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Lady Cynthia Asquith

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Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Template:Use British English Template:Infobox person Lady Cynthia Mary Evelyn Asquith (née Charteris; 27 September 1887 – 31 March 1960) was an English writer and socialite, known for her ghost stories and diaries.<ref name="vb">Richard Dalby, The Virago Book of Ghost Stories.Virago, London, Template:ISBN, 1987 (p. 236).</ref> She also wrote novels, edited a number of anthologies, wrote for children and covered the British Royal family.

Early lifeEdit

Lady Cynthia was born at Clouds House, East Knoyle, Wiltshire on 27 September 1887,<ref>Template:Cite ODNB</ref> one of seven children of Hugo Richard Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss (1857–1937), and Mary Constance Wyndham, of The Souls fame.<ref name="Debrett's2018">Template:Cite book</ref> Among her siblings were Hugo Francis Charteris, Lord Elcho (who married Lady Violet Manners, the daughter of Henry Manners, 8th Duke of Rutland, and was killed in action in the Great War),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Guy Lawrence Charteris, Colin Charteris (who died young), Lady Mary Charteris (wife of Capt. Algernon Walter Strickland and, after his death, John George Lyon), Yvo Alan Charteris (also killed in action during the Great War),<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> and Lady Irene Charteris (wife of Ivor Windsor-Clive, 2nd Earl of Plymouth).<ref name="EarlWemyss"/>

Her paternal grandparents were Francis Charteris, 10th Earl of Wemyss and his first wife Lady Anne Frederica Anson (second daughter of Thomas Anson, 1st Earl of Lichfield). Her maternal grandparents were Capt. Hon. Percy Scawen Wyndham MP for Cumberland West (second son of George Wyndham, 1st Baron Leconfield), and the former Madeleine Eden Campbell (sixth daughter of Maj.-Gen. Sir Guy Campbell, 1st Baronet).<ref name="EarlWemyss"/>

CareerEdit

In 1913, Asquith met D. H. Lawrence in Margate and became a friend and correspondent.<ref>See Mark Kinkead-Weekes, D. H. Lawrence: Triumph to Exile, 1912–1922 (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 69 ff.</ref> She took a position as secretary to the Peter Pan creator J. M. Barrie,<ref>Andrew Birkin, J. M. Barrie & the Lost Boys, Constable, 1979; revised edition, Yale University Press, 2003.</ref><ref>Kevin Telfer,"Captain Scott and J M Barrie: an unlikely friendship", Telegraph, 9 March 2012.</ref> with whom she became close friends, continuing to work for him until his death in 1937. Barrie left most of his estate to her, except for the Peter Pan works.<ref name="Chaney">Chaney, Lisa. Hide-and-Seek with Angels - A Life of J. M. Barrie, Hutchinson, 2005.</ref> Author L. P. Hartley became a lifelong friend after they met in the early 1920s.

Asquith became known for editing The Ghost Book, an anthology of supernatural fiction, including work by D. H. Lawrence, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen, Oliver Onions, and May Sinclair.<ref name="ma">Mike Ashley and William Contento, The Supernatural Index: A Listing of Fantasy, Supernatural, Occult, Weird, and Horror Anthologies. Greenwood Publishing, 1995. Template:ISBN, pp. 728–729.</ref>

One of Asquith's stories, "The Follower", was adapted for BBC Radio, along with others by Algernon Blackwood, Marjorie Bowen, and Noel Streatfeild; all were later reprinted in the Cecil Madden anthology My Grimmest Nightmare (1935).<ref name="vb"/> She contributed to the screenplay of the 1937 film Dreaming Lips, which starred Elisabeth Bergner.<ref>Film Reviews. Sydney Morning Herald [Sydney] 25 October 1937, p. 8; web: 17 April 2013.</ref>

In 1957, Asquith appeared as a contestant in the ITV Quiz show The 64,000 Question (hosted by Jerry Desmonde) where she won the top prize of £3,200 answering questions on the works of Jane Austen.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Personal lifeEdit

On 28 July 1910, Lady Cynthia married Herbert Asquith (1881–1947), second son of H. H. Asquith, the Liberal Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1908 to 1916, with whom he is sometimes confused.<ref name="EarlOxford&Asquith">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> They had three children:<ref name="AsquithObit1947">Template:Cite news</ref>

  • John Michael Asquith (1911–1937), who suffered mental problems and died in an institution.<ref name="BeaumanJohn">Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Michael Henry Asquith (1914–2004),<ref name="Atkinson2018">Template:Cite book</ref> who married in 1938 Diana Eveline Montagu Battye, daughter of Lt.-Col. Perceval Lawrence Montagu Battye. They divorced in 1952; he married secondly Helga Brigitta Ebba Elizabeth Ritter, daughter of Dr Walther Sigmund Casimir Ritter, in 1953.<ref name="Kidd2008">Template:Cite book</ref>
  • Simon Roland Anthony Asquith (1919–1973), who married in 1942 Vivien Lawrence Jones, daughter of Sir Lawrence Jones, 5th Baronet and Lady Evelyn Alice Grey (a daughter of Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey)<ref name="Fleming1985">Template:Cite book</ref>

Lady Cynthia's husband died in Bath on 5 August 1947 aged 66,<ref name="AsquithObit1947"/> and Lady Cynthia herself on 31 March 1960, aged 72.<ref name="EarlWemyss">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

WorksEdit

As editorEdit

  • The Flying Carpet (1925)
  • Treasure Ship (1926)
  • The Ghost Book (1927)
  • The Black Cap (1928)
  • The Funny Bone <ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation

|CitationClass=web }}</ref> (1928)

  • Shudders (1929)
  • The Children's Cargo (1930)
  • When Churchyards Yawn (1931)
  • My Grimmest Nightmare (1935)
  • The Second Ghost Book (1952)
  • The Third Ghost Book (1955)

AdaptationsEdit

"Template:-'God Grante That She Lye StilleTemplate:'-", first published in When Churchyards Yawn, was adapted in 1961 by Robert Hardy Andrews as an episode of the anthology TV series Thriller.<ref>IMDB</ref>

See alsoEdit

ReferencesEdit

Template:Reflist

Further readingEdit

  • Cynthia Asquith, Lady Cynthia Asquith Diaries 1915–1918, Hutchinson, 1968
  • Nicola Beauman, Cynthia Asquith, Hamish Hamilton, 1987
  • Julian Fane, Best Friends: Memories of David and Rachel Cecil, Cynthia Asquith, L. P. Hartley and some others, Sinclair-Stevenson, 1990
  • [1]Template:Cite book

External linksEdit

Template:Authority control Template:H. H. Asquith

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