Women Writing on the Devon Land: A County's Women Who Wrote - circa 1965

Plymouth Hoe and Smeaton's Tower cc-by-sa/2.0 - © Ian Capper - geograph.org.uk/p/4651696 Women Writing on the Devon Land A – Z of Devon Women Writers & Places Plymouth's Literary Past in the Writing of its Women Early Plymouth Radicals           Yes, I know I could have chosen Paignton, Pinhoe or Princetown as the parish to represent P in this A – Z of Devon’s Women Writers (up to ca. 1965). There’s a cluster of women linked with these places whose lives and writings could be included. But really, it had to be Plymouth. Or, rather, given its important place in Devon’s history and the fact that it is the second largest city in the south-west, Plymouth could not be left out. Over the years (and up until circa 1965) plenty of women writers have lived or written about Plymouth and its surrounding area. I’ve already mentioned a few in passing in previous blog posts - see Frances Gregg, the War and The Mystic Leeway The Parker Circle of Saltra

        Okehampton Castle Photo Julie Sampson Writing Women on the Devon Land A-Z of Devon Women Writers & Places On the Ways to the Old Literary Roads around Okehampton          I could have chosen Offwell, Ogwell, Okeford, Otterton, or Ottery St Mary. But for this Alphabet of Devon Women Writers (up to about 1960), I settled on Okehampton. It's partly nostalgia, the town being a favourite place of my childhood, where I (albeit fairly briefly) and before me, both my parents attended school. I don't know of any individual woman author whose home was in the parish up to circa 1960 - but I do know several who included the place in their writings. Rosalind Northcote, Mary Ward and Sophie Dixon all set down in text their personal responses to the scenic, and/or historical characteristic of the Okehampton locality ...      ...  It is not just the romantic lines of Okehampton castle ruin that call, either when you spot Okehampton castle from the dual carriage

Old Schoolhouse Martinhoe Writing Women on the Devon Land A-Z of Devon Women Writers & Places Marking the Way to Martinhoe Old Schoolhouse Martinhoe          The little parish of Martinhoe in north Devon has to represent the 'M' in this  A-Z of Devon Women Writers & Places. I began the journey toward writing a  book about women many years ago, long before I researched then embarked on the written study of particular women writers. During the late eighties and early nineties, whilst researching and writing up my PhD, I ventured up to the remoter landscape north of the county to find where author/poet H.D.’s once stayed, in north Devon. She was there For several months in 196, during World War One she lived at Martinhoe then along the road at Parracombe .  Just as many other women writers associated with the South West, H.D. had significant connections with at least two of its counties, in her case it was with three (Devon, Cornwall and Dors