Elizabeth Ayrton

Elisabeth Ayrton (2 February 1910 – 15 November 1991) was a British novelist and writer on cookery.^[1]

Life

Ayrton was born in Worplesdon in 1910. She was the daughter of the novelist Douglas Walshe and the writer Phyllis Sydney. She and her two siblings lived in Worplesdon.

Ayrton was married twice, firstly in 1933 to Nigel Balchin. She had met him at Cambridge where she was reading English, archaeology and anthropology at Newnham^[1] Their first child Prudence Ann was born in 1934.^[2] Penelope Jane Balchin was born in 1937^[3] and she was better known as childcare expert Dr Penelope Leach.^[4] During the war she worked vetting recruits for overseas missions as part of the secret Special Operations Executive. Their youngest child Freja Mary Balchin was born in 1944^[5] and she became the first female president of Cambridge University's theatre group.^[6]

Her first marriage broke up following a partner-swapping arrangement between the Balchins, the painter Michael Ayrton and the latter's partner Joan. Balchin divorced Elisabeth in 1951 and she married Ayrton a year later. After her marriage she started to write and submitted pieces successfully to magazines. Her poetry was read on BBC radio and she contributed to the radio programme Women's Hour. Her first novel was titled The Cook's Tale and it was published in 1957 this combined recipes within the narrative. The following year she published her first cook book.^[1]

She wrote a book on archaeology but it was her cookbooks that made her name. Royal Favourites was the third cookbook and it was the first to combine recipes with history. Her second husband died in 1975 and she combined writing with travelling and an antique business with exhibiting her husband's work.^[1]

Ayrton died in Rockhampton in 1991.

References