapse of the cliff is replete with dysfunctional characters of all ages and sizes, which provides a fine balance of suspense, sympathy and even humour. Still, it works on other levels too. Her novelist granddaughter Serena Mackesy has called it "one of the cleverest bits of metaphor-working ever."^[8] It was recently reprinted, as were Lucy Carmichael (1951) and The Midas Touch.^[9]

Partial bibliography

^[10]

• A Century of Revolution 1789-1920 ([London]: Methuen, 1922), history.
• The Ladies of Lyndon (London: Heinemann, 1923), novel.
• The Constant Nymph (London: Heinemann, 1924; Leipzig), novel.
• With Basil Dean: The Constant Nymph - from the novel (London: Heinemann, 1926), play.
• A Long Week-End (London: Heinemann, 1927), limited e. of short magazine story.^[11]
• Red Sky at Morning (London: Heinemann, 1927), novel.
• With Basil Dean: Come with Me (London: Heinemann, 1928), play.
• Dewdrops (London: Heinemann, 1928), limited e. of short girls' school story.^[12]
• The Game and the Candle (London: Heinemann, 1928), limited e. of short magazine story.^[13]
• The Fool of the Family (London: Heinemann, 1930), novel, sequel to The Constant Nymph.
• Return I Dare Not (London: Heinemann, 1931), novel
• A Long Time Ago (London: Heinemann, 1932), novel.
• Escape Me Never! A play in three acts (London: Heinemann, 1934), dramatization of The Fool of the Family.
• Together and Apart (London: Cassell, 1936), novel.
• With Gregory Ratoff: Autumn (1937), play.
• The Midas Touch (London: Cassell, 1938), novel.
• Happy with Either (1948), play.
• The Mechanized Muse. P. E. N. series (London: G. Allen & Unwin, 1942), on the cinema.
• The Feast (London: Cassell, 1950), novel.
• Lucy Carmichael (London: Macmillan, 1951), novel.
• Jane Austen. Novelists Series No. 1 (London: Barker, 1950), biography/criticism.
• Troy Chimneys (London: Macmillan, 1953), novel.
• The Oracles (London: Macmillan, 1955), novel.
• The Heroes of Clone (London: Macmillan, 1957), novel.
• The Outlaws on Parnassus. On the art of the novel (London: Cresset Press, 1958), criticism.
• A Night in Cold Harbour (London: Macmillan, 1960), novel.
• Not in the Calendar. The Story of a Friendship (London: Macmillan, 1964), memoir.
• The Forgotten Smile (London: Macmillan, 1961), novel.
• Women at Work (London: Macmillan, 1966), two novellas.

Selected filmography

• Return to Yesterday (1940)

References

1. ^ ODNB entry. Retrieved 23 March 2011. Subscription required. A Julia Birley bibliography: Retrieved 24 March 2011.
2. ^ ODNB entry. A French translation entitled Tessa by Jean Giraudoux appeared in 1924: Retrieved 24 March 2011l.
3. ^ IMDB entry. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
4. ^ IMDB entry. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
5. ^ IMDB entry. Retrieved 23 March 2011.
6. ^ IMDB entry. Retrieved 24 March 2011.
7. ^ ODNB entry. IMDB entries [1] (1935) and Retrieved 24 March 2011. (1947).
8. ^ Mackesy's website: Retrieved 2 April 2011.
9. ^ The Feast (London: Faber, 2011). ISBN 9780571278107; Lucy Carmichael (London: Faber, 2011) ISBN 9780571277995; The Midas Touch (London: Faber, 2011). ISBN 9780571275267.
10. ^ Details mainly from the British Library Integrated Catalogue: Retrieved 9 April 2011. The list includes works published as by Mrs. David Davies Kennedy. Other information: Retrieved 9 April 2011. The source is referenced.
11. ^ Retrieved 9 April 2011.
12. ^ Retrieved 9 April 2011.
13. ^ Retrieved 9 April 2011.

External links

• Entry in The Dictionary of Literary Biography

Persondata
Name	Kennedy, Margaret
Alternative names
Short description	English novelist and playwright
Date of birth	23 April 1896
Place of birth	London, United Kingdom
Date of death	31 July 1967
Place of death	United Kingdom