11 Facts About Margaret Kennedy

Margaret Kennedy was a productive writer and several of her works were filmed.

Margaret Kennedy was born in Hyde Park Gate, London, the eldest of the four children of Charles Moore Kennedy, a barrister, and his wife Ellinor Edith Marwood.

Margaret Kennedy attended Cheltenham Ladies' College, where she began writing, and then went up to Somerville College, Oxford, in 1915 to read History.

Margaret Kennedy became close friends with the Welsh author Flora Forster.

Margaret Kennedy's first publication was a history book, A Century of Revolution.

Margaret Kennedy was knighted in 1952, making her full married name Margaret Davies, Lady Davies.

Margaret Kennedy died at Flora Forster's house at Adderbury, Oxfordshire on 31 July 1967.

Margaret Kennedy is best appreciated today for her second novel, The Constant Nymph, which she adapted into a highly successful West End play that opened at the New Theatre, with Noel Coward and Edna Best in September 1926.

Margaret Kennedy published a biography of Jane Austen and a study of the art of fiction, Outlaws on Parnassus.

Margaret Kennedy followed the stage success of The Constant Nymph with three more co-written plays.

Margaret Kennedy's family donated her papers and correspondence to Somerville College Library.