Margaret Stanley-Wrench Explained

Margaret Stanley-Wrench (1916 – 10 January 1974) was an English poet and novelist.^[1]

Life

Stanley-Wrench was the daughter of William Stanley-Wrench (1879-1951) and his wife, Mollie Stanley-Wrench (Violet Louisa Stanley-Wrench, née Gibbs; 1880-1966). Her mother was a novelist, cookery writer and journalist who used the byline "Mrs Stanley Wrench".^{[2] [3] [4] [5]} Margaret attended Channing School in Highgate. As an undergraduate at Somerville College, Oxford, she was the winner of the Newdigate Prize in 1937,^[6] becoming only the fifth female winner. Her poems had already appeared in Oxford Poetry and would appear in Time and Tide magazine and in Augury: an Oxford Miscellany (1940).^[7] Her first poetry collection was published in 1938.

At Oxford, Stanley-Wrench met the poet Keith Douglas, who became a friend.^[8] She continued to write poetry, but after the war became better known as a children's writer. Her work was included in New Poems 1965, edited by Clifford Dyment.^[9]

A collection of Stanley-Wrench's papers, including manuscripts and correspondence, is held by the Lockwood Library of the University at Buffalo.^[10]

Publications

Novels

• The Rival Riding Schools (1952)
• How Much For A Pony? (1955)
• The Conscience of a King: The story of Thomas More (1962)
• The Silver King: Edward the Confessor, the Last Great Anglo-Saxon Ruler (1966)^[11]
• Chaucer, Teller of Tales (1967)

Poetry

• News Reel and Other Poems (1938)
• A Tale for the Fall of the Year, and other poems (1959)

Drama

• The Splendid Burden (1954)
• Harlequin's Revenge (1955)

Notes and References

1. Book: Richard Burton. Simplify me: The life of Keith Douglas. 20 July 2020. Infinite Ideas Limited. 978-1-910902-84-4. 299.
2. Web site: The General Fiction Magazine Index . 11 July 2024 . philsp.com.
3. Book: Desiderata. 1934. F.W. Preece. 6.
4. Wrench . Mrs Stanley . 7 January 1933 . Home Life column (editor) . Pearson's Weekly . 2215 . 800.
5. A Porterhouse Steak by Mrs. Stanley Wrench. The Royal Magazine. 1917. 38. 11–15.
6. Book: Jane Dowson. Women's Poetry of the 1930s: A Critical Anthology. 21 February 2008. Routledge. 978-1-134-79054-8. 204.
7. Book: Alexander Mackenzie Hardie. Keith Castellain Douglas. Augury: An Oxford Miscellany of Verse & Prose. 1940. B. Blackwell.
8. Book: John Carey. A Little History of Poetry. 21 April 2020. Yale University Press. 978-0-300-25252-1. 255.
9. Book: Clifford Dyment. New Poems. 1966. Michael Joseph. 217.
10. Book: Location Register of Twentieth-century English Literary Manuscripts and Letters: A Union List of Papers of Modern English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh Authors in the British Isles. 1988. G.K. Hall. 978-0-8161-8981-6. 903.
11. Book: The New York Times Book Review. 1966. Arno Press.