Elizabeth Von Arnim

Elizabeth Von Arnim was a writer and socialite of the early 20th Century. She was born in Australia, and was a cousin of the well known writer Katherine Mansfield. She was born Mary Annette Beauchamp, in 1866. Her family were well to do and moved to England when she was a child. They also spent time in Switzerland. her father was a shipping merchant and the family were socially prominent. She studied music as a girl, but in 1891 she married a German aristocrat, Count Henning August Von Arnim, and moved to Germany for some time. She had several children but her marriage was not all that happy. The Count was unfaithful and she began to spend more time in London with her children. She engaged tutors for her children, including EM Forster and Hugh Walpole. She had found her husband somwwhat bullying and did not fit in that well too the rigid German upper class society, but in 1898 she began to write novels, her first one was published anonymously, Elizabeth and her German Garden. It was a big success and she wrote more novels, using the name Elizabeth. In 1910, her husband died, and she embarked on an affair with the writer HG Wells. Later, she married Francis Russell, Earl Russell but the marriage was a failure and ended in separation. She wrote several novels which were a big success. The Enchanted April, a story about English women who take a holiday in Italy, was a successful film. Her books were largely about society people, and there was a feminist slant to most of them.