Lady Gregory's Toothbrush

Description

At once conservative and radical in her beliefs, she saw no conflict in idealizing and mythologizing the Irish peasantry, for example, while her landlord husband introduced legislation that would, in part, lead to the widespread misery, poverty and starvation of the Great Famine. Nevertheless, as founder of the Abbey Theatre, an outspoken opponent of censorship and mentor, muse and mother-figure to W.B. Yeats, Augusta Gregory played a pivotal role in shaping Irish history and dramatic history. Moreover, despite her parents' early predictions of spinsterhood, she was no matronly figure, engaging in a passionate affair while newly-wedded and, as she approached 60, falling for a man almost 20 years her junior.

Colm Toibin was born in Ireland in 1955, and lives in Dublin. He is the author of four novels, including the 1999 Booker nominated The Blackwater Lightship. His non-fiction includes Bad Blood, Homage to Barcelona, The Sign of the Cross, and, mmost recently, Love in a Dark Time.

Biographical portraits are too often nowadays smudged in a surfeit of words . . . this one is a brilliant illumination. * Spectator *