The directory «Plots»

Bagnold Enid
(1889—1981)
«National Velvet»

Enid Bagnold, the daughter of the Commander of the Royal Engineers, was born in Rochester, Kent in 1889. Her early childhood was spent in Jamaica but was educated in England and Switzerland.

On the outbreak of the First World War Bagnold joined the Voluntary Aid Detachments (VADs) and worked as a nurse at the Royal Herbert Hospital, Woolwich. Her account of this experience, «Diary Without Dates» (1917) was so critical of hospital administration that the military authorities arranged for her dismissal. Determined to help the war effort, Bagnold went to France and worked as a volunteer driver. Later she wrote about this in «The Happy Foreigner» (1920).

In 1920 Bagnold married the head of Reuters News Agency, Sir Roderick Jones. Bagnold continued to write and in 1924 published the highly acclaimed novel, «The Difficulty of Getting Married». This was followed by the commercially successful, «National Velvet» (1935). Other novels included «The Squire» (1937) and «The Loved and Envied» (1951).

Bagnold also wrote several popular plays including «Lottie Dundass» (1943), «The Chalk Garden» (1951), «The Chinese Prime Ministe»r (1964), and a «Matter of Gravity» (1975). Enid Bagnold died in 1981.

Sierra Leone, 2001, Piebald