Dorothy Whipple

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Standard Name: Whipple, Dorothy
Birth Name: Dorothy Stirrup
Married Name: Dorothy Whipple
DW was a popular and successful serious novelist from the 1920s to the 1950s, who also published short stories and a delightful childhood autobiography, and from whose notebooks a form of adult literary autobiography was compiled after her death. She lived all her life in Blackburn, Lancashire (where most of her fiction is set), and Yorkshire. Although forays to London kept her in touch with the literary world of her day, her provincial status was probably a factor in her quick descent into critical oblivion, even while her novels were regularly reprinted. The most recent wave of reprints has brought her name before the public again but has not as yet generated a critical dialogue.
Colour photograph of a blue plaque on the brick wall of Dorothy Whipple's birthplace in Blackburn, Lancs. The plaque has a coat of arms at the top, and reads "The novelist Dorothy Whipple (née Stirrup) (1893-1966) was born in this house on 26th February 1893."

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Textual Features E. M. Delafield
EMD defiantly maintains a light, satirical tone despite the gravity of the situation. She focuses deliberately on amusing characters and situations: evacuees who return to London because they cannot tolerate country life; a bureaucrat at...
Intertextuality and Influence Elizabeth Taylor
ET borrowed for this novel from the opening of an apparently unpublished short story by Dorothy Whipple , Last Laugh.
Beauman, Nicola. The Other Elizabeth Taylor. Persephone Books.
363n3
Her book scored a success in a television adaptation, with Celia Johnson in...

Timeline

23 August 1939: Hitler's and Stalin's German-Soviet non-aggression...

National or international item

23 August 1939

Hitler 's and Stalin 's German-Soviet non-aggression pact was signed by foreign ministers Ribbentrop and Molotov .

27 September 1939: Warsaw fell to Hitler's invading army after...

National or international item

27 September 1939

Warsaw fell to Hitler 's invading army after twenty days' siege and bombardment.

End of May 1941: Following the German attack on Crete on 20...

National or international item

End of May 1941

Following the German attack on Crete on 20 May (billed as the world's first airborne invasion), fierce fighting across the island ended when the British navy evacuated almost 15,000 soldiers.

Texts

Conville, David, and Dorothy Whipple. “Afterword”. The Priory, Persephone Books, 2003, pp. 529-36.
Whipple, Dorothy. Because of the Lockwoods. John Murray, 1949.
Whipple, Dorothy. Because of the Lockwoods. Peoples Book Club, 1949.
Whipple, Dorothy. Every Good Deed. John Murray, 1946.
Whipple, Dorothy. Greenbanks. John Murray, 1932.
Whipple, Dorothy. High Wages. John Murray, 1930, p. 316 pp.
Whipple, Dorothy. Random Commentary. Michael Joseph, 1966.
Whipple, Dorothy. Someone at a Distance. John Murray, 1953.
Whipple, Dorothy. The Other Day. Michael Joseph, 1936.
Whipple, Dorothy. The Other Day. Cedric Chivers, 1976.
Whipple, Dorothy. The Priory. John Murray, 1939.
Whipple, Dorothy. The Priory. Persephone Books, 2003, p. 528 pp.
Whipple, Dorothy. They Knew Mr. Knight. John Murray, 1934.
Whipple, Dorothy. They Were Sisters. John Murray, 1943.
Whipple, Dorothy. Young Anne. Jonathan Cape, 1927, p. .