Life
b. 1871 [née Minnie Dorothea Spaight]; several pop. hunting Anglo-Irish
novels, eg. A Mixed Pack; married younger son of Conyers family of Castletown
Conyers, Co. Limerick; she was a member of the County hunting set, considered
fast for smoking; author of a novel a year about hunting people, garrison
officers and horse dealers; her husband went down in the Lusitania (see
Mark-Bence Jones, Twilight of the Ascendancy); note that Note that
a Gen. Conyers figures in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music
of Time. IF DIW OCIL
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Works
The Thorn Bit (London: Hutchinson 1900; 1909); Bloom or Blight.
London: Hurst & Blackett 1901); The Boy, Some Horses, and a
Girl: A Tale of an Irish Trip (London: Edward Arnld 1903); Peter’s
Pedigree (London: Hutchinson 1904), another edn. (London: ; Arnold
1908); Cloth versus Silk. London: Hutchinson, 1905); The Strayings
of Sandy (London: Hutchinson 1906); Aunt Aunt Jane and Uncle James
(London: Hutchinson 1908), another edn. 1917; The Boy, Some
Horses and a Girl (Arnold [1908], 1917); Three Girls and a Hermit
(London: Hutchinson 1908), vi, 1-328pp.; The Conversion of Con
Cregan (London: Hutchinson 1909); Lady Everton’s Emeralds
(Hutchinson 1909), 332pp.; The Strayings of Sandy (London: Hutchinson
[1909], to 15th ed. in 1919); Two Imposters and Tinker (London:
Hutchinson 1910); For Henri and Navarre (London: Hutchinson 1911);
Some happenings in Glendalyne (London: Hutchinson 1911, 1917);
The Arrival of Antony; Sally (London: Hutchinson 1912);
Sandy Married (London: Methuen 4th ed. 1913), 364pp.; Old Andy
(London: Methuen 1914); A Mixed Pack (London: Hutchinson 1915);
Meave (London: Hutchinson 1916); The Financing of Fiona (Allen
& Unwin 1916); The Scratch Pack (London: Hutchinson 1916);
The Experiments of Ganymede Bunn (London: Hutchinson 1917); The
Blighting of Bartram (London: Methuen 1918); Tiranogue (London:
Methuen 1919); Irish Stew (Skeffington 1920), 285pp.; Sporting
Reminiscences (London: Methuen 1920); Uncle Pierce’s Legacy
(London: Methuen 1920); The Mating of Moya (London: Hutchinson
1921); The Toll of the Black Gate (London: Hutchinson 1922); Rooted
Out (London: Hutchinson 1923); The Adventures of Gerry (London:
Hutchinson 1924; The Two Maureens (London: Hutchinson. 1924);
Sandy and Others (London: Mills & Boon 1925); Treasury Notes
(London: Hutchinson 1926); Hounds of the Sea (London: Hutchinson
1927); Grey Brother and Others (London: Mills & Boon
1927); Bobbie London: Hutchinson 1928); Follow Elizabeth
(London: Hutchinson 1929); Denton’s Derby (London: Hutchinson
1930); Hunting and Hunted (London: Hutchinson 1930); Managing
Ariadne (London: Hutchinson 1931); Whoopee (London: Hutchinson,
1932); Maeve Must Marry (London: Hutchinson 1933); The Fortune
of Evadne London: Hutchinson 1935); A Good Purpose (London:
Hutchinson, 1934); The Elf (London: Hutchinson 1936); Phil’s
Castle (London: Hutchinson. 1937); A Lady of Discretion (London:
Hutchinson 1938); Gulls of Rossnacorey [var. Rossnacorry]
(London: Hutchinson 1939); The Best People (London: Hutchinson
1941); Dark (London: Hutchinson 1946); Kicking Foxes (London:
Hutchinson, 1947); A Kiss for a Whip (London: Hutchinson 1949);
The Witch’s Samples (London: Hutchinson 1950).
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References
Sporting Reminiscences. London, Methuen, 1920. Pages, v, 284, 8 (list)
[De Burca 44, 1997; £75].
Belfast Public Library holds Kicking Foxes; Some Happenings at Glendalyne (1911); Sporting Reminiscences (1919) [recte 1920, as supra]; The Waiting of Moya; The Witches Samples.
Anthologised in 1,000 English Short Stories.
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Quotations
"Glendalyne is a great rambling house ... the O’Neill’s
were men of might in the days when landlords were allowed to exist and
before they became game for the hunter, and every O’Neill who came
in for the place built a little on to it. It was a kind of fever of bricks
and mortar handed on from father to son. I remember, dimly, that there
is an inner court there with rooms round it, and another half of the house
is quadrangle, and another faces it, and ... there is a great frontage.
... gold plate, huge gardens, stupid places, beautifully kept up ... near
the sea ... with the wildest country apologising for its existence all
around it." [Happenings &c.]
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)