Violet Tweedale, née Chambers (1862 – 10 December 1936), was a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

writer, poet, and Spiritualist.Peter Zavon
Violet Tweedale
''Encyclopedia of Occultism & Parapsychology'', Thomson Gale, 2000 (Answers.com). She was a prolific author of

short stories A short story is a piece of prose fiction. It can typically be read in a single sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the old ...

, published as

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs, or related fiction/non-fiction excerpts by different authors. There are also thematic and ge ...

, and novels, often with a romantic or supernatural theme. She wrote over 30 books on spiritual subjects, such as ''The Cosmic Christ'' (1930), and her own personal psychic experiences were documented in ''Ghosts I Have Seen'' (1920). Apart from her literary output, she was a gifted amateur artist, embroiderer, and an accomplished pianist; she was also a skilled orator who spoke up for workers' rights. Tweedale was an avid

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

er and was known as the best lady golfer in her region.

Life and work

Violet Tweedale was born in

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

, the eldest daughter of

Robert Chambers Jr. Robert Chambers (March 1832 – 23 March 1888) was a Scottish publisher, editor of Chambers' Journal, amateur golfer and encyclopaedist, the son of Robert Chambers, the co-founder of the W & R Chambers publishing house in Edinburgh. Life He ...

, editor of ''

Chambers' Journal ''Chambers's Edinburgh Journal'' was a weekly 16-page magazine started by William Chambers in 1832. The first edition was dated 4 February 1832, and priced at one penny. Topics included history, religion, language, and science. William was so ...

'', and the granddaughter of Robert Chambers, the publisher and founder of W & R Chambers. In her teens she assisted her father in his work, and in 1889 moved to

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

where she had her first novel, ''And They Two'', published, and became involved in humanitarian "rescue work" in the East End. In 1891, she married Clarens Tweedale.'' /archive.org/stream/everywomansencyc02londuoft#page/1380/mode/1up Every woman's encyclopaedia, volume 2' p. 1380 (1910-12). In London, she moved in the best social circles, counting among her friends, poet

Robert Browning Robert Browning (7 May 1812 – 12 December 1889) was an English poet and playwright whose dramatic monologues put him high among the Victorian literature, Victorian poets. He was noted for irony, characterization, dark humour, social commentar ...

, artist

Frederic Leighton Frederic Leighton, 1st Baron Leighton, (3 December 1830 – 25 January 1896), known as Sir Frederic Leighton between 1878 and 1896, was a British Victorian painter, draughtsman, and sculptor. His works depicted historical, biblical, and clas ...

, Anne Proctor (mother of Adelaide Proctor) and many others. She also had influential contacts abroad including Marie, Countess of Caithness, Duchess of Medina Pomar (Papal States), who was close to Theosophist

Helena Blavatsky Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (; – 8 May 1891), often known as Madame Blavatsky, was a Russian-born Mysticism, mystic and writer who emigrated to the United States where she co-founded the Theosophical Society in 1875. She gained an internat ...

. In 1901-1902, her recently published work, ''Her Grace's Secret'' was reworked into a play by

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist, who wrote prolifically. Between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaborati ...

, but it was never produced for stage. Claiming to be

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use powers rooted in parapsychology, such as extrasensory perception (ESP), to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance; or who performs acts that a ...

from a young age, she became involved in

Spiritualism Spiritualism may refer to: * Spiritual church movement, a group of Spiritualist churches and denominations historically based in the African-American community * Spiritualism (beliefs), a metaphysical belief that the world is made up of at leas ...

and was a member of the

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn (), more commonly the Golden Dawn (), was a secret society devoted to the study and practice of occult Hermeticism and metaphysics during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Known as a magical order, ...

. She was also involved 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 ...

, and was a close associate of Helena Blavatsky. She worked with the

mediums Mediumship is the practice of purportedly mediating communication between familiar spirits or spirits of the dead and living human beings. Practitioners are known as "mediums" or "spirit mediums". There are different types of mediumship or spir ...

Charles Williams and Cecil Husk (1847–1920), and was called as an expert witness when trance medium, Meurig Morris, sued the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

'' for

libel Defamation is a communication that injures a third party's reputation and causes a legally redressable injury. The precise legal definition of defamation varies from country to country. It is not necessarily restricted to making assertions ...

in April 1932—although the case went against Morris, no fraud or dishonesty on the medium's part was proven.

Bibliography (selected)

;Non-fiction *''Unsolved Mysteries'' (Digby & Co., 1895) *
Ghosts I have seen: and other psychic experiences
' (New York: F.A. Stokes Co., 1919).
''Phantoms of the Dawn''
(J. Long, 1924). Foreword by

Arthur Conan Doyle Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a British writer and physician. He created the character Sherlock Holmes in 1887 for ''A Study in Scarlet'', the first of four novels and fifty-six short stories about Hol ...

. (Reprinted By Solar Press in 2024) *''Found Dead and other true ghost stories'' (Herbert Jenkins, 1928). *Mellow Sheaves [Discussion of psychological problems. With a portrait. (Rider, 1927). *
The Cosmic Christ
' (Rider, 1930). ;Fiction *''And They Two'' (G. Redway, 1897) *''What Shall it Profit a Man?'' (Digby, Long & Co, 1897) *''Her Grace's Secret'' (Jacobs, 1901). *''The Hazards of Life'' (John Long, 1904) *''The Honeycomb of Life'' (1904). *''Lord Eversleigh's Sins'' (John Long, 1905). *''Lady Sarah's Son'' (1906). *''The portals of Love'' (J. Long, 1906). *''The Sweets of Office'' (Long, 1907). *''An Empty Heritage'' (1908) *''The Quenchless Flame'' (John Long, London, 1909). *''Hypocrites and Sinners'' (J. Long, 1910). *''A Reaper of the Whirlwind'' (John Long, 1911). *''The House of the Other World'' (John Long, London, 1913) *''An Unholy Alliance'' (1915). *''Love and War'' (1916). *''Wingate's Wife'' (J. Long, 1916). *''The Heart of a Woman'' (Hurst and Blackett Ltd., 1917). *''The Veiled Woman'' (H. Jenkins, 1918). *''The Beautiful Mrs. Davenant'' (Frederick A. Stokes, New York, 1920). *''The Green Lady'' (Herbert Jenkins, 1921). *''The Passing Storm'' (1922). *''The School of Virtue'' (Long, 1923) *''The Mammonist'' (Hutchinson, 1927).

References

Works cited

External links