Life
1898-1984 [var. 1901]; b. Dublin, of Protestant Irish parents who died
while she was still a child; ed. England; returned Ireland, 1931-27, and experienced
shock at narrow-mindedness of her mother’s family; worked in newspapers
incl. Sheffield Daily, Telegraph, Pearson’s Magazine,
and Evening Post; spent two years in America to 1939; Poor Women
(1928), short stories, incl. ‘Violet Ryder’, later published
as a novelette; Holy Ireland (1935) and Coming from the Fair
(1937) both deal with Ireland in a critical vein, while Sister Mavis
(1963) deals with an Irish girl who leaves Dublin to work in care home
in poor district of London; Frozen Ground (1954) is autobiographical;
other novels incl. House under Mars (1946), Girls in the Big
Smoke, (1977), et al.; contrib. to Irish Writing, ed., David
Marcus, during 1952; she was living in Greystones, in 1979. NCBE DIW
DIL IF/2 KUN OCIL
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Works
Fiction, Time, Gentlemen, Time! (London: Heinemann 1930),
a study of alcoholism and marriage; Apartment to Let (London: Heinemann
1931); Ethel (Pepper-London: Heinemann 1933); Holy Ireland
(London: Heinemann 1935) [infra], and Coming
from the Fair (London: Heinemann 1937); Four Women Grow Up
(London: Heinemann 1940); Smilin’ on the Vine (London: Heinemann
1941); Augusta Steps Out (London: Heinemann 1942); Scene for
Death (London: Heinemann 1943); There Were No Windows (London:
Heinemann 1944); House Under Mars (London: Heinemann 1946); Farewell
Happy Fields (London: Heinemann 1948); Frozen Ground (London:
Heinemann 1952); Sister Mavis (London: Heinemann 1953); A Death
Occurred (London: Hutchinson 1954); Journey Into Print (London:
Hutchinson 1954); Father Hone and the Television Set (1956); Father
and Daughter (London: Hutchinson 1957); Husband and Wife (London:
Hutchinson 1959); The Last Days of Miss Jenkinson (London: Hutchinson
1962); A Poet’s Pilgrimage (London: Hutchinson 1966); Not
for our Sins Alone (London: Hutchinson 1972). Only Fools and Horses
Work, a cheerful study of widowhood (n.d.)
Short stories, Poor Women! (London: Scholartis; Heinemann 1928); Nine Years is A Long Time (London: Heinemann 1938); Selected Stories (London & Dublin: Maurice Fridberg 1946); Cocktail Bar (London: Heinemann 1950), 214pp.
Miscellaneous, contrib. ‘She said to him’ [sect.] to Consequences, a complete story in the manner of the old parlour game in nine chapters (Waltham Saint Lawrence: The Golden Cockerel Press 1932), [3] 66pp., ill, with John van Druten; G. B. Stern; A. E. Coppard; Sean O’Faolain; Hamish Maclaren; Elizabeth Bowen; Ronald Fraser; and Malachi Whitaker. [SEE under O’Faolain, RX].
Anthologies, Evelyn Conlon & Hans-Christian Oeser, eds., Cutting the Night in Two: Short Stories by Irish Women Writers (Dublin: New Island 2001), incls. story by Nora Hoult.
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Commentary
Ulick O’Connor, ‘Joyce and Gogarty’
(1990): ‘when Norah Hoult, wishing to place Gogarty as a character
in one of her novels, gave him smoke-blue eyes, because, she said, Joyce
was always right about such things, Gogarty replied indignantly that this
was not so.’ (Augustine Martin, ed., James Joyce: The Artist and
the Labyrinth, London: Ryan Publ. 1990, p.347; also cited in Robert
Deming, ed., James Joyce: The Critical Heritage, London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul, 1970, [Vol. 1] p.282 and presum. sourced in O’Connor’s
early biography of Gogarty, The Times I’ve Seen: Oliver St John
Gogarty, 1963.)
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Notes
Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. II] (Dublin: Royal
Carbery 1985), bio-notes: b. Dublin 1901, ed. England; both parents [Anglo-Irish]
died; lived ed. boarding school, worked in London; staff of several newspapers
incl. Sheffield Daily, Telegraph, Pearson’s Magazine,
and Evening Post; prolific fiction author; Irish books include
Poor Women (1930) [five stories, an ageing prostitute, a bullied
servant girl, a spinster living off charity, &c.; see Baker]; Holy
Ireland [err. Landale for Langdale]; Coming from the Fair [follows
on from death of Patrick, his fortune squandered by Charlie, 1903-16];
Selected Stories [stories reprinted from Poor Women under variant
titles]; Farewell Happy Fields [Adam Palmer defies God in revenge
for his detention in provincial Irish mental asylum]; Cocktail Bar
[12 stories on defeat and incompatibility, opening with wedding of
Irish London couple]; A Death Occurred [in London luxury flats];
Frozen Ground [autobiographical, Irish orphaned girl to teens,
relatives in Yorkshire, boarding school, ineligible young man’s real
love falls on barren ground]; Father Hone and the Television Set [priest
buys communal telly, and events leading to its disposal]; Father and
Daughter [11 years of Shakespearean actors’ life, husband, wife
hankering for musical hall, contrasting daughters, small town Ireland];
Husband and Wife [Monty Mallory again]; Sister Mavis (1963)
[Irish girl leaves Dublin to work in care home in poor district of London];
Frozen Ground (1954) is autobiographical. For extracts from Holy
Ireland, see AUTH.
Stanley Kunitz, ed., Twentieth Century Authors (1967 ed.), describes herself as an ‘anti-feminist’ in the belief that feminism has done much damage; refers two novels to an Irish setting.
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), bio-notes: b. of Anglo-Irish parents in Dublin who died early [err.]; ed. England, returned 1931-1937; 1939, USA; lives in Greystones; Poor Women! (London: Scholartis 1928, and reps.), stories, including ‘Bridget Kiernan’, a young domestic in pre-war Britain, also a story ‘Violet Ryder’, printed separately as a novelette (Heinemann 1930 [limited edn.]).
Belfast Public Library holds Holy Ireland (1935); also Violet Rider [sic] (1930). There is a 1984 rep. of Holy Ireland, with a preface by Hoult and an introduction by Janet Madden-Simpson. In the preface, Hoult speaks of her shock at the bigotry of her mother’s family on visiting from school in England shortly after her parents’ deaths.
University of Ulster Library holds Holy Ireland (London: Heinemann; NY: Reynal and Hitchcock 1936), [6,] 369, [1]pp.; House under Mars (London: Heinemann 1946); Only Fools and Horses Work (London: Hutchinson 1969), 224pp; A Poet’s Pilgrimage (London: Hutchinson 1966); Violet Ryder (London: Elkin Matthews & Marrot 1930, lim. edn. 800); Youth Must be Served (London: Heinemann 1933).
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)