Dorothy Whipple and Nottingham

A. H. 'Henry' Whipple was appointed Nottingham's first Director of Education in 1924, having held a similar post in Blackburn. He re-organised the city's education system, dividing schools into three: Infant (up to 7 or 8 years), Junior (with boys or girls from 7 or 8 to 11 years) and Senior (11 years and up), and the city into 16 districts. He was also a strong advocate for the education of women. The appointment had a hidden benefit for Nottingham in the form of the director’s wife, for ‘Henry’ had married Dorothy Stirrup in 1917, a woman half his age.

Between the world wars, Dorothy Whipple (1893-1966) was the best-known novelist living in Nottingham. The “Jane Austen of the 20th Century”, according to J. B. Priestley. The Whipples lived at 35 Ebers Road in Mapperley Park and it was from here that Dorothy wrote her hugely popular stories.

Dorothy Whipple’s ‘Greenbanks’ (1932) was chosen as the ‘Choice of the Book Society’ in 1932, helping it to become the author’s breakthrough novel. Following an ordinary family's joys and sorrows before and after the Great War, ‘Greenbanks’ is a tale of infidelity, divorce, autocratic parents and rebellious offspring. Two characters, the emotional and irresponsible grandmother, Louisa, and the unsentimental yet charming granddaughter Rachel, were particularly well received.

“It was queer, it was frightening, she thought, how in life you got what you wanted. Men, for instance, who admired above everything else, beauty in women, married beauty and, more often than not, found themselves with nothing but beauty.” (From ‘Greenbanks’)

‘Greenbanks’ brought with it a great success that continued with Whipple’s subsequent tales of everyday life, most of which are set in Notts, or as it appears, ‘Trentham’.

‘They Were Sisters’ (1943) tells the story of three sisters, the different marital choices they make, and how those choices impact on them; all set in an era when women stuck in a bad marriage had little or no option of reprieve. It’s an authentic account of domestic middle-class life, with a menacing undertone that holds attention.

“Moral failure or spiritual failure or whatever you call it, makes such a vicious circle... It seems as if when we love people and they fall short, we retaliate by falling shorter ourselves.” (from ‘They Were Sisters’)

Tastes changed after the Second World War and Whipple’s books fell out of favour. This was just as two of her novels had been made into films. 1945’s ‘They Were Sisters’ was voted one of the four best films of the year. The sisters are played by Phyllis Calvert (as Lucy), Dulcie Gray (as Charlotte) and Anne Crawford (as Vera), whilst James Mason is Geoffrey, one of their pursuers. He is an ambitious and cruel businessman, wanting a stay-at-home trophy wife. The film is noted for its harrowing depiction of marital abuse.

A year later, the noir-ish ‘They Knew Mr Knight’, starring Mervyn Johns, was released, featuring scenes of Ebers Road and the city centre.

The last of her sixteen novels, ‘Someone at a Distance’ (1953), is another of her best. Whipple describes it as, "a fairly ordinary tale about the destruction of a happy marriage.”

Whipple is another Nottingham writer to be have been published by John Murray. She wrote two memoirs: ‘The Other Day’ (1950) and ‘Random Commentary’ (1966). The latter offering reflection on her time in Nottingham. She returned to Blackburn after her husband’s death in 1958.

Persephone Books recently republished eight of Whipple’s novels and a collection of short stories. The writing has aged well; her characters well-drawn and recognisable.