Angela Brazil, Philip Larkin and Coventry, Warwickshire

'THE QUADRANT

 

'BUILT CIRCA 1860, COVENTRYS [sic] FINEST EXAMPLE OF TERRACED HOUSING FOR THE PROSPEROUS MIDDLE-CLASSES OF THAT ERA. THE NEO-CLASSIC TERRACE IS BUILT IN SIX INDIVIDUAL SECTIONS EACH WITH ITS OWN VARIATION IN DESIGN.'

'ANGELA BRAZIL

CHILDREN'S WRITER

LIVED AND WORKED HERE

1911 - 1947'

Angela Brazil (1868-1947) lived at 1 The Quadrant (at present ugly with scaffolding), and by now, most of those who have heard of her will know that she pronounced her surname to rhyme with 'dazzle': she was that kind of person, and her tales of slangy, spunky young teenaged girls did represent an innovation in the genre. But if today her novels of girls' schools and girls called Lesbia, with lots of homosocial kissing and enthusiasm, etc, seem dated and perhaps a little too obvious to be completely innocent, whatever message they were or weren't intended to have wasn't lost on the young Philip Larkin.

 

In the 1930s, Larkin often used to see Brazil around Coventry, and reading her schoolgirl fiction was an influence on him: as 'Brunette Coleman' (the jazz interest clearly showing through), Larkin wrote schoolgirl fantasies in the Angela Brazil style in the early forties, although Trouble at Willow Gables and Other Fictions wasn't published until 2002, some years after his death.

 

This book doesn't exactly show the best of Larkin, and some people may call him a cheeky little monkey, but why give him a ragging for the frightfully topping time he must have had writing them?

For the curious, a number of Angela Brazil's novels are online: What fun!