Dorothea Conyers

Life
b. 1871 [née Minnie Dorothea Spaight]; several pop. hunting Anglo-Irish novels, eg. A Mixed Pack; married younger son of Conyers family of Castletown Conyers, Co. Limerick; she was a member of the County hunting set, considered fast for smoking; author of a novel a year about hunting people, garrison officers and horse dealers; her husband went down in the Lusitania (see Mark-Bence Jones, Twilight of the Ascendancy); examples of her work are given in 1,000 English Short Stories; a Gen. Conyers figures in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time. IF DIW OCIL

[ Note: In reviewing a novel by Aquila Kemspter for the Daily Express, the young James Joyce remarks that the characterisation is often very original, as in the case of ‘old Mrs Conyers’. See review of Kempster’s The Adventures of Prince Aga Mirza in Daily Express [Dublin] (26 March 1903), rep. in Occasional Writing, ed. Kevin Barry, 2000, p.83.) ]

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Works
  • The Thorn Bit (London: Hutchinson 1900; 1909).
  • Bloom or Blight. London: Hurst & Blackett 1901).
  • The Boy, Some Horses, and a Girl: A Tale of an Irish Trip (London: Edward Arnld 1903).
  • Peter’s Pedigree (London: Hutchinson 1904), and Do. [another edn.]` (London: ; Arnold 1908).
  • Cloth versus Silk. London: Hutchinson, 1905).
  • The Strayings of Sandy (London: Hutchinson 1906).
  • Aunt Aunt Jane and Uncle James (London: Hutchinson 1908), another edn. 1917; The Boy, Some Horses and a Girl (Arnold [1908], 1917).
  • Three Girls and a Hermit (London: Hutchinson 1908), vi, 1-328pp.; The Conversion of Con Cregan (London: Hutchinson 1909); Lady Everton’s Emeralds (Hutchinson 1909), 332pp.; The Strayings of Sandy (London: Hutchinson [1909], to 15th ed. in 1919).
  • Two Imposters and Tinker (London: Hutchinson 1910).
  • For Henri and Navarre [7d Copyright Novels; pocket edn.] (London: Hutchinson [1911]) [red cloth; gilt-lettered on spine].
  • Some Happenings in Glendalyne (London: Hutchinson 1911, 1917) [see extract].
  • The Arrival of Antony; Sally (London: Hutchinson 1912).
  • Sandy Married (London: Methuen 4th ed. 1913), 364pp.; Old Andy (London: Methuen 1914).
  • A Mixed Pack (London: Hutchinson 1915).
  • Meave (London: Hutchinson 1916).
  • The Financing of Fiona (Allen & Unwin 1916).
  • The Scratch Pack (London: Hutchinson 1916).
  • The Experiments of Ganymede Bunn (London: Hutchinson 1917).
  • The Blighting of Bartram (London: Methuen 1918).
  • Tiranogue (London: Methuen 1919).
  • Irish Stew (Skeffington 1920), 285pp.; Sporting Reminiscences (London: Methuen 1920).
  • Uncle Pierce’s Legacy (London: Methuen 1920).
  • The Mating of Moya (London: Hutchinson 1921).
  • The Toll of the Black Gate (London: Hutchinson 1922).
  • Rooted Out (London: Hutchinson 1923).
  • The Adventures of Gerry (London: Hutchinson 1924; The Two Maureens (London: Hutchinson. 1924).
  • Sandy and Others (London: Mills & Boon 1925).
  • Treasury Notes (London: Hutchinson 1926).
  • Hounds of the Sea (London: Hutchinson 1927).
  • Grey Brother and Others (London: Mills & Boon 1927).
  • Bobbie London: Hutchinson 1928).
  • Follow Elizabeth (London: Hutchinson 1929).
  • Denton’s Derby (London: Hutchinson 1930).
  • Hunting and Hunted (London: Hutchinson 1930).
  • Managing Ariadne (London: Hutchinson 1931).
  • Whoopee (London: Hutchinson, 1932).
  • Maeve Must Marry (London: Hutchinson 1933).
  • The Fortune of Evadne London: Hutchinson 1935).
  • A Good Purpose (London: Hutchinson, 1934).
  • The Elf (London: Hutchinson 1936).
  • Phil’s Castle (London: Hutchinson. 1937).
  • A Lady of Discretion (London: Hutchinson 1938).
  • Gulls of Rossnacorey [var. Rossnacorry] (London: Hutchinson 1939).
  • The Best People (London: Hutchinson 1941).
  • Dark (London: Hutchinson 1946).
  • Kicking Foxes (London: Hutchinson, 1947).
  • A Kiss for a Whip (London: Hutchinson 1949).
  • The Witch’s Samples (London: Hutchinson 1950).

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Quotations
Some Happenings in Glendalyne (London: Hutchinson 1911, 1917): “Glendalyne is a great rambling house ... the O’Neill’s were men of might in the days when landlords were allowed to exist and before they became game for the hunter, and every O’Neill who came in for the place built a little on to it. It was a kind of fever of bricks and mortar handed on from father to son. I remember, dimly, that there is an inner court there with rooms round it, and another half of the house is quadrangle, and another faces it, and ... there is a great frontage. ... gold plate, huge gardens, stupid places, beautifully kept up ... near the sea ... with the wildest country apologising for its existence all around it.”

 

References
Belfast Public Library holds Kicking Foxes; Some Happenings at Glendalyne (1911); Sporting Reminiscences (1919) [recte 1920, as supra]; The Waiting of Moya; The Witches Samples.

Booksellers
Richard Beaton (Lewes, E. Sussex) lists: For Henri and Navarre (London, Hutchinson & Co. hb.; Hutchinson's 7d Copyright Novels; c1912; pocket edition in original red cloth, lettered in gilt on spine; frontispiece and decorated title page; spine lightly sunned, light crease to front free endpaper, good+. An historical novel set in C16th France and dealing with the Massacre of St Bartholomew’s Eve. Aunt Jane and Uncle James (London, Hutchinson & Co. 1906); 1st edn.; hb.; t.p. printed in black and yellow; Original green cloth with white line border; publisher's catalogue for Autumn 1908 bound in at end; undated signature on front pastedown, good; A ‘semi-sporting’, family comedy, set in Ireland. A young couple are visited by her aunt and his uncle, simultaneously. Sally (London, Methuen & Co. 1914), hb; 5th and Cheaper Edition; original green cloth. a few faint marks on boards, otherwise very good; remarks: Conyers was a popular Irish author of ‘cheerful romances’ (Edwardian Fiction): her first novel appeared in 1900 and her last (posthumously) in 1950. [See Richard Beaton, Bookseller, online at Antiqbook - accessed 31.08.2011.]

De Burca Books (Cat. 44; 1997) lists Sporting Reminiscences (London, Methuen 1920), v, 284, 8pp.; £75.

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