Women’s Writing in the British Isles from the Beginnings to the Present
Brigid Brophy
-
Standard Name: Brophy, Brigid
Birth Name: Brigid Antonia Susan Brophy
Married Name: Brigid Antonia Susan Levey
Titled: Brigid Antonia Susan, Lady Levey
In the novel BB
's topics are social and sexual comedy. In non-fiction (essays, criticism, polemic) she pursued her interests in causes (often for the benefit of animals or writers), in opera and other arts, in deviant or nonconformist behaviour, and in individuals with a particular appeal to her. Late in her career, which spanned the second half of the twentieth century, came moving and clear-sighted writing on her multiple sclerosis. BB
disliked and opposed the study of women's writing in isolation from that of men.
Brigid Brophy
wrote appreciative reviews of some of SM
's early books.
Hamilton, Ian, 1938 - 2001. “Bohemian Rhapsodist”. The Guardian, 10 July 1999, pp. Saturday Review 6 - 7.
6
Friends, Associates
Patricia Highsmith
Although she liked her solitude, PH
built a wide and robust network of friendships, largely conducted by letter. She developed slowly—not on first meeting her, but later—a friendship with her fellow-novelist Brigid Brophy
.
Wilson, Andrew Norman. Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith. Bloomsbury, 2003.
265-6
Literary responses
Patricia Highsmith
Novelist Brigid Brophy
, who also likened PH
to Dostoevsky
,
Dirda, Michael. “This Woman Is Dangerous”. The Guardian, 20 June 2009, p. between pp. 12 and 13.
between 12 and 13
also wrote in November 1965 that among crime writers only PH
and Georges Simenon
had transcended the limits of crime...
Literary responses
Patricia Highsmith
She has been better appreciated in Britain than her native USA, and perhaps better in Europe than in Britain. Frank Richards
wrote that she made a life's work of her ostracisation from the American...
Intertextuality and Influence
Germaine Greer
In Bed with the English, which takes the form of a letter, declares its literary allegiances to be Anglo-American. It hopes to provide a straight-talking [Mary] McCarthy
-[Brigid] Brophy
rundown on the English...
Family and Intimate relationships
Maureen Duffy
MD
was living with a female partner when in summer 1967 her fellow-novelist Brigid Brophy
fell in love with her. A former lover, Iris Murdoch
, magnanimously hoped that this relationship would prove something stable...
Occupation
Maureen Duffy
MD
has undertaken a number of positions in public life, working tirelessly to improve the lot of authors—and of laboratory animals. Along with Brigid Brophy
and 148 others, she was a signatory of The Rights...
Occupation
Maureen Duffy
This organization, which MD
set up together with her colleague Brigid Brophy
, had as its aim to fight for loans-based, flat rate, government-funded Public Lending Right, to be paid to authors, not publishers:
Platt, Edward. “25 Years fighting for writers’ rights”. ALCS News, No. 21, July 2002, pp. 4-5.
4-5
Occupation
Maureen Duffy
Before the general election of May 1979, MD
and Brigid Brophy
offered a job at ALCS to Elizabeth Thomas
(advisor to Michael Foot
) in case Labour should lose.
Thomas, Elizabeth, journalist. “25th Anniversary: Elizabeth Thomas remembers Maureen and Brigid”. ALCS News, No. 21, July 2002, p. 6.
6
Occupation
Maureen Duffy
MD
organised a Prop Art (propaganda art) Exhibition in London, together with Brigid Brophy
.
Duffy, Maureen. The Microcosm. Virago, 1989.
prelims
Textual Production
Nancy Cunard
This reached print only two years before a book on the same outrageously camp figure by a younger writer, Brigid Brophy
. The British Library
keeps its copy in the category of books likely to...
Dedications
Lettice Cooper
Lettice Cooper
dedicated her novel Snow and Roses to her fellow-campaigners for public lending right, Brigid Brophy
and Maureen Duffy
.
British Library Catalogue. http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/libweb/action/search.do?dscnt=0&tab=local_tab&dstmp=1489778087340&vid=BLVU1&mode=Basic&fromLo.
politics
Lettice Cooper
She also participated in the campaign for authors' public lending right, having been a founder-member with Brigid Brophy
, Maureen Duffy
, and others, of Writers' Action Group
.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.
Literary responses
Ivy Compton-Burnett
Brigid Brophy
, reviewing this novel for the New Statesman, wrote not entirely appreciatively that the devices of the plot-making seem borrowed from the Edwardian theatre, that a positively farcical pile-up of skeletons come...
Intertextuality and Influence
Dorothy Bussy
Apart from her familial and social connections, it is for Olivia that DB
is most frequently noted in literary criticism and biography. In Distance and Desire: English Boarding-School Friendships (1984), Martha Vicinus
observes that Olivia...
Timeline
No timeline events available.
Texts
Brophy, Brigid. The Snow Ball. Secker and Warburg, 1964.
Brophy, Brigid. “The Waste-Disposal Unit”. London Magazine, London Magazine.
