Dorothy Cowlin (original) (raw)

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British novelist, poet, newspaper columnist and article writer

Dorothy Cowlin
Born Dorothy Cowlin(1911-08-16)16 August 1911Grantham, Lincolnshire, England
Died 10 January 2010(2010-01-10) (aged 98)Malton, North Yorkshire, England
Resting place The East Riding Crematorium
Occupation Novelist, poet, columnist
Nationality British
Education BA (Geography)
Alma mater University of Manchester
Years active 1941–2009
Spouse Ronald Harry Whalley
Children Virginia

Dorothy Cowlin (16 August 1911 – 10 January 2010) was a British novelist, poet, newspaper columnist and article writer with strong associations to North Yorkshire.

During her life she wrote eight novels which were all published by Jonathan Cape, four biographical novels aimed at younger readers, and four collections of poetry.[1][2] All her work was published under her maiden name rather than her married name, Dorothy Whalley.

Dorothy Cowlin was born in Grantham, a market town in Lincolnshire, England in 1911.[2] She studied Geography[3] at the University of Manchester and was awarded a BA.[2] She was a teacher in Stockport[2] before marrying Ronald Whalley on 12 April 1941 at the parish church of Hampton Bishop whilst he was serving as a chiropodist in the RAF Hospital at Locking.[4] At that time a married woman could not continue working, so she turned her attention to writing which she had always had an ambition to do.[3] She had a single daughter on 15 October 1942 whom she named Virginia after Virginia Woolf, an author whose work she greatly admired.[5] Her first novel, "Penny To Spend", was published by Jonathan Cape in 1941 and was followed by seven others, but her style of writing fell out of favour,[6] and she turned her attention to poetry.

The family first moved to Pickering, North Yorkshire in late Autumn 1948 when Ronald came to teach at a school in the neighbouring village of Thornton-le-Dale. Dorothy fell in love with the countryside of the nearby Dales, and her writing often used the local environment as a background[7] She wrote columns for Malton newspaper the Gazette & Herald for more than 30 years, a long running series of articles for Scarborough's weekly paper The Mercury, and articles for magazines like The Dalesman, Yorkshire Life and Yorkshire Ridings, which often concerned local history and her own reminiscences.[6] A collection of 25 articles that originally appeared in the Gazette & Herald was published in 2000 under the title Do You Remember? Pickering 50 years ago. Her poems appeared in The Dalesman and many other magazines.[8]

Her poem The Sound of Rain has been featured by BBC Radio 4's programme Poetry Please,[9] and her poem Pennine Tunnel was the winner of a competition run by Yorkshire Television's magazine programme Calendar and judged by David Morley[10]

Her first novel was advertised in the Glasgow Herald where its theme was described as “an experiment with time”;[11] something which was noted in a review by Stevie Smith to be impossible, but made plausible by the author's skill.[12]

Miss Cowlin has taken a very interesting subject for her second essay in fiction, and in the first half of her story has handled it convincingly and with literary skill. Her chief character is Alexandra Gollen, a woman of twenty-one when we first meet her, paralysed from the waist down and with the mentality of a child of twelve, at which age after a horrible childhood she lost her memory and the use of her legs as the result of a very severe shock. She lives in a small Lancashire town, and is cared for by her twin half-brothers who have a small tailor's business, working in the room in which she passes her dreamy, contented life. The influence that largely determines her recovery is the coming of Iris Young, a secondary schoolmistress of thirty with a vigorous and lively personality, and the steps that lead to Alexandra's recovery of the power to walk, and to the much slower revival of her earlier memories are probable and well-considered. The second half of the book does not reach the same level of achievement. Alexandra's unhealthy and overdrawn passion for Iris becomes very tedious, and we lose the sympathy and interest that she inspired in her earlier paralysed condition and in the first stages of her convalescence. We leave her as a whole, though slightly abnormal, human being on the verge of a natural but somewhat perfunctory love affair.
The writing, despite occasional marks of amateurishness, is vivid and graphic, and if the development of Alexandra's character had been on more attractive lines, Winter Solstice might have made an original and fascinating story. As it is, we are left with the feeling that our natural desire for her recovery has not been justifiably satisfied.

Winter Solstice, first published in 1942 by Jonathan Cape, is a curious and compelling novel, detailing a psychological drama dressed in twentieth-century garb against a social backdrop of decidedly Victorian fabric.

— Gabriele Griffin, from the introduction of the 1991 republication

Her two characters are brilliantly drawn, and some of the passages between them are narrated in a way difficult to forget. In this as in other respects The Holly and the Ivy leaves the impression that uncommon reserves of thought and feeling have gone to its writing.

Miss Cowlin writes with distinction and great beauty, and she has an understanding of human motives which breathes life into everyone whom she depicts. It is true to describe this novel as romantic, but it is the best sort of realism as well.

A good well-written honest book. Miss Cowlin uses prose of great clarity, and her writing is imbued with an unusual quality of charity. Her descriptions, both of people and places, have great lucidity, and she transcribes dialect – with a more accurate ear than most.

A very moving book, and a convincingly human one.

Here is a novel which states fearlessly the grimmer side of married middle life, when love requires grit rather than salt.

Fluent, intelligent and vivacious.

Her prose is beautiful, and her vivid descriptions of the hot summer weather among the hills remain in the mind. This is a considerable advance on her last novel, and she is a novelist whom her adopted county may be glad to claim.

Biographical novels

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  1. ^ The 1991 republication of Winter Solstice incorrectly states on the back cover that the author died in 1962.

  2. ^ "List of published works available from the British Library". British Library. Retrieved 10 August 2014.[_permanent dead link_]

  3. ^ a b c d Publications, Europa Europa (2004). International Who's Who in Poetry, 2005. Taylor & Francis. p. 1648. ISBN 9781857432695. Retrieved 11 August 2014.

  4. ^ a b Richard Lung. "A young poet's sketches". Poetry & Novels of Dorothy Cowlin. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2014.

  5. ^ mariage certificate

  6. ^ Unpublished Autobiography.

  7. ^ a b "At 96 Dorothy grabs a headline of her own". Gazette & Herald. 3 January 2008. Retrieved 11 August 2014.

  8. ^ "North Yorkshire writer Dorothy Whalley dies aged 98". York Press. 29 January 2010. Retrieved 13 August 2014.

  9. ^ Richard Lung. "Dorothy Cowlin's poems by appearance in British poetry magazines, prizes etc". Poetry & Novels of Dorothy Cowlin. Retrieved 10 August 2014.

  10. ^ "List of poems featured on Poetry Please on 7 November 2004". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 10 August 2014.

  11. ^ "Yorkshire TV's Calendar, Poetry Competition Results 1994". YouTube. Retrieved 13 September 2014.

  12. ^ "Penny to Spend". The Glasgow Herald. 14 June 1941. p. 3. Retrieved 12 January 2018.

  13. ^ Severin, Laura (1997). Stevie Smith's Resistant Antics. Univ of Wisconsin Press. p. 89. ISBN 9780299152949. Retrieved 12 January 2018.