Mary Adelaide Eden Ross (née Phillpotts; 23 April 1896 – 4 June 1993) was an English novelist, poet and playwright. She married at the age of 55 leaving behind her father who had controlled their

incestuous Incest ( ) is human sexual activity between family members or close relatives. This typically includes sexual activity between people in consanguinity (blood relations), and sometimes those related by affinity (marriage or stepfamily), adopti ...

relationship.

Life

Phillpotts was born in Ealing,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and went to a local boarding school and then to Grassendale School in

Southbourne, Dorset Southbourne is a suburb of Bournemouth in Dorset, England. It is situated between Boscombe and Christchurch, in the unitary authority of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole. The area was previously known as Stourfield. Strictly, Southbourne refers ...

. Later she studied social care at Bedford College. As a 12-year-old girl she looked up to her slightly older

Torquay Torquay ( ) is a seaside town in Devon, England, part of the unitary authority area of Torbay. It lies south of the county town of Exeter and east-north-east of Plymouth, on the north of Tor Bay, adjoining the neighbouring town of Paig ...

neighbour Agatha Miller (later known to the world as Agatha Christie). Her father, the successful and prolific writer Eden Phillpotts, was impressed enough by Agatha's early work to help her with it, but at that point unsuccessfully. Amongst other literary celebrities who visited the Phillpotts family were Thomas Hardy and

Arnold Bennett Enoch Arnold Bennett (27 May 1867 – 27 March 1931) was an English author, best known as a novelist. He wrote prolifically: between the 1890s and the 1930s he completed 34 novels, seven volumes of short stories, 13 plays (some in collaboratio ...

. Eden Phillpotts treated his daughter as an extension of himself. Her long-held secret, revealed in an interview in 1976 long after her father had died, was that the relationship had been incestuous. She contrasted his obsessive, controlling "love" for her by saying that she loved him too, but only as a father. However she was compliant to his demands. Phillpotts was treated cruelly by her father, but he would also write her sonnets. Dayananda notes that she published seven similar books where the lead character is not an ambitious feminist but is instead a woman based in the home. Despite being a sensitive woman, her heroine is beginning to realise that her gender's role may not always be submissive. The books, ''A Marriage'', ''The Gallant Heart'', ''The Round of Life'', ''Our Little Town'', ''From Jane to John'', ''The Fosterling'', ''Stubborn Earth'' were published between 1928 and 1951. In 1938 the three act comedy play, '' Yellow Sands'' that she had written with her father in 1926 was made into a film. The film starred

Marie Tempest Dame Mary Susan Etherington, (15 July 1864 – 15 October 1942), known professionally as Marie Tempest, was an English singer and actress. Tempest became a famous soprano in late Victorian light opera and Edwardian musical comedies. Later, s ...

Belle Chrystall Belle Chrystall (25 April 19107 June 2003) was a British actress who appeared in a number of leading roles in British films during the 1930s. She was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1910. She came to London and after appearing on stage was given a ...

and Wilfrid Lawson. In 1951, at the age of 55, and strongly against her father's wishes, she married American bookseller Nicholas Ross (died 1967). From that time on she published under the name Adelaide Ross, and her father cut off all communication with her until his death in 1960. She died in Poughill near Bude in Cornwall, and is buried in

Morwenstow Morwenstow ( kw, Logmorwenna) is a civil parish in north Cornwall, UK. The parish abuts the west coast, about six miles (10 km) north of Bude and within the Cornwall Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB). Morwenstow is the most norther ...

. The National Portrait Gallery holds two photographs of Phillpotts, both taken in 1926 and donated by Pinewood Studios via the

Victoria and Albert Museum The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...

in 1989.

Selected works

*''Illyrion and other poems'', 1916 * '' Yellow Sands; a comedy in three acts'' by her and Eden Phillpotts, 1926 later a book and a film in 1938 *''A Marriage'', 1928 *''Tomek, the sculptor'', 1927 *''Buy a broom'' : comedy in three acts, 1929 * ''The Good Old Days'', 1932, a play co-written with her father *''West country plays: Buy a broom and A cup of happiness'' by her and Eden Phillpotts, 1933 *''My Lady's Mill'', 1935, a play co-written with her father *''Akhnaton'' : a playAdelaide Ross
Worldcat. Retrieved 10 May 2017 *''The Gallant Heart'', 1939 *''The Round of Life'', 1939 *''Our Little Town'', 1942 *''From Jane to John'', 1943 *''The Fosterling'', 1949 *''Stubborn Earth'', 1951 *''Panorama of the world'' by Adelaide Ross, 1969 (travel – Hale, ) *''Letters to Nicholas Ross'' by

John Cowper Powys John Cowper Powys (; 8 October 187217 June 1963) was an English philosopher, lecturer, novelist, critic and poet born in Shirley, Derbyshire, where his father was vicar of the parish church in 1871–1879. Powys appeared with a volume of verse ...

, selected by Nicholas Ross and Adelaide Ross, edited by Arthur Uphill, 1971 (Bertram Rota, ) *''Reverie: an autobiography'', 1981 (Hale, ) *''Village love : a country romance'' by Adelaide Phillpotts Ross (1988 reprint, Rigby & Lewis, )

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Phillpotts, Adelaide 1896 births 1993 deaths People from Ealing 20th-century English women writers Alumni of Bedford College, London English women novelists English women poets English women dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English poets 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights Writers from London Burials in Cornwall