|
|
1868-1947
Children's writer. Born in Preston, Lancashire she was the youngest of a family of four, with two brothers and a sister. Her father was a cotton mill manager and the family moved according to work demands. Before settling in Bury they had lived in Manchester and Bolton. Angela's education was at Miss Knowle's Select Ladies School in Preston, The Turrets in Wallasey, Manchester Secondary School for a short while and then at a quite exclusive girls' school, Ellerslie, where she boarded in later years. On leaving school, Angela studied at Heatherley art school in London, along with her sister Amy. She may have taken a position as a governess, but otherwise lived with her family. After the death of her father in 1899 they moved to the Conwy valley. At this time she travelled with her mother in Europe. In 1911 she moved with one of her brothers, to Coventry and they were joined by Amy after their mother's death in 1915. They lived at number 1, The Quadrant for the rest of their lives. It is now occupied by solicitors (Mander Hadley & Co.).
Angela Brazil (pronounced 'brazzle') wrote nearly fifty schoolgirl novels. These were considered to deal accurately and sympathetically with the highs and lows in the lives of middle-class schoolgirls, including the tangle of emotional friendships. Writing from a girl's viewpoint she said she was really still a schoolgirl at heart. The realism is particularly shown in her frequent use of slang expressions, a factor that led some teachers banning her books. She was quite late in taking up writing and at first wrote a few magazine articles on mythology and nature. Her first book to be published was A terrible tomboy (1905) but her long sequence of school stories did not commence until her second book The fortunes of Phillipa (1906). This was based on the experiences of her mother, Angelica, who having arrived from Rio de Janeiro as a young girl, was thrown straight into the unfamiliar world of the the Victorian girls’ boarding school. Unlike many of her contemporaries writing in this vein she did not write any books in a series, each stood on its own with different characters every time. In addition to her books she contributed a large number of school stories to children's annuals.
A terrible tomboy (1905)
The fortunes of Phillipa (1906)
The nicest girl in the school (1909)
A Fourth Form friendship (1911)
A pair of schoolgirls (1912)
The youngest girl in the fifth (1913)
For the sake of the school (1915)
The Head Girl at The Gables (1919)
Angela Brazil wrote an autobiography entitled My own schooldays (1926).
The most comprehensive account of the author can be found in The schoolgirl ethic; The life and work of Angela Brazil by Gillian Freeman (1976). Also published the same year, a survey of girls’ literature from 1875 to 1975 can be found in "You're a brick, Angela!" by Mary Cadogan and Patricia Craig.
Probably the most informative website on Angela Brazil is entitled Big Bill's Angela Brazil Stuff!. It was adapted from an article by Katharine Gunn published in the May 1990 issue of Book and Magazine Collector Magazine. A useful bibliography appears on the Austrailian website Collecting Books and Magazines at www.collectingbooksandmagazines.com/angela.html.
Coventry Local Studies Library has an Angela Brazil Collection, which includes her own works and 19 century children's literature.
Page created 28 June 2005
For your literary enquiries and comments please see the Who to contact page.
Please read the general terms and conditions and about accessibility on this site, including the use of the UK government accesskeys system. Further details on ICRA labelling, visitor counts and EnrichUK may be obtained by following these external links:-
|
|