by Maggie Humm
My greatest thanks to Gillian Slovo for her inspiring teaching on the University of East Anglia/Guardian Diploma of Creative Writing, and to our writing group (the ‘Guardian Ladies’) Edwina, Mary Ann and Bridget (and initially Ira and Marcella) for all their many expert suggestions, and Kelsey for her support.
Thanks too to The Literary Consultancy for its excellent mentoring.
Thanks to my women’s book group for their very lively and perceptive discussions about novels: Ann, Brenda, Eileen, Ingrid, Jan, Jean, Judy and Kath.
Thank you to others whose support contributed so much at different stages: Annabel Abbs, Lauren Elkin, Eli Davies, and Anne Williams in particular.
My deepest thanks are to Rodger Sykes for his ideas and support over the years, and who never complained when Virginia Woolf became a third person in our partnership.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo credit: University of East Anglia
MAGGIE HUMM is an Emeritus Professor, University of East London, UK. An international Woolf scholar, the author/ editor of fourteen books both for an academic and general readership, the last three focussing on Woolf and the arts, the topic of Talland House. To transition to creative writing, she gained a University of East Anglia/Guardian Diploma in Creative Writing. Talland House was shortlisted for the Impress and Fresher Fiction prizes (as Who Killed Mrs. Ramsay?) and Retreat West and Eyelands prizes. A short story ‘Cult Love’ was ‘highly commended’ by the National Association of Writers’ Groups. She is currently finishing Rodin’s Mistress about the tumultuous love affair of the artist Gwen John and the sculptor Auguste Rodin.
SELECTED TITLES FROM SHE WRITES PRESS
She Writes Press is an independent publishing company founded to serve women writers everywhere. Visit us at www.shewritespress.com.
Hysterical: Anna Freud’s Story by Rebecca Coffey. $18.95, 978-1-938314-42-1. An irreverent, fictionalized exploration of the seemingly contradictory life of Anna Freud—told from her point of view.
Little Woman in Blue: A Novel of May Alcott by Jeannine Atkins. $16.95, 978-1-63152-987-0. Based May Alcott’s letters and diaries, as well as memoirs written by her neighbors, Little Woman in Blue puts May at the center of the story she might have told about sisterhood and rivalry in her extraordinary family.
Eliza Waite by Ashley Sweeney. $16.95, 978-1-63152-058-7. When Eliza Waite chooses to leave a stagnant life in rural Washington State and join the masses traveling north to Alaska in 1898 during the tumultuous Klondike Gold Rush, she encounters challenges and successes in both business and love.
Shanghai Love by Layne Wong. $16.95, 978-1-938314-18-6. The enthralling story of an unlikely romance between a Chinese herbalist and a Jewish refugee in Shanghai during World War II.
The Velveteen Daughter by Laurel Davis Huber. $16.95, 978-1-63152-192-8. The first book to reveal the true story of the woman who wrote The Velveteen Rabbit and her daughter, a world-famous child prodigy artist, The Velveteen Daughter explores the consequences of early fame and the inability of a mother to save her daughter from herself.
A Girl Like You: A Henrietta and Inspector Howard Novel by Michelle Cox. $16.95, 978-1-63152-016-7. When the floor matron at the dance hall where Henrietta works as a taxi dancer turns up dead, aloof Inspector Clive Howard appears on the scene—and convinces Henrietta to go undercover for him, plunging her into Chicago’s gritty underworld.
