Leonora Eyles
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Margaret Leonora Eyles (née Pitcairn, later Murray; 1 September 1889 – 27 July 1960) was an English novelist, feminist and memoirist. ''Captivity'' (1922) has been described by critics as "her strongest fictional expression of the chains that bind women, body and soul."Virginia Blain, Patricia Clements and Isobel Grundy: ''The Feminist Companion to Literature in English. Women Writers from the Middle Ages to the Present Day'' (London: Batsford, 1990), pp. 349–350.


Early life

Eyles was born in
Swindon, Wiltshire Swindon () is a town in Wiltshire, England. At the time of the 2021 Census the population of the built-up area was 183,638, making it the largest settlement in the county. Located at the northeastern edge of the South West England region, Swi ...
, as the eldest of the three children of Andrew Tennant Pitcairn (1861–1905) and his wife Rosa, née Bevan (1863 or 1864–1902). The fortunes of her father's Staffordshire pottery were declining. She grew up at Tunstall near
Stoke-on-Trent Stoke-on-Trent (often abbreviated to Stoke) is a city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Staffordshire, England. It has an estimated population of 259,965 as of 2022, making it the largest settlement in Staffordshire ...
. She was educated at day schools and won a scholarship to stay as a pupil teacher at a local board school when she was 14. After her mother died her father remarried, but he also died three years later, leaving her in the hands of an uncongenial young stepmother.Maroula Joannou: "Eyles ée Pitcairn; other married name Murray (Margaret) Leonora", ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' (Oxford, 2004
Retrieved 3 June 2018.
/ref> Having been forbidden at home to take up a place at a teacher training college, she fled to London at the age of 18 and found an ill-paid job addressing envelopes. She then sold some objects left to her by her mother and raised the money to move to Australia as a domestic servant. There she married, in about 1909, the medical student Alfred William Eyles (born 1880), son of Sir Alfred Eyles, and had three children in 1910, 1912 and 1914, the last two in London. However, Eyles left her to bring them up on her own. She lived in
Peckham Peckham ( ) is a district in south-east London, within the London Borough of Southwark. It is south-east of Charing Cross. At the 2001 Census the Peckham ward had a population of 14,720. History "Peckham" is a Saxon place name meaning the vi ...
, south-east London, doing ill-paid work, until she gained a post as an appeals writer for the charity Barnardo's.


Writings

Eyles spent the First World War as a munitions worker in Woolwich Arsenal with some 2000 other women. Her deprivations were documented in ''The Woman in the Little House'' (1922), which appeared first as a serial in '' Time and Tide''. In 1928, she married a journalist, David Leslie Murray, who edited ''
The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...
'' in 1938–1944, but she retained the name Eyles for her writings. She became a sought-after trade-union speaker and socialist writer before eventually joining the women's paper '' Woman's Own'' as an "agony aunt". A pacifist, socialist and vegetarian, Eyles also became interested in
theosophy Theosophy is a religious movement established in the United States in the late 19th century. Founded primarily by the Russian Helena Blavatsky and based largely on her writings, it draws heavily from both older European philosophies such as Neop ...
, but abandoned her pacifism in the Second World War. Her struggles are clear from her autobiographical work ''For My Enemy Daughter'' (1941), addressed to her elder daughter, Vivyan Leonora Eyles (1909–1984), who had remained in Italy with her Italian husband, Mario Praz. Margaret Leonora Eyles's traumatic childhood was recalled in ''The Ram Escapes'' (1953). The books for which she is best remembered attack and suggest ways of averting the social, economic and sexual subjugation of women: ''Women's Problems of To-Day'' (1926), ''Careers for Women'' (1930), ''Commonsense about Sex'' (1933), and ''Eat Well in War-Time'' (1940). These were supported also by her "slum" novels: ''Margaret Protests'' (1919) contrasts urban deprivation with rural freedom, while exploring the still controversial subject of birth control. ''Hidden Lives'' (1922) centres on a female doctor in general practice. Eyles also wrote some successful crime fiction.


Death

Eyles died on 27 July 1960 at her home in
Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, England, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, located mainly in the London Borough of Camden, with a small part in the London Borough of Barnet. It borders Highgate and Golders Green to the north, Belsiz ...
, London, at the age of 71. She had been suffering from intestinal problems and
diabetes mellitus Diabetes mellitus, commonly known as diabetes, is a group of common endocrine diseases characterized by sustained hyperglycemia, high blood sugar levels. Diabetes is due to either the pancreas not producing enough of the hormone insulin, or th ...
.


Partial bibliography

Taken from the British Library Special Catalogue. These are first editions, all published in London.British Library. Retrieved 3 June 2018.
/ref>


References


Sources

* Nicola Beauman: ''A Very Great Profession'' (1983) deals at length with Eyles's "treatment of abortion, birth-control, and desire". {{DEFAULTSORT:Eyles, Leonora 1889 births 1960 deaths 20th-century English women writers English feminist writers English women novelists People from Swindon People from Tunstall, Staffordshire Writers from Staffordshire Writers from Wiltshire English socialist feminists