Esther Meynell

Esther Hallam Meynell née Moorhouse; 1878 – 4 February 1955) was an English novelist and biographer.^[1]

Esther Meynell
Born	Esther Hallam Moorhouse 1878 Leeds, Yorkshire
Died	February 4, 1955(1955-02-04) (aged 76) Ditchling, East Sussex
Pen name	E. Hallam Moorhouse
Occupation	Writer (novelist)
Nationality	British
Period	20th century
Genre	Fiction, non-fiction
Spouse	Gerard Tuke Meynell
Relatives	Alice Meynell, aunt

Biography

Meynell was born in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. Her father was the Yorkshire Quaker Samuel Moorhouse.^[2] The family moved to Sussex when Esther was ten, living at 6, Highcroft Villas in Brighton, before moving (by 1901) to Redholm, London Road in Patcham.^[3]

She married Gerard Tuke Meynell, a master printer and typographer, the nephew of poet and suffragist Alice Meynell and cousin of writer Viola Meynell. They had two daughters and lived in London and then Pulborough, Sussex.^[3] During the 1930s they moved to Ditchling, and there lived in, built or converted various properties, activities described in Sussex Cottage (1936), Building a Cottage (1937) and Cottage Tale (1946), describing Conds Cottage, High Street, Ditching. She was widowed in 1942. In 1947 she converted Beulah Baptist Chapel into a house, No. 9 East End Lane.^[3]

Meynell died at Conds Cottage in February 1955.^[4] The house has since been extended.^[5]

Works

She is best known for The Little Chronicle of Magdalena Bach (1925), a fictional autobiography of Anna Magdalena Bach, the wife of composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Other works with musical themes include the novels Quintet (1933), whose hero is a world famous pianist; Grave Fairytale (1931) whose principal character is reminiscent of Beethoven; and Time's Door (1935), which belongs to the genre of fantastic fiction and features a violinist who "timeslips" to the 18th century where he becomes involved with Bach.^[1] In 1933 Meynell also completed a biography of J.S. Bach, one of Duckworth's "Great Lives" Series.

Her first book, Nelson’s Lady Hamilton (1906) was a biography of Emma, Lady Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson, the first of a series of books on naval history written under her maiden name. English Spinster: a portrait (1939) is a fictional treatment of the life of Mary Russell Mitford, author of Our Village. Other biographies include The Young Lincoln (1944) and Portrait of William Morris (1947).

As E. Hallam Moorhouse

• Nelson's Lady Hamilton, (1906)
• Samuel Pepys: Administrator, Observer, Gossip, (1909)
• Letters Of The English Seamen, (1910)
• Wordsworth, (1911)
• Nelson In England: A Domestic Chronicle, (1913)
• Sea Magic, (1916)

As Esther Meynell

• The Story Of Hans Andersen, (1924)
• The Little Chronicle Of Magdalena Bach, (1925)
• Grave Fairytale, (1931), novel
• Quintet, (1933), novel
• Bach, ('Great Lives' series, 1933)
• Time's Door, (1935), novel
• Sussex Cottage, (1936)
• Building A Cottage, (1937)
• Lucy And Amades, (1938), novel
• English Spinster: A Portrait, (1939)
• A Woman Talking, (1940), memoir
• Country Ways, (1942)
• The Young Lincoln, (1944)
• Cottage Tale, (1945)
• Sussex, (County Books series) (1947)
• Portrait Of William Morris, (1947)
• Tale Told To Terry, (1950)
• Small Talk In Sussex, (1954), memoir

Source:^[6]