“I have no doubt that the more we get to know and understand her, the more we will appreciate and comprehend her works.”
Dorothy L. Sayers is one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating women.
The daughter of a clergyman, Sayers became one of the first female Oxford graduates.
Among the great detective writers, Sayers was also a religious thinker and medieval scholar.
Her personal life was full of scandal and secrets. Living unmarried with her lover Sayer bore a child by another man.
Leaving her son to be raised by others, Sayer posed as ‘Cousin Dorothy’ until the day she could officially ‘adopt’ him.
But what effect did this have on their relationship?
Using her access to Dorothy L. Sayers’ papers and photographs and her own memories of her subject, Barbara Reynolds has written the most readable and the most definitive biography to date of this fascinating woman.
‘A tinglingly vivid portrait of a brilliant, quirky, combative, energetic, comical and fascinating woman ... superb biography.’ - Piers Brendon, Daily Mail
The achievement of this lucid and absorbing biography is to make you wish you had known a woman who could inspire bishops in a dozen languages and giggle like a girl.’ - Frances Fyfield, Sunday Express
‘Barbara Reynolds’s achievement is to make us not only admire but like this astonishing woman.’ - Jenny Uglow, Independent on Sunday
‘This is a biography which brings Dorothy alive before the reader, not merely extremely able and gifted but warmly likeable too.’ - Barbara Everett, Independent
‘An affectionate, clear-sighted portrait which shows her as a more rounded, more likeable person than earlier writers. Dr Reynolds, using previously unpublished letters and photographs, provides some new information including a new identification of Peter Wimsey’s model.’ - Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph
‘Dr Reynolds delightfully evokes Sayers’ childhood at Bluntisham Rectory … Letters dominate this biography, as they should for Sayers was a superb, abundant writer of them.’ - Stephen Medcalf, The Times Literary Supplement
‘I finished the book feeling more admiration for its subject than I would have thought possible.’ - Julian Symons, The Sunday Times
‘First class: the work of a perceptive scholar who has made good use of the relevant documentation. What is new is the quality of her sympathetic exploration into what the latter half of her subtitle calls ‘the Soul’ of her subject: her inner life, and particularly the processes by which the synthesis of an emotional talent and chaotic emotions was transmuted into works of creative potency.’ - Gerald Irvine, Evening Standard
‘Here is a woman with a gift for both work and joy bursting the chrysalis of a conventional upbringing, coming to terms with the physical as well as the emotional and intellectual problems of being a woman in a traditional society that was evolving with disconcerting speed … Reynolds has made the most of personal knowledge and access to Sayers’ letters.’ - Godfrey Hodgson, Washington Post
Barbara Reynolds (1914-2015) was an Italian scholar and translator. She was married to translator Lewis Thorpe and completed the translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy which Dorothy L. Sayers left unfinished when she died. She was the general editor of The Cambridge Italian Dictionary. Dr Reynolds also founded the journal Seven, to which she contributed articles on Dorothy L. Sayers. As chairman of the Dorothy L. Sayers Society, Reynolds frequently lectured at the Society’s conferences.
Dorothy L. Sayers is one of the twentieth century’s most fascinating women.
The daughter of a clergyman, Sayers became one of the first female Oxford graduates.
Among the great detective writers, Sayers was also a religious thinker and medieval scholar.
Her personal life was full of scandal and secrets. Living unmarried with her lover Sayer bore a child by another man.
Leaving her son to be raised by others, Sayer posed as ‘Cousin Dorothy’ until the day she could officially ‘adopt’ him.
But what effect did this have on their relationship?
Using her access to Dorothy L. Sayers’ papers and photographs and her own memories of her subject, Barbara Reynolds has written the most readable and the most definitive biography to date of this fascinating woman.
Praise for Dorothy L Sayers: Her Life and Soul:
‘A tinglingly vivid portrait of a brilliant, quirky, combative, energetic, comical and fascinating woman ... superb biography.’ - Piers Brendon, Daily Mail
The achievement of this lucid and absorbing biography is to make you wish you had known a woman who could inspire bishops in a dozen languages and giggle like a girl.’ - Frances Fyfield, Sunday Express
‘Barbara Reynolds’s achievement is to make us not only admire but like this astonishing woman.’ - Jenny Uglow, Independent on Sunday
‘This is a biography which brings Dorothy alive before the reader, not merely extremely able and gifted but warmly likeable too.’ - Barbara Everett, Independent
‘An affectionate, clear-sighted portrait which shows her as a more rounded, more likeable person than earlier writers. Dr Reynolds, using previously unpublished letters and photographs, provides some new information including a new identification of Peter Wimsey’s model.’ - Jessica Mann, Sunday Telegraph
‘Dr Reynolds delightfully evokes Sayers’ childhood at Bluntisham Rectory … Letters dominate this biography, as they should for Sayers was a superb, abundant writer of them.’ - Stephen Medcalf, The Times Literary Supplement
‘I finished the book feeling more admiration for its subject than I would have thought possible.’ - Julian Symons, The Sunday Times
‘First class: the work of a perceptive scholar who has made good use of the relevant documentation. What is new is the quality of her sympathetic exploration into what the latter half of her subtitle calls ‘the Soul’ of her subject: her inner life, and particularly the processes by which the synthesis of an emotional talent and chaotic emotions was transmuted into works of creative potency.’ - Gerald Irvine, Evening Standard
‘Here is a woman with a gift for both work and joy bursting the chrysalis of a conventional upbringing, coming to terms with the physical as well as the emotional and intellectual problems of being a woman in a traditional society that was evolving with disconcerting speed … Reynolds has made the most of personal knowledge and access to Sayers’ letters.’ - Godfrey Hodgson, Washington Post
Barbara Reynolds (1914-2015) was an Italian scholar and translator. She was married to translator Lewis Thorpe and completed the translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy which Dorothy L. Sayers left unfinished when she died. She was the general editor of The Cambridge Italian Dictionary. Dr Reynolds also founded the journal Seven, to which she contributed articles on Dorothy L. Sayers. As chairman of the Dorothy L. Sayers Society, Reynolds frequently lectured at the Society’s conferences.
