Author Birthday – 27 October – Enid Bagnold
Enid Bagnold was born on 27 October 1889 and died on 31 March 1981.
Enid Bagnold Quotes
- Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it’s the answer to everything. To Why am I here? To uselessness. It’s the streaming reason for living. To note, to pin down, to build up, to create, to be astonished at nothing, to cherish the oddities, to let nothing go down the drain, to make something, to make a great flower of life, even if it’s a cactus.
- If I had my life over again, I’d have thought more about words. And thought about them earlier.
- I know I feel like Gulliver sometimes, weighed down by little men. There are so many people in this house, I’m a queen bee, with every muscle dragging. I’m the heart of a cluster, black, dripping, sucking, hanging.
- The theatre is a gross art, built in sweeps and over-emphasis. Compromise is its second name.
- The pleasure of one’s effect on other people still exists in age – what’s called making a hit. But the hit is much rarer and made of different stuff.
Source for quotes: Literary Ladies Guide
Enid Bagnold was an English novelist and playwright known for the variety of her subjects and writing styles. She is best remembered for her 1935 novel, National Velvet, which tells the story of an ambitious 14-year-old girl who rides to victory in the Grand National steeplechase on a horse she bought for just £10. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1944. In 1920, Bagnold married Sir Roderick Jones, chairman of Reuters, but continued to publish under her maiden name. Her memoir, A Diary Without Dates, draws on her experiences as a volunteer nurse during the First World War, caring for wounded and ill servicemen. Bagnold also found success as a playwright. Her best-known play, The Chalk Garden, was adapted into a film in 1964. Her other stage works include Four Plays and A Matter of Gravity. Enid Bagnold’s Autobiography (from 1889) was published in 1969. She was awarded a CBE in 1976, and in 1997, English Heritage unveiled a blue plaque at her former home at 29 Hyde Park Gate, Kensington, London, in her honour.
Source for photograph: Wikipedia, National Photo Company Collection, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
by Amanda Patterson
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