When we first meet Millicent Dorrington she is a young lady on the verge of womanhood in inter-war England. The daughter of a wealthy mill-owner and one of five children – Gordon, Denis, Janet, Lorna, Cecily and Bunny – she is tormented by the high walls of their home, White Lodge, which hold her in. The young Millicent tells her father that she is destined for great things – that she is desperate to break free . . . But while Millicent’s siblings grow up, move on and experience life, their freedom confines her. Held back by the bonds of family, unable to leave her siblings behind, Millicent appears to miss out on the joys of life. But as time goes on, she becomes the centre that holds her family together. Perhaps Millicent’s great destiny was, after all, to remain at home; remain at one with those who love her most and see out her final days in the warmth of the White Lodge. Tender, humorous, gentle and quietly devastating, Richmal Crompton's Millicent Dorrington is the powerful story of a woman, a mother and a friend.

Richmal Crompton, Author of Just William: A Literary Life celebrates the first two William books, Just William (1922) and More William (1922). As well as a study of her famous character William Brown, this book is an introduction to Richmal Crompton’s less well-known fiction and a story about her writing life. Her multifaceted identity—her deep knowledge of Classical Greek and Latin literature and languages, her life as a disabled writer, and her writing about domestic violence and disability—played a role in her literary persona. Jane McVeigh moves beyond Richmal Crompton’s impact on children’s literature and offers an appraisal of all her writing including her novels and short fiction, her media profile on radio and TV, her impact on her readers—both adults and children—and her international success. Particularly, McVeigh considers Crompton in the context of twentieth century woman writers and the development of crossover fiction for dual audiences. The book argues that as a woman writer pigeon-holed as a writer for children, Crompton’s other novels and short stories have been side-lined and overlooked. More than a century after the first book collection of Crompton’s William stories was published, this biography places Richmal Crompton among other twentieth century women writers.

An authoritative review of literary biography covering the seventeenth century to the twentieth century A Companion to Literary Biography offers a comprehensive account of literary biography spanning the history of the genre across three centuries. The editor – an esteemed literary biographer and noted expert in the field – has encouraged contributors to explore the theoretical and methodological questions raised by the writing of biographies of writers. The text examines how biographers have dealt with the lives of classic authors from Chaucer to contemporary figures such as Kingsley Amis. The Companion brings a new perspective on how literary biography enables the reader to deal with the relationship between the writer and their work. Literary biography is the most popular form of writing about writing, yet it has been largely neglected in the academic community. This volume bridges the gap between literary biography as a popular genre and its relevance for the academic study of literature. This important work: Allows the author of a biography to be treated as part of the process of interpretation and investigates biographical reading as an important aspect of criticism Examines the birth of literary biography at the close of the seventeenth century and considers its expansion through the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries Addresses the status and writing of literary biography from numerous perspectives and with regard to various sources, methodologies and theories Reviews the ways in which literary biography has played a role in our perception of writers in the mainstream of the English canon from Chaucer to the present day Written for students at the undergraduate level, through postgraduate and doctoral levels, as well as academics, A Companion to Literary Biography illustrates and accounts for the importance of the literary biography as a vital element of criticism and as an index to our perception of literary history.

Classes, Culture, and Politics investigates those fields in British history that have been illustrated by the works of Ross McKibbin, one of the foremost historians of twentieth century Britain. Written by a distinguished team of scholars, it examines McKibbin's life and thought, and explores the implications of his arguments. One of his most important achievements has been to break down the artificial barriers that existed between 'social' and 'political' history, in order to enrich the writing of both; that legacy is reflected throughout this volume. From international football to Liberal internationalism, from the hedonism of the early Labour party to the relationship between London cabbies and Thatcherism, this volume is an ambitious attempt to explore contemporary Britain, endeavouring to be as original, unsycophantic, rebarbative, and diverting as the historian whose work has inspired it.