Molly Keane (1904–1996)

Molly Keane was an Anglo-Irish writer born and raised in Ireland, in a hunting, fishing family.  Her mother was a minor poet.  She was articulate and well-informed although having received little education from governesses and boarding school. She began writing anonymously, as it woud have been held disgraceful for a young lady of her time. She wrote ten novels between 1928 and 1952, and four plays, with John Perry, by 1961, highly regarded by James Agate. Her husband Robert Keane died at the age of 36, and she stopped writing for many years.  Her extraordinary novels are beloved for their black comedy and the dialogue with which she brought to life the (now gone) privileged world in which she grew up -- often involving genteel poverty and loneliness.  She died in 1996, leaving two daughters.

Molly Keane is also known as M.J.Farrell