Amber Blanco White (' Reeves; 1 July 1887 – 26 December 1981) was a New Zealand-born British feminist writer and scholar.

Early life

Reeves was born in

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

, New Zealand, the eldest of three children of Fabian feminist

Maud Pember Reeves Maud Pember Reeves (24 December 1865 – 13 September 1953) (born Magdalene Stuart Robison) was a suffragist, socialist, feminist, writer and member of the Fabian Society. She spent most of her life in New Zealand and Britain. Early life Re ...

(née Robison; 1865–1953) and New Zealand politician and social reformer

William Pember Reeves William Pember Reeves (10 February 1857 – 16 May 1932) was a New Zealand politician, cricketer, historian and poet who promoted social reform. Early life and career Reeves's parents were William Reeves, who was a journalist and politician ...

. The family moved to London in 1896, where her father became New Zealand's Agent-General. Her widowed aunt, cousins, and servants joined the household in Cornwall Gardens, Kensington. "London was hateful after New Zealand", she said. "No freedom. No seashore. Streets, streets, streets. Houses, houses". Reeves attended Kensington High School until 1904, and then travelled to Europe to become fluent in French. Her father was not fully converted to the

higher education of women Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education ( primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girl ...

; when he gave her the choice between being presented at court and going to the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, she chose Cambridge. Reeves then began studying

Moral Sciences Human science (or human sciences in the plural), also known as humanistic social science and moral science (or moral sciences), studies the philosophical, biological, social, and cultural aspects of human life. Human science aims to expand our ...

(philosophy) at

Newnham College Newnham College is a women's constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1871 by a group organising Lectures for Ladies, members of which included philosopher Henry Sidgwick and suffragist campaigner Millice ...

in 1905. It is unlikely her father raised further opposition as he always spoke highly of her academic achievements.''Maude & Amber'', Ruth Fry, University of Canterbury Press, 1992. pp.35, 44–58, 82–91, 99–121

University of Cambridge

While at Cambridge Reeves began to associate with other young women who shared her intellectual enthusiasms and socialist political leanings, forming a lifelong friendship with Eva Spielmann (later

Eva Hubback Eva Marian Hubback (13 April 1886 – 15 July 1949) was an English feminist and an early advocate of birth control and eugenics. Early life Eva Marian Spielmann was born on 13 April 1886, daughter of Sir Meyer Spielmann (1856–1936). Sir Meyer wa ...

), who became an educationalist. She became involved in a number of societies, including the debating society. In 1907 she led the inter-collegiate debate with Girton, arguing that "the socialist conception of life is the most noble and the most fruitful, both for the state and the individual". In 1906 she founded the Cambridge University Fabian Society (CUFS) with Ben Keeling, a member of the (somewhat inactive) existing Fabian society in the town. CUFS was the first society at Cambridge to enlist women from its founding. Young women met regularly with men as equals and discussed everything from religious beliefs to social evils to sex, which would have been impossible in the conventional atmospheres of their homes. She excelled in her studies, taking a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in 1908.

Gilbert Murray George Gilbert Aimé Murray (2 January 1866 – 20 May 1957) was an Australian-born British classical scholar and public intellectual, with connections in many spheres. He was an outstanding scholar of the language and culture of Ancient Greece ...

once wrote of an address she had given to the Newnham Philosophical Society, "It seems to me quite the best college paper that I have read- I mean as treated by a young person and from a non-metaphysical point of view". A fellow student described her as "intellect personified" after a lecture she gave to the Philosophical Society.

Relationship with H.G. Wells

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

for a weekend. Their appearance together at a supper party thrown for fellow Fabian and Governor of Jamaica Sir

Sydney Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier Sydney Haldane Olivier, 1st Baron Olivier, (16 April 1859 – 15 February 1943) was a British civil servant. A Fabian and a member of the Labour Party, he served as Governor of Jamaica and as Secretary of State for India in the first govern ...

was the first open declaration of the romantic relationship between the pair. Wells claimed that Reeves responded to his taste for adventurous eroticism, and the "sexual imaginativess" that his wife Jane could not cope with. Wells maintained that their relationship be kept silent, though Reeves saw no reason their exciting affair be kept a secret. Once their relationship became well known, there were numerous attempts to break it up, particularly from Amber's mother and from George Rivers Blanco White, a lawyer who would later marry her. Reeves was anxious not to break up Wells's marriage, though she wanted to have his child. The news that she was pregnant in the spring of 1909 shocked the Reeves family, and the couple fled to

Le Touquet-Paris-Plage Le Touquet-Paris-Plage (; pcd, Ech Toutchet-Paris-Plache; vls, 't Oekske, older nl, Het Hoekske), commonly referred to as Le Touquet (), is a commune near Étaples, in the Pas-de-Calais department, northern France. It has a population of 4 ...

where they attempted domestic life together. Neither of them did well with domesticity; loneliness and anxiety concerning her pregnancy, as well as the complexity of the situation drove her to depression, and after three months they decided to leave Le Touquet. Wells took her to Boulogne and put her on the ferry to England, while he stayed to continue his writing. Reeves went to stay with Wells and his wife Jane when they returned to Sandgate. But then on 7 May 1909, she was married to Rivers Blanco White. In her latter life she wrote "I did not arrange to marry Rivers, he arranged it with H.G, but I have always thought it the best that could possibly have happened". Wells wrote the ''

roman à clef ''Roman à clef'' (, anglicised as ), French for ''novel with a key'', is a novel about real-life events that is overlaid with a façade of fiction. The fictitious names in the novel represent real people, and the "key" is the relationship be ...

'' ''

Ann Veronica ''Ann Veronica'' is a novel by H. G. Wells published in 1909. It describes the rebellion of Ann Veronica Stanley, "a young lady of nearly two-and-twenty", against her middle-class father's stern patriarchal rule. The novel dramatizes the conte ...

'' based on his relationship with Reeves. The novel was rejected by his publisher, Frederick Macmillan, because of the possible damage it would do; however, T. Fisher Unwin published it in the autumn of 1909, when gossip concerning Wells was rampant. Wells later wrote that while the character of Ann Veronica was based on Amber, the character he believed came closest to her was Amanda in his novel '' The Research Magnificent''. On 31 December 1909, she bore a daughter, Anna-Jane, who did not learn that her real father was H. G. Wells until she was 18.

Work and family life

Reeves was employed by the

Ministry of Labour The Ministry of Labour ('' UK''), or Labor ('' US''), also known as the Department of Labour, or Labor, is a government department responsible for setting labour standards, labour dispute mechanisms, employment, workforce participation, training, a ...

, in charge of a section that dealt with the employment of women. Part of her job was encouraging workers and employers to see that women were capable of a much wider range of tasks than was usually expected. She later took responsibility for women's wages at the

Ministry of Munitions The Minister of Munitions was a British government position created during the First World War to oversee and co-ordinate the production and distribution of munitions for the war effort. The position was created in response to the Shell Crisis o ...

. In 1919, she was appointed to the

Whitley Council Whitley may refer to: Places ;United Kingdom *Whitley, Berkshire, a suburb of Reading *Whitley, Cheshire, a village near Warrington * Whitley, Coventry, a suburb of Coventry, West Midlands *Whitley, Essex, near Birdbrook * Whitley, Wigan, Greater ...

, but in that same year her appointment was terminated.

Humbert Wolfe Humbert Wolfe CB CBE (5 January 1885 – 5 January 1940) was an Italian-born British poet, man of letters and civil servant. Biography Humbert Wolfe was born in Milan, Italy, and came from a Jewish family background,"Wolfe, Humbert" in Stanley ...

, a public servant, wrote to

Matthew Nathan Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Matthew Nathan (3 January 1862 – 18 April 1939) was a British soldier and colonial administrator, who variously served as the Governor of Sierra Leone, Gold Coast (British colony), Gold Coast, Hong Kong, Natal and Quee ...

, the secretary of the council, pointing out that Amber's termination was chiefly on the grounds that she was a married woman, and that letting her go from the public service was "really stupid". By 1921, her vigour in the women workers' cause had led her to come up against ex-servicemen who exercised considerable power through their associations. She was told a deputation of MPs had approached the minister and claimed that no ex-serviceman could sleep in peace while she remained in the civil service. She received a dismissal notice and, aside from time with the Ministry of Labour in 1922, that was the end of her civil service career. She began to work on her book ''Give and Take'', which was published in 1923. Amber did not take well to being a housewife; at one point she wrote:

"The life of washing up dishes in little separate houses and being necessarily subordinate in everything to the wage-earning man is I think very destructive to the women and to any opinion they may influence. It is humiliating and narrowing and there is nothing to be said in its favour... ...Oh how I should like some hard work again that brought one up against outside life".

There was some strain in her marriage with George Rivers Blanco White. In their youth they had both adopted positive attitudes toward the free expression of love that were common in the literary, intellectual and left-wing society at the time, but as they grew older these attitudes were beginning to change. Writing of marriage in her book ''Worry in Women'', she stated that if people choose to break ethical codes they had to be prepared to cope with guilt. She also stated that if a wife was unfaithful, she should not tell her husband, writing, "if ever there is a case for a downright lie, this is it". In addition to Anna-Jane, Reeves had two children,

Thomas Thomas may refer to: People * List of people with given name Thomas * Thomas (name) * Thomas (surname) * Saint Thomas (disambiguation) * Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church * Thomas the A ...

, a patent lawyer, and

Justin Justin may refer to: People * Justin (name), including a list of persons with the given name Justin * Justin (historian), a Latin historian who lived under the Roman Empire * Justin I (c. 450–527), or ''Flavius Iustinius Augustus'', Eastern Rom ...

, an architect. Justin, who married the biologist

Conrad Hal Waddington Conrad Hal Waddington (8 November 1905 – 26 September 1975) was a British developmental biologist, paleontologist, geneticist, embryologist and philosopher who laid the foundations for systems biology, epigenetics, and evolutionary developm ...

, is the mother of mathematician

Dusa McDuff Dusa McDuff Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Royal Society of Edinburgh, CorrFRSE (born 18 October 1945) is an English mathematician who works on symplectic geometry. She was the first recipient of the Ruth Lyttle Satter Prize in Mathematics, w ...

and anthropologist

Caroline Humphrey Caroline Humphrey, Baroness Rees of Ludlow, (''née'' Waddington; born 1 September 1943) is a British anthropologist and academic. Biography Humphrey's father was the biologist Conrad H. Waddington. Her mother was her father's second wife, ar ...

Writings

Reeves published four novels and four non-fiction works, dealing with a variety of subjects, but all sharing a common socialist and feminist critique of capitalist society. These are: * ''The Reward of Virtue'' (1911) * ''A Lady and her Husband'' (1914) * ''Helen in Love'' (1916) * ''Give and Take: A Novel of Intrigue'' (1923) * ''The Nationalisation of Banking'' (1934) * ''The New Propaganda'' (1938) * ''Worry in Women'' (1941) * ''Ethics for Unbelievers'' (1949) She also wrote book reviews for ''

Queen Queen or QUEEN may refer to: Monarchy * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a Kingdom ** List of queens regnant * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Queen mother, a queen dowager who is the mother ...

'' and ''

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

'', as well as articles for the '' Saturday Review''. For some time she was the editor of the

Townswomen's Guild Members representing their Federation at the 2009 AGM in Birmingham The Townswomen's Guild (TG) is a British women's organisation. There are approximately 30,000 members, 706 branches and 77 Federations throughout England, Scotland, Wales and N ...

paper ''Townswoman''. Reeves collaborated with Wells on ''

The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind ''The Work, Wealth and Happiness of Mankind'' by H. G. Wells is the final work of a trilogy of which the first volumes were ''The Outline of History'' (1919–1920) and '' The Science of Life'' (1929). Wells conceived of the three parts of his ...

'' (1931). In this book, she researched and put together material on the devastation of the rubber trade on the native populations of

Putumayo Department Putumayo () is a department of Southern Colombia. It is in the south-west of the country, bordering Ecuador and Peru. Its capital is Mocoa. The word ''putumayo'' comes from the Quechua languages. The verb ''p'utuy'' means "to spring forth" ...

Peru , image_flag = Flag of Peru.svg , image_coat = Escudo nacional del Perú.svg , other_symbol = Great Seal of the State , other_symbol_type = National seal , national_motto = "Firm and Happy f ...

, and

Belgian Congo The Belgian Congo (french: Congo belge, ; nl, Belgisch-Congo) was a Belgian colony in Central Africa from 1908 until independence in 1960. The former colony adopted its present name, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in 1964. Colo ...

(see the

Casement Report The Casement Report was a 1904 document written by Roger Casement (1864–1916)—a diplomat and Irish independence fighter—detailing abuses in the Congo Free State which was under the private ownership of King Leopold II of Belgium. This repo ...

for an account of the tremendous human rights abuses in the latter). She also contributed to a section on how wealth is accumulated by supplying case histories of new powers and forces "running wild and crazy in a last frenzy for private and personal gain". The chapter "The Role of Women in the World's Work" was included by Wells at Amber's suggestion, though after reading the chapter she asked him to include a disclaimer that she did not necessarily agree with what he said.

Political career

During the 1924 election campaign, Reeves was asked to speak on behalf of both the

Liberal Liberal or liberalism may refer to: Politics * a supporter of liberalism ** Liberalism by country * an adherent of a Liberal Party * Liberalism (international relations) * Sexually liberal feminism * Social liberalism Arts, entertainment and m ...

and Labour Party candidates. She choose to support Labour: "The Liberal audiences were nice narrow decent people. They sat upright in rows and clapped their cotton gloves... But when I got to the Labour meetings in the slums, among the costers and the railway men and the women in tenth hand velvet hats – when I saw their pinched grey-and-yellow faces in those steamy halls, I knew all of a sudden that they were my people". She soon became a member of the party and supported her husband as the Labour Party candidate for Holland-with-Boston in Lincolnshire. The seat had gone to the Liberals in a by-election earlier that year and White failed to win it back. Reeves attempted to get her theories on currency, later brought together in her book ''The Nationalisation of Banking'', adopted by the Labour Party, and she and Rivers became responsible for a party publication called '' Womens Leader''. Reeves remained active in the

Fabian Society The Fabian Society is a British socialist organisation whose purpose is to advance the principles of social democracy and democratic socialism via gradualist and reformist effort in democracies, rather than by revolutionary overthrow. T ...

, and by this time many Fabians agreed that there was a need to work through the parliamentary Labour Party. She stood twice as a candidate for Hendon, in 1931 and 1935.

Teaching

For some time Reeves taught at

Morley College Morley College is a specialist adult education and further education college in London, England. The college has three main campuses, one in Waterloo on the South Bank, and two in West London namely in North Kensington and in Chelsea, the la ...

in London. Initially invited by her friend from Cambridge Eva Hubback to help out, she became part of a team of lecturers in 1928, giving twice weekly classes on ethics and psychology. In 1929, the year after the passing of the Equal Franchise Act which gave women the vote on the same terms as men, she was billed by the Fabian Society to lecture on "The New Woman Voters and the Coming Election". However, she withdrew from this lecture to work on a by-election campaign for her husband in Holland-with-Boston. She lectured at Morley for thirty-seven years, regularly revising her courses to incorporate an increased body of psychological thought. In 1946, she became acting principal after Hubback's death. When a new principal was appointed in 1947 she returned to lecturing and writing her book ''Ethics for Unbelievers''.

Later life

In July 1960, Rivers suffered a stroke which left him paralysed down his right side. Reeves was distraught and during the last years of his life she worried a lot and became depressed. She wrote to her daughter Anna-Jane, who was in Singapore at the time, "If there is a

Confucian Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

temple in K.L., you might make a little offering (if he does like offerings)... ...I have more faith in him now than in our own deity who seems to be letting us down all round". When Rivers died on 28 March 1966, Reeves was determined to keep living as normally as possible. She was visited by New Zealand historian Keith Sinclair who was writing a biography of her father, and twice by interviewers from the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

(a 40-minute interview with Denys Gueroult was broadcast by Radio 4 in September 1970). Although she enjoyed discussing politics and world affairs, she felt disillusioned about the socialist hopes of her youth, and supported the

Conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization in ...

in the 1970 election. She believed that the wrong people were leading the left and that only diehards would vote for them. In December 1981, she was admitted to a hospital in

St John's Wood St John's Wood is a district in the City of Westminster, London, lying 2.5 miles (4 km) northwest of Charing Cross. Traditionally the northern part of the ancient parish and Metropolitan Borough of Marylebone, it extends east to west from ...

and died on 26 December aged 94.

References

External links

DNB
{{DEFAULTSORT:Reeves, Amber 1887 births 1981 deaths New Zealand writers New Zealand women writers British women writers British writers Alumni of Newnham College, Cambridge Members of the Fabian Society New Zealand socialist feminists

Amber Amber is fossilized tree resin that has been appreciated for its color and natural beauty since Neolithic times. Much valued from antiquity to the present as a gemstone, amber is made into a variety of decorative objects."Amber" (2004). In ...