Margaret Moore Kennedy Biography

British novelist, born in London, educated at Cheltenham Ladies' College and Somerville College, Oxford. Her first novel, The Ladies of Lyndon (1923), was followed by a popular success, The Constant Nymph (1924), about a gifted musician and the fate of his talented, unruly children; it was adapted for the theatre, and followed by a sequel, The Fool of the Family (1930). Other novels include The Midas Touch (1938); The Feast (1950), a modern version of the Seven Deadly Sins; Lucy Carmichael (1951), set in a provincial university; and Troy Chimneys (1953), set in Regency England, which won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. She wrote five plays, including Escape Me Never (1934). Her biography of Jane Austen appeared in 1950.