Magdalen King-Hall

Magdalen King-Hall (22 July 1904 – 1 January 1971) was an English novelist, journalist and children's fiction writer. Her novel, Life And Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton was made into a film, The Wicked Lady (1945), starring Margaret Lockwood and James Mason.

Life

Magdalen King-Hall was the daughter of Admiral Sir George Fowler King-Hall and sister of Stephen King-Hall.

Publications

Novels

• Diary of a Young Lady of Fashion 1764-5. (1924) New edition – London: Elek, 1967.
• I Think I Remember, Being the Random Recollections of Sir Wickham Woolicomb, An ordinary English snob and gentleman. London: Thornton Butterworth, 1927.
• Gay Crusaders. London: Peter Davies, 1934. An historical novel set at the end of the 12th Century, about the 3rd Crusade.
• Maid of Honour. London: Peter Davies, 1936. The background is 16th century England and Ireland.
• Lady Sarah: A Novel. London: Peter Davies, 1939. Set in the 2nd half of the 18th century, this romantic historical novel, tells the story of Lady Sarah Lennox, daughter of the Duke of Richmond.
• Lord Edward. London: Peter Davies, 1943. A novel about the united Irish Leader, Lord Edward Fitzgerald and his wife Pamela.
• Life And Death of the Wicked Lady Skelton. (1945) London: May Fair Books, 1961. Based on actual events in the 17th Century, this is the story of Barbara Skelton, her secret partnership with a highwayman and her appalling crimes.
• How Small A Part Of Time. London: Peter Davies, 1945. Sub-titled: 'The biography of the two beautiful Miss Lynch's of Cabragena.' The story is based on the lives of the Coughlan sisters of Ardo House near Ardmore.
• Lady Shane's Daughter. London: Peter Davies, 1947. When Lady Shane separated from her husband in 1787 she went with her daughter Lucilla to live in Europe, in Paris, Venice, Russia and Germany.
• Tea At Crumbo Castle. London: Peter Davies, 1949. The narrator is invited to tea at Crumbo Castle by old Mrs Toye and there sees the ghost of a young woman. The rest of the book is a flash back to 1878.
• The Fox Sisters. London: Peter Davies, 1950. A reconstruction of the lives of two sisters who lived in New England in the 1840s, who became notorious as professional mediums.
• Venetian Bride. London: Peter Davies, 1954. Ireland and Venice in the 18th Century form the background of this love story about Ned Gascoigne who inherits his father's title, estate and debts.
• Hag Khalida. London: Peter Davies, 1954. Hag Khalida was the name of a house on the Sudan Cotton Plantation. A young married couple move in and the story tells how a tragedy re-enacts itself.
• 18th Century Story. London: Peter Davies, 1956. Founded on the fact, this novel is packed with drama and incident including an elopement and a duel. The last trial of a nobleman by his peers in the Irish House of Lords in Dublin forms a fitting climax.
• The Noble Savages. London: Geoffrey Bles, 1962. The eccentric Landlord Mr Crumlin tries out Rousseau's educational theories when his sweet-heart's son Jonathan is left in his care. The setting is on the Blackwater in Co. Waterford and in Brighton.

Children's fiction

• Jehan of the Ready Fists. London: Newnes, [1936.] Also published as a Puffin Story Book in 1944. A story for children set during the 3rd Crusade at the time of Richard the Lionheart.
• Sturdy Rogue. London: T. Nelson & Sons, 1941. A children's book set in Elizabethan England.

Non-fiction

• Somehow Overdone: A Sudan scrapbook. London: Peter Davies, 1942. The author's memoirs of her time in the Sudan, where her husband worked for the Sudan Cotton Plantation Syndicate.
• The Edifying Bishop. London: Peter Davies, 1951. The story of the eccentric Frederick Hervey, Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Derry.
• Story of the Nursery. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul: London, 1958. A history of the Nursery from the Middle Ages to the present day.

Sources

• British Library Catalogue at www.bl.uk.
• Waterford County Museum – The Ardmore Journal: http://www.waterfordcountymuseum.org/exhibit/web/Display/article/166/

References

External links