Why write about Eglantyne Jebb?

It amazes me that so little has been written about Eglantyne. She is a figure of global significance. Her work permanently changed the way that the world regards and treats children through both the creation of the international Save the Children movement, and through the evolution of her pioneering statement of children’s human rights into the ‘United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child’ - the most universally accepted human rights instrument in history. But, for me, what makes hers such a wonderful story is that Eglantyne seems such an unlikely children’s champion. ‘I don’t care for children’ she wrote as a miserable schoolteacher in 1900, and twenty years later she was still moaning to a friend ‘I suppose it is a judgement on me for not caring about children, that I’m made to talk all day long about the universal love of humanity towards them’. I love this apparent paradox, showing just how complex people and their lives can be. I also loved Eglantyne, from her sometimes painfully lofty ideals to her dry sense of humour that friends felt saved her from ‘the kind of philanthropicalness of most good ladies’. Despite her later image as a saintly spinster in brown cardigan and crucifix, Eglantyne spent her life breaking social conventions as she moved from illicit romance and suicidal despair in Cambridge to aid and espionage in Serbia, and from private spiritualism in Shropshire to public arrest in Trafalgar Square. At once a romantic and a realist, living through times of great personal and international loss, she developed a vision for a more just and peaceful world rooted in children’s rights and responsibilities. By the time she died, aged just fifty-two, she had won over the miners and the Pope, the British establishment and the Bolshevik government. Her passion for her cause, along with her prematurely white hair, earned her the nickname the White Flame, but although she was lauded as a saint after her death, her own all too human story has now been forgotten.

 

How long did it take you to research and write the book?

I first had the idea for the biography when I was working at Save the Children in 1999 – so you could say ten years. Unfortunately I did not do much more than root about in their archives at the time, and since then I have been either working, studying or looking after my young children – usually the lot at once - which has made fitting in the book quite tricky. And then when I was working on it there seemed endless avenues to explore, places to visit and papers to read. I was glad when someone pointed out that Save the Children had an appropriate anniversary coming up that the book could usefully mark or I might never have finished the thing.

 

What did you enjoy most during your research?

I loved all of it. I am a very nosey person, always looking into lit rooms on dark evenings when curtains aren’t drawn, so I have loved having an excuse to really delve into someone else’s life, especially when it turned out to be so interesting. How amazing to rifle though Eglantyne’s love letters and family scrapbooks, to sleep in her childhood nursery, and eat from her plates. Having held a curl of her auburn baby hair, and finally bought my own copy of her signature on eBay, I once described my research as ‘psycho-stalking’, and was duly ticked off by a much better writer. I was always respectful but it is easy to get a bit too obsessive. The other fantastic thing about the research is meeting so many friendly and helpful people. Two of Eglantyne’s wonderful great nephews and their families invited me to stay in their houses, opened up their boxes and bureaus and cooked me dinners. The granddaughter of her closest girlfriend also put me up for the night, sharing her memories as well as her folders of photos and letters, and there were many cups of tea and glasses of wine with other people connected to her story. Sometimes coincidences seemed to lead to uncanny new opportunities to learn something about Eglantyne, but in fact it was always the openness and kindness of friends and strangers that made these opportunities valuable.

 

Did you discover anything new during your research?

Yes, lots. What I love about Eglantyne, what really drew me to her, were the apparent paradoxes in her life. Here was a woman who dedicated her life to promoting the welfare and rights of children, yet she never had children of her own and didn’t even seem to care much for those she met and knew. It soon became clear that Eglantyne was not drawn to her cause by some frustrated maternal instinct – she had no such instinct. Eglantyne was a great humanitarian but not a sentimentalist; the general always appealed more to her than the personal. There was much here to explore that had not really been considered before. And then there was the wonderful day when I came across a large journal she kept called ‘Conversations with the Dead’, and the day when her great nephew produced a trunk full of her love letters, and, and, and…

 

Did you write your MA dissertation on Eglantyne?

No, I wanted to but by then I was told as I had already written three essays on different aspects of her life I had to branch out a bit – but in a way I cheated, researching some of the context in which I would set her story. My dissertation was called ‘Affection or Affectation: The Role and Rhetoric of Maternalism in the Development of Women’s Social Action in Victorian Britain’. I still think there is something more in there to be explored.

 

Did you always want to write?

Yes and no, I always liked the romance of the idea, but only found the inspiration when Eglantyne appeared. Once you’ve got that you’re away.

 

Describe a typical working day?

My typical day has changed a lot since I first came up with the idea of the book. Most of the research was done at weekends and evenings when I could get away from work, or leave the kids for a couple of days. Two years ago I started writing a couple of days a week when I had childcare, and whatever evenings I could keep my eyes open. I feel very lucky to have been able to combine being a mum with some time focusing on something else, and believe it probably makes me better at both.

 

What are you reading?

I read much less than I would like to, but I think it is important to read outside my own research. I love biography now, which I never read before, and have recently really enjoyed reading Claire Tomalin, Richard Holmes, Michael Holroyd and Robert Skidelsky. All obvious greats I know, but I think Alexander Masters, Alex von Tunzelmann and David Waller are all fantastic biographers too. I’m also in a book club and have found Doris Lessing more difficult than I wish I had, and Marilynne Robinson easier than I expected – glad to see her on Mr Obama’s list recently.

 

What are you going to write next?

I am working on several ideas for my next book, but have not got anything commissioned yet – so if you have a great idea for a subject I would love to hear it! I would also love to do a PhD, probably at Birkbeck where I did my MA, but I have a lot of excuses not to start it at the moment.

 

What advice can you give to anyone starting out?

Mainly try to meet some other writers to talk through your stumbling blocks. Re getting agents and publishers, my own agent, Andrew Lownie, has a very useful website, see www.andrewlownie.co.uk