Irene Handl

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IH , well-known throughout Britain during the latter half of the twentieth century as an inimitable comedic actress of stage, screen, and latterly television, also published just two remarkably powerful novels about a dysfunctional French upper-class family (the opposite end of the social scale from most of her acting roles). She also wrote for radio. Her novels might well have secured her a more lasting literary name if her acting reputation had not got in the way.

Milestones

28 December 1901

IH was born at 13 Leith Mansions in Paddington (London).
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts her birth on 28 December, though her Times obituary gave the date as the 27th. Unusually, she appears to have given her birth date from time to time as one year earlier than was the fact.
“Irene Handl: Classic Cockney of comedy”. Times.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

1965

The title of IH 's earlier novel, The Sioux (which had been fifty years in the writing), refers not to native Americans but to a French upper-crust family whose manners and customs make them an impenetrably separate tribe.
Handl, Irene. The Sioux. Cape.

29 November 1987

IH died at her flat in 1 Pembridge Villas, Notting Hill Gate.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.

Biography

Birth and Background

28 December 1901

IH was born at 13 Leith Mansions in Paddington (London).
The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography puts her birth on 28 December, though her Times obituary gave the date as the 27th. Unusually, she appears to have given her birth date from time to time as one year earlier than was the fact.
“Irene Handl: Classic Cockney of comedy”. Times.
Matthew, Henry Colin Gray et al., editors. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. http://www.oxforddnb.com/.