Ursula Bloom (11 December 1892 – 29 October 1984) was a British novelist, biographer and journalist.
Ursula Bloom | |
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| Born | Ursula Harvey Bloom 11 December 1892 Springfield, Essex, England |
| Died | 29 October 1984 (aged 91) Nether Wallop, Hampshire, England |
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| Genre | Romantic fiction |
Biography edit
Ursula Harvey Bloom was born on 11 December 1892 in Springfield, Chelmsford, Essex, the daughter of the Reverend James Harvey Bloom, about whom she wrote a biography, Parson Extraordinary. She also wrote about her gypsy ("Diddicoy") great-grandmother, Frances Graver (born 1809), who was known as the "Rose of Norfolk", a sobriquet used by Bloom as the title of her biography. Bloom lived for a number of years in Stratford-upon-Avon, which was the subject of another book, Rosemary for Stratford-upon-Avon.[1]
She wrote her first book at the age of seven. Charles Dickens was always a dominant influence: she had read every book of his before she was ten years of age, and then re-read them in her teens. A prolific author, she wrote over 500 books, an achievement that earned her recognition in the 1975 edition of Guinness World Records.[2] Many of her novels were written under various pen names, including Sheila Burns, Mary Essex, Rachel Harvey, Deborah Mann, Lozania Prole and Sara Sloane.[3][4] She appeared frequently on British television. Her journalistic experiences were written about in her book The Mightier Sword. Her hobbies included needlework, which she exhibited, and cooking. She was a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.[5]
Ursula Bloom married twice: firstly, in 1916, to Captain Arthur Brownlow Denham-Cookes of the 24th (Queen's) London Regiment, late of the Inner Temple (son of Colonel George Denham-Cookes of the 3rd King's Own Light Dragoons and Hon. Clara, daughter of Charles Brownlow, 2nd Baron Lurgan),[6] in the face of his family's "sniffy disapproval"; his aristocratic mother was by this time a wealthy widow, of Prince's Gate, Knightsbridge.[7] Their son, George Philip ("Pip") Jocelyn, was born in 1917 (he married in 1944, Lorna Jean Iris, daughter of Charles Lawson, of Romford, and had issue).[8] Arthur died of influenza in 1918, in the final days of the war.[9] In 1925 she married Charles Gower Robinson (d. 1979), a Royal Navy Paymaster Commander; they lived at 191, Cranmer Court, London SW3.[10][11][12] She died on 29 October 1984, aged 91, in a nursing home in Nether Wallop, Hampshire.[13]
Works edit
- The Duke of Windsor
- Victorian Vinaigrette
- The Song of Philomel
- The Elegant Edwardian
- Youth at the Gate
- Down to the Sea in Ships
- War isn't Wonderful
- Twilight of a Tudor
- The Dragonfly
- The Flight of the Falcon
- The Ring Tree
- The Girl Who Loved Crippen (The Story of Dr Crippen and Ethel Le Neve)
- Parson Extraordinary (About Bloom's father, the Reverend Harvey Bloom)
- Rosemary for Stratford-upon-Avon (Written about the town by Bloom while she was living there)
- Rosemary for Frinton (Norfolk - UK)
- The Rose of Norfolk (About Bloom's great-grandmother Frances Graver)
- The Mightier Sword (About Bloom's forays into journalism)
- Tea Is So Intoxicating (as Mary Essex)
- The Amorous Bicycle (as Mary Essex)
- Haircut For Samson (as Mary Essex)
- Nesting Cats (as Mary Essex)
- Eve Didn't Care (as Mary Essex)
- Marry To Taste (as Mary Essex)
- Freddy For Fun (as Mary Essex)
- ‘’Henry's Golden Queen’’ (as Lozania Prole)
References edit
- ^ The Rose of Norfolk, Ursula Bloom, Robert Hale and Company, 1964, p. 7
- ^ Guinness Book of World Records vol. 13, Sterling Publishing Co., 1975, p. 208
- ^ Twentieth-Century Romance and Gothic Writers, ed. James Vinson, Macmillan Publishers, 1982, p. 81
- ^ "Ursula Bloom (1892-1984)". www3.shropshire-cc.gov.uk. Archived from the original on 28 December 2013. Retrieved 12 January 2022.
- ^ Twentieth-Century Romance and Gothic Writers, ed. James Vinson, Macmillan Publishers, 1982, p. 81
- ^ Dod's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage of Great Britain, and Ireland for 1903, Low, Marston & Co., 1903, p. 470
- ^ Amidst Cheers, They Marched to War: Four Warwickshire Villages, One Century of Conflict, Hannah Spencer, Matador, 2018, p. 91
- ^ The Aeroplane, vol. LXVII, Temple Press Ltd, 1944, p. 292
- ^ Bloom, Ursula (1959), Youth at the Gate, Hutchinson, London
- ^ Twentieth-Century Romance and Gothic Writers, ed. James Vinson, Macmillan Publishers, 1982, p. 81
- ^ Who's Who: an annual biographical dictionary, 120th edition, A. & C. Black, 1968, p. 290
- ^ Who was Who: A Companion to Who's Who, Containing the Biographies of Those who Died, vol. 8, A. & C. Black, 1981, p. 68
- ^ "Ursula Bloom Dies at 91". Newcastle Journal. No. 43006. 31 October 1984. p. 2. Retrieved 4 March 2019 – via British Newspaper Archive.