Margaret Kennedy (1) (1896–1967)
Author of The Constant Nymph
For other authors named Margaret Kennedy, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by Margaret Kennedy
Associated Works
American Aphrodite: A Quarterly for the Fancy-Free (Volume 3, Number 10) (1953) — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Davies, Margaret Moore
- Other names
- Kennedy, Margaret Moore (birth)
Lady Davies - Birthdate
- 1896-04-23
- Date of death
- 1967-07-31
- Gender
- female
- Education
- Cheltenham Ladies College
University of Oxford (Somerville College, Modern History) - Occupations
- literary critic
biographer
screenwriter
playwright
novelist
historian - Agent
- Camilla Hornby (Curtis Brown)
- Relationships
- Mackesy, Serena (granddaughter)
Cary, Joyce (cousin)
Birley, Julia (daughter) - Short biography
- Margaret Kennedy was the eldest in a family of four children. Joyce Cary, the novelist, was a cousin on her father's side. Margaret attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she began writing, and in 1915 went up to Oxford University to read modern history. She made her publishing debut with a work of history, A Century of Revolution: 1789-1920 (1922). In 1925, she married David Davies, a barrister who later became a county court judge and a national insurance commissioner. They had three children. He was knighted in 1952, making her Lady Davies. Margaret Kennedy is famous today for her second novel, The Constant Nymph, which she adapted into a highly successful London play that starred Noël Coward and later John Gielgud; it was also made into wildly successful films in 1928, 1933, and 1943, and into a television drama in 1938. She was a prolific writer who produced further bestsellers, including Escape Me Never (1934), but none achieved the phenomenal worldwide popularity of The Constant Nymph. She also published a biography of Jane Austen and a study of the art of fiction. Novelist Serena Mackesy is her granddaughter.EXCERPT from Biography of Magaret Kennedy by Violet Powell on OxfordDNB.com: Having become famous, originally, as the author of a tragic fairy-tale was something of a handicap to Margaret Kennedy when it came to gaining a reputation as a novelist to be taken seriously. She was, however, much in demand as a judge of literary prizes, and as an active and forceful member of professional committees. Of her eight pre-1940 novels, A Long Time Ago (1932) was one of the most psychologically perceptive, contrasting the disillusions of early middle age with the uncertainties of children struggling towards puberty, their family party on an Irish holiday being disrupted by a seductive prima donna. On the other hand The Midas Touch (1938), a Daily Mail book of the month, dealt with a money-making gift, passed down through generations with a climax of Gothic disaster.
After the Second World War Margaret Kennedy returned to novel writing with The Feast (1950), a Literary Guild choice in the USA. Among her later novels, Troy Chimneys (1953) won the James Tait Black memorial prize, while The Heroes of Clone (1957) owed much of its dark humour to its author's experience as a scriptwriter for films. Keenly interested in the technique of writing, Margaret Kennedy published a short biography of Jane Austen in 1950, and a study of the art of fiction, Outlaws on Parnassus in 1958, both works of percipient criticism. She accepted, in due course, an invitation to become a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.
Margaret Kennedy was tall and dark; she was a good pianist and had a fine singing voice. Music was a passion which she shared with her husband. They were also fond of mountain walking and were fortunate in finding a house near Cadair Idris in north Wales, from where such walks were inexhaustible. The loss of Sir David Davies, in 1964, left his widow alone to face the debilitating illness of her son, James. In spite of these blows, she continued to make plans for further books until she died in her sleep on 31 July 1967 at the house of a friend, 1 Le Hall Place, Adderbury, Oxfordshire.EXCERPT from "Women, Celebrity, and Literary Culture between the Wars" by Faye Hammill: Yet Kennedy deserves to be remembered for more than a single book and a single character. Her critical and creative texts offer intriguing analyses of celebrity, genius, taste, and art. Her writing explores cultural value, and at the same, her best-selling yet critically acclaimed novels pose a serious challenge to cultural hierarchy and to the metanarratives of literary history." - Nationality
- England
UK - Birthplace
- London, England, UK
- Places of residence
- London, England, UK
Woodstock, Oxfordshire, England, UK
Kensington, London, England, UK - Place of death
- Adderbury, Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
Margaret Kennedy in Virago Modern Classics (July 2013)
Reviews
We have been having some long overdue building and decorating work done, and one of the consequence of that has been that I have had to pack a good number of my books away. While I was going through the difficult process of deciding which books I could part with for a few months, a book by Margaret Kennedy caught my eye, and I realised that I hadn’t read any of her work for a very long time.
That had been deliberate, because I only have two novels left and I hate the idea of running out, show more but once the idea of reading them had lodged in my head I couldn’t shake it our again; and the idea of visiting a Greek island while the weather raged outside was simply irresistible.
The Forgotten Smile is Margaret Kennedy’s penultimate novel, and it is mainly set on the island of Keritha, Like many of her novels, it tells the separate stories of a number of characters whose paths cross and it moves backwards and forwards in time.
Doctor Challoner is an elderly academic, and he is in Greece and on his way to Keritha to collect an inheritance from his aunt and uncle. His grand-father’s second wife had been Greek, she and her two children had never really felt at home in England, and so when her husband died she took her children home. Freddie and Edith had lived there for all of their lives, happily and rather unconventionally. Though Doctor Challoner had no feelings about them and no interest in their home or their island, he was set on recovering certain family heirlooms.
While he is on his way, he encounters Selwyn Potter, a former student, who was academically brilliant, good-natured, but socially awkward. Doctor Challoner wasn’t overly pleased to see him, he didn’t think to ask what he was doing there or why he had become a school-teacher, but as he could not speak modern Greek he took him along to act as his interpreter.
The sky was dazzling and the sea was a very dark blue shot through with streaks of green and bronze like a peacock’s tail. The distant islands, scattered about the horizon, were pale lilac and pink in the triumphant light.
When the two men reached their destination, Selwyn was surprised to be greeted by Kate Benson, whose children he had known at school and who he had always considered to be the best of mothers. She remembered him somewhat less fondly, as the clumsy young man who had broken her coffee table, but each would both discover that the other had an unexpected journey to reach that particular point in the world and in their life.
The two histories that unravel are both expected and unexpected.
Kate felt disregarded by her husband and underappreciated by her children. It might be true that she had not handled their transition from children to adults with lives and relationships of their own as well as she might, but even if that as the case they had judged he harshly and thoughtlessly. That was why she decided to do something that she had always wanted to do – she went on a cruise. It as not a great success but it took her to Keritha. She went for a walk while the rest of her fellow travellers sat on the beach, she met some old school-friends – Freddie and Edith Challoner; they invited her to stay – and she did. A visit home showed her that her absence had consequences that she had not foreseen, and that maybe that was no longer her place in the world.
Selwyn had thought that he had found his place in the world. He had never thought that he would but he did, and then he lost almost everything through no fault of his own.
He had been, she perceived, too happy for safety.No refuge was left to him in a world which had completely disintegrated.
These two stories of separation and loss, rediscovery and recovery, are set against a very different story.
Keritha was a tiny island, away from the tourist routes and largely untouched by the modern world. The old ways still prevailed, it was pagan and it was primitive, and that gave it its own particular magic. Alfred and Edith appreciated that, Kate and Selwyn appreciated that, but Doctor Challoner would have none of it; because though he loved the classics he had no interest in anything at all beyond his chosen sphere. He considered the island backward and the islanders barbarous; he just wanted to collect his inheritance and leave, but on Keritha – and particularly for the heir of the man who had been dubbed ‘Lord Freddie’ the world just didn’t work like that!
In the early stages of the book my overriding thought was that I was reading another very good Margaret Kennedy novel. Her writing was elegant and evocative, she was clear-sighted, she was psychologically acute, and she made these characters and their worlds – both Keritha and England – live and breathe.
I was particularly taken with the two leads, Selwyn and Kate. I knew these people, not well because Margaret Kennedy is an author who shows rather than introduces her characters. I understood them and I empathised with them.
There is a little comedy here, among the more serious and complicated emotions, and though it isn’t something I usually associate with her work I have to say that she handled it very well.
As I turned more pages I my thinking shifted, because I was so very impressed by one thing : how cleverly she was gradually revealing different aspects of her characters and their lives. I didn’t think about how she might end this story, but when I reached the end I thought that it was exactly right. It was a final chapter for this book but not a final chapter in the lives that were illuminated in its pages, and I appreciated it was left open with just a little suggestion of what might happen next.
‘The Forgotten Smile’ is both recognisably Margaret Kennedy and distinctive in her body of work; and thought I cannot say that it is her very best work I can say that there are things her that she did as well – and maybe even better – than she had before. show less
That had been deliberate, because I only have two novels left and I hate the idea of running out, show more but once the idea of reading them had lodged in my head I couldn’t shake it our again; and the idea of visiting a Greek island while the weather raged outside was simply irresistible.
The Forgotten Smile is Margaret Kennedy’s penultimate novel, and it is mainly set on the island of Keritha, Like many of her novels, it tells the separate stories of a number of characters whose paths cross and it moves backwards and forwards in time.
Doctor Challoner is an elderly academic, and he is in Greece and on his way to Keritha to collect an inheritance from his aunt and uncle. His grand-father’s second wife had been Greek, she and her two children had never really felt at home in England, and so when her husband died she took her children home. Freddie and Edith had lived there for all of their lives, happily and rather unconventionally. Though Doctor Challoner had no feelings about them and no interest in their home or their island, he was set on recovering certain family heirlooms.
While he is on his way, he encounters Selwyn Potter, a former student, who was academically brilliant, good-natured, but socially awkward. Doctor Challoner wasn’t overly pleased to see him, he didn’t think to ask what he was doing there or why he had become a school-teacher, but as he could not speak modern Greek he took him along to act as his interpreter.
The sky was dazzling and the sea was a very dark blue shot through with streaks of green and bronze like a peacock’s tail. The distant islands, scattered about the horizon, were pale lilac and pink in the triumphant light.
When the two men reached their destination, Selwyn was surprised to be greeted by Kate Benson, whose children he had known at school and who he had always considered to be the best of mothers. She remembered him somewhat less fondly, as the clumsy young man who had broken her coffee table, but each would both discover that the other had an unexpected journey to reach that particular point in the world and in their life.
The two histories that unravel are both expected and unexpected.
Kate felt disregarded by her husband and underappreciated by her children. It might be true that she had not handled their transition from children to adults with lives and relationships of their own as well as she might, but even if that as the case they had judged he harshly and thoughtlessly. That was why she decided to do something that she had always wanted to do – she went on a cruise. It as not a great success but it took her to Keritha. She went for a walk while the rest of her fellow travellers sat on the beach, she met some old school-friends – Freddie and Edith Challoner; they invited her to stay – and she did. A visit home showed her that her absence had consequences that she had not foreseen, and that maybe that was no longer her place in the world.
Selwyn had thought that he had found his place in the world. He had never thought that he would but he did, and then he lost almost everything through no fault of his own.
He had been, she perceived, too happy for safety.No refuge was left to him in a world which had completely disintegrated.
These two stories of separation and loss, rediscovery and recovery, are set against a very different story.
Keritha was a tiny island, away from the tourist routes and largely untouched by the modern world. The old ways still prevailed, it was pagan and it was primitive, and that gave it its own particular magic. Alfred and Edith appreciated that, Kate and Selwyn appreciated that, but Doctor Challoner would have none of it; because though he loved the classics he had no interest in anything at all beyond his chosen sphere. He considered the island backward and the islanders barbarous; he just wanted to collect his inheritance and leave, but on Keritha – and particularly for the heir of the man who had been dubbed ‘Lord Freddie’ the world just didn’t work like that!
In the early stages of the book my overriding thought was that I was reading another very good Margaret Kennedy novel. Her writing was elegant and evocative, she was clear-sighted, she was psychologically acute, and she made these characters and their worlds – both Keritha and England – live and breathe.
I was particularly taken with the two leads, Selwyn and Kate. I knew these people, not well because Margaret Kennedy is an author who shows rather than introduces her characters. I understood them and I empathised with them.
There is a little comedy here, among the more serious and complicated emotions, and though it isn’t something I usually associate with her work I have to say that she handled it very well.
As I turned more pages I my thinking shifted, because I was so very impressed by one thing : how cleverly she was gradually revealing different aspects of her characters and their lives. I didn’t think about how she might end this story, but when I reached the end I thought that it was exactly right. It was a final chapter for this book but not a final chapter in the lives that were illuminated in its pages, and I appreciated it was left open with just a little suggestion of what might happen next.
‘The Forgotten Smile’ is both recognisably Margaret Kennedy and distinctive in her body of work; and thought I cannot say that it is her very best work I can say that there are things her that she did as well – and maybe even better – than she had before. show less
Although written in the 1920s, The Ladies of Lyndon is set in Edwardian England and during and after the First World War. Agatha is one of the most sought-after debutantes of her season, and she marries John Clewer in order to become mistress of Lyndon. Her marriage is unhappy, and she finds comfort in her relationship with an old flame.
This is a novel that explores various characters’ search for satisfaction in their lives—oddly enough, it’s John’s brother James who is happiest with show more his life, although everyone thinks he’s rather “off.” However, because James is the one who’s most comfortable with himself and his life, he’s one of the most endearing characters in this book—along with his wife, Dolly the former housemaid. By marrying her, James raises a lot of eyebrows, but he really and truly doesn’t care what people think—and this is what makes his one of the more self-fulfilled characters in this book.
Agatha, however, is another story. Married at a young age, she’s not quite as self-aware as some of the other characters are, and so she basically gets pushed into her marriage with John. So the road she follows to achieve happiness is interesting and unconventional, to say the least. It’s the characters that drive this novel; and although the plot is in itself interesting, it’s not quite as interesting as the people that populate it. This story could so easily have been cliché, but it’s not. Instead, it’s a wonderfully charming book. This was Margaret Kennedy’s first book (incidentally, it was published when she was my age, 27), and it shows the promise of great things to come. I’ve been trying to track down copies of some of Kennedy’s other books, and can’t wait to read more! show less
This is a novel that explores various characters’ search for satisfaction in their lives—oddly enough, it’s John’s brother James who is happiest with show more his life, although everyone thinks he’s rather “off.” However, because James is the one who’s most comfortable with himself and his life, he’s one of the most endearing characters in this book—along with his wife, Dolly the former housemaid. By marrying her, James raises a lot of eyebrows, but he really and truly doesn’t care what people think—and this is what makes his one of the more self-fulfilled characters in this book.
Agatha, however, is another story. Married at a young age, she’s not quite as self-aware as some of the other characters are, and so she basically gets pushed into her marriage with John. So the road she follows to achieve happiness is interesting and unconventional, to say the least. It’s the characters that drive this novel; and although the plot is in itself interesting, it’s not quite as interesting as the people that populate it. This story could so easily have been cliché, but it’s not. Instead, it’s a wonderfully charming book. This was Margaret Kennedy’s first book (incidentally, it was published when she was my age, 27), and it shows the promise of great things to come. I’ve been trying to track down copies of some of Kennedy’s other books, and can’t wait to read more! show less
Margaret Kennedy's The Ladies of Lyndon is a remarkable first novel, and compares favorably, in its treatment of a fading British aristocracy, with D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover. Agatha Cocks, who becomes Lady Clewer in the course of the story, is a beautiful, charismatic, and innocent young woman who marries the wrong man. Sir John Clewer is not a flawed man, not an uncaring man, but for her, he is the wrong man. This error takes time - and the passing of the First World War - to show more surface. But when it does, Agatha's options, ethics, and feelings are complicated to say the least.
But the story is not merely about Agatha. In fact, one of the best features of the novel is the panoramic view of the extended Clewer family, which includes children from three marriages and their spouses. Agatha's brother-in-law James, for example, is quirky, fascinating, and endearing. Originally thought to be mentally deficient, probably because of a mild case of what would later come to be known as Asperger's Syndome, James turns out to be a talented, if unconventional artist. Agatha's mother, Ellen, as well as her stepmother in-law, Marian, are both strong hands at running their families, and dedicated to the upper class status quo. Her stepsisters in-law, Lois, and Cynthia, are each unalike yet similarly calculating when it comes to their interests. Other characters within the Lyndon estate orbit include an Hubert, art critic, Sir Thomas, a manufacturing magnate, Dolly, a housemaid, and Gerald, a childhood friend, cousin, and bit of a medical nerd.
Kennedy's skillful and witty dialogue brings this world alive. It is no surprise that she went on to success as a playwright, and that her work was adapted to cinema. It perhaps is a surprise that her first publication was a book on history, unless you reflect on the steady and organic manner in which the plot unfolds. But it is surely unexpected that it was her next novel, the Constant Nymph, and not this one, which made her famous. Once again, three cheers to Virago Modern Classics, for featuring this author and uncovering this gem from 1923. show less
But the story is not merely about Agatha. In fact, one of the best features of the novel is the panoramic view of the extended Clewer family, which includes children from three marriages and their spouses. Agatha's brother-in-law James, for example, is quirky, fascinating, and endearing. Originally thought to be mentally deficient, probably because of a mild case of what would later come to be known as Asperger's Syndome, James turns out to be a talented, if unconventional artist. Agatha's mother, Ellen, as well as her stepmother in-law, Marian, are both strong hands at running their families, and dedicated to the upper class status quo. Her stepsisters in-law, Lois, and Cynthia, are each unalike yet similarly calculating when it comes to their interests. Other characters within the Lyndon estate orbit include an Hubert, art critic, Sir Thomas, a manufacturing magnate, Dolly, a housemaid, and Gerald, a childhood friend, cousin, and bit of a medical nerd.
Kennedy's skillful and witty dialogue brings this world alive. It is no surprise that she went on to success as a playwright, and that her work was adapted to cinema. It perhaps is a surprise that her first publication was a book on history, unless you reflect on the steady and organic manner in which the plot unfolds. But it is surely unexpected that it was her next novel, the Constant Nymph, and not this one, which made her famous. Once again, three cheers to Virago Modern Classics, for featuring this author and uncovering this gem from 1923. show less
I was thinking recently of how much more difficult it used to be for a person who loved books, to find books they'd love. It was great if you could afford a trip to a bookstore, but even then you could never buy as much as you wanted to. I was mostly limited to what I could find at my local libraries, based on recommendations from nobody at all, because I didn't know anyone who read as much as I did. I hardly knew anyone who read at all.
But now! What a wonderful world indeed, Louis show more Armstrong, because now we have entire websites devoted to books and book reviews, we can see what hundreds of strangers thought of a book we're considering, and in the best cases we find like-minded bookish individuals with whom we can become (virtual) friends.
It was on the recommendation of one of those friends here on GR that I picked up The Feast, a book that I'd have never come across in the earlier, non-digital era of reading. I am so glad I did now.
You know the ending of this story within the first few pages - a cliff collapses and crushes a small hotel, killing everyone in it. What we don't know is which of the guests and staff were mercifully out at the time. Who lived, who died - remains a secret until the very end. The pages in between were absolutely and entirely absorbing.
My one complaint about The Feast, and it's not even a complaint because I think it worked well here - is that some of the unlikeable characters were so flat-out bad. Normally this would annoy me but in this case, I loved hating those characters. It was fun in a maddening way to see just how terrible they could be.
Overall a highly enjoyable book, so many insightful moments, and through it all the suspense of - when is that cliff going to fall? Why most of us have never heard of Margaret Kennedy is anyone's guess. show less
But now! What a wonderful world indeed, Louis show more Armstrong, because now we have entire websites devoted to books and book reviews, we can see what hundreds of strangers thought of a book we're considering, and in the best cases we find like-minded bookish individuals with whom we can become (virtual) friends.
It was on the recommendation of one of those friends here on GR that I picked up The Feast, a book that I'd have never come across in the earlier, non-digital era of reading. I am so glad I did now.
You know the ending of this story within the first few pages - a cliff collapses and crushes a small hotel, killing everyone in it. What we don't know is which of the guests and staff were mercifully out at the time. Who lived, who died - remains a secret until the very end. The pages in between were absolutely and entirely absorbing.
My one complaint about The Feast, and it's not even a complaint because I think it worked well here - is that some of the unlikeable characters were so flat-out bad. Normally this would annoy me but in this case, I loved hating those characters. It was fun in a maddening way to see just how terrible they could be.
Overall a highly enjoyable book, so many insightful moments, and through it all the suspense of - when is that cliff going to fall? Why most of us have never heard of Margaret Kennedy is anyone's guess. show less
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