We Are Michael Field

I picked this up in Oxfam this afternoon. The combination of title and author caught my attention - Michael Field are of course two of the authors who posthumously had their birth names (Katherine Bradley and Edith Cooper; they each used several nicknames as well as their joint pseudonym) assigned to their literary work in the 'Reclaim Her Name' initiative, but I'd been aware of them before as poets, lovers, and aunt and niece.

I enjoy Emma Donoghue's fiction, so was interested to see how she'd approach a biography. She gives the impression of being thorough, detached, wry, and as respectful as one can be of two people who sound as if they must have been rather difficult. She gets the unfamiliar culture across well, establishing that a show more romantic friendship between two women, even an aunt and a niece, was nothing unusual, but that it was the sexual element that would have had to be concealed. She lets the facts, so far as they are known, speak for themselves and refrains from moralising, which felt like a good approach to me. The whole family set-up came across as being claustrophobic and unhealthy, and I ended up feeling most sorry for Edith's younger sister Amy, who seems to have been abandoned to deal with their possessive father much of the time.

It's a short book - 145 pages - and I raced through it in a couple of hours. Donoghue is frank about the amount of material she's had to leave out. There's a huge amount of material - the Michaels kept a joint diary for most of their life together, but some frustrating gaps (it's impossible to tell when the relationship became sexual as well as romantic). Donoghue includes plenty of their writing, heading each chapter with a poem as well as quoting from their plays.

Short but satisfying: I now know much more than I did before, and have a decent idea where to go to find out more should I wish to. show less

A heartbreaking portrait of art, artists and love, Michael Field is neither the most accomplished nor most acclaimed writer of their time, but their story, even in its incomplete sketches, is captivating and lovely.