Iris Mary Birtwistle (29 May 1918 – 22 June 2006; also known as Lilla and IM Birtwistle) was an English

lyric poet Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. It is not equivalent to song lyrics, though song lyrics are often in the lyric mode, and it is also ''not'' equi ...

and

gallery owner An art dealer is a person or company that buys and sells works of art, or acts as the intermediary between the buyers and sellers of art. An art dealer in contemporary art typically seeks out various artists to represent, and builds relationsh ...

Obituary

Peter Stanford Peter James Stanford (born 23 November 1961) is an English writer, editor, journalist and presenter, known for his biographies and writings on religion and ethics. His biography of Lord Longford was the basis for the 2006 BAFTA-winning film '' ...

, ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'', 23 June 2006 who nurtured young artists despite eventually losing her sight.

Life & career

Born near

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the Ribble Valley, east of Preston and north-n ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

on 29 May 1918, the second of eight children of a cotton-mill owner, James Astley Birtwistle and his wife Muriel Mary (née Marwood). Her brother, Col. Michael Albert Astley Birtwistle, was a

High Sheriff of Lancashire The High Sheriff of Lancashire is an ancient officer, now largely ceremonial, granted to Lancashire, a county in North West England. High Shrievalties are the oldest secular titles under the Crown, in England and Wales. The High Sheriff of Lanc ...

. Her younger sister is the poet and non-fiction writer Angela Kirby. She was a cousin of race horse trainer Monica Dickinson (née Birtwistle, the mother of Michael Dickinson). She was educated at the Convent of the Holy Child Jesus,

Mayfield, Sussex Mayfield and Five Ashes is a civil parish in the High Weald of East Sussex, England. The two villages making up the principal part of the parish lie on the A267 road between Royal Tunbridge Wells and Eastbourne: Mayfield, the larger of the two ...

and at the Reimann School of Art in London. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...

, she enlisted as an officer in the

Wrens Wrens are a family of brown passerine birds in the predominantly New World family Troglodytidae. The family includes 88 species divided into 19 genera. Only the Eurasian wren occurs in the Old World, where, in Anglophone regions, it is comm ...

. Throughout her life she wrote poetry, which in the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s appeared in many of the major journals and other well known publications, including: ''

Poetry Review ''Poetry Review'' is the magazine of The Poetry Society, edited by the poet Emily Berry. Founded in 1912, shortly after the establishment of the Society, previous editors have included poets Muriel Spark, Adrian Henri, Andrew Motion and Maurice R ...

'', '' The New English Weekly'', '' The Fortnightly'', ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'', ''

The Tablet ''The Tablet'' is a Catholic international weekly review published in London. Brendan Walsh, previously literary editor and then acting editor, was appointed editor in July 2017. History ''The Tablet'' was launched in 1840 by a Quaker convert ...

'', and ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

''. She was admired by leading writers of her day such as T. S. Eliot, Robert Graves, and Dame

Muriel Spark Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (née Camberg; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernard Camberg, an ...

(who credited Birtwistle with her conversion to Catholicism). In the 1950s she adopted three sons and settled in

Walberswick Walberswick is a village and civil parish on the Suffolk coast in England. It is at the mouth of the River Blyth on the south side of the river. The town of Southwold lies to the north of the river and is the nearest town to Walberswick, around ...

, Suffolk, where she opened the first of her unique art galleries. Jennifer Lash lived with her there for a period of time, and was introduced to her future husband, Mark Fiennes, by Birtwistle. There, Birwistle championed the Royal Academicians

Mary Potter Mother Mary Potter (22 November 1847 – 9 April 1913) founded the sisters of the Little Company of Mary in 1877. On 8 February 1988, Pope John Paul II proclaimed her Venerable. Early life Mary Potter was born in a rented house at 23 O ...

, Mary Newcomb, Jeffrey Camp and Philip Sutton. She nurtured young talent, and sold early work of a young

David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...

. In the late 1960s and early 1970s she had a small gallery in Aldeburgh. Although she continued to write poetry all her life, from the 1960s onwards being increasingly absorbed by her family and her galleries she wrote less and less. Her last poem was written in 1999 to celebrate the marriage of singer Nick Cave to model Susie Bick. In the 1970s she moved to

Burnham Deepdale Burnham Deepdale is a village on the north coast of the English county of Norfolk. Burnham Deepdale is in the civil parish of Brancaster, along with Brancaster Staithe. The three villages form a more or less continuous settlement along the A1 ...

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

where she opened the last of her successful, if eccentric, galleries, ''Deepdale Exhibitions''. This she ran until her death despite increasing loss of sight from hereditary

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

, which rendered her blind for the last 15 years of her life. Although a collection of her work had been completed before her death, ''When Leaf and Note are Gone'' was finally published posthumously by Buff Press in 2008, edited by poets Anne Stewart and Angela Kirby (Birtwistle’s youngest sister). The introduction was by writer and poet Derek Stanford. Birtwistle remained a devout Roman Catholic all her life.

. ''Teach Yourself Catholicism'' (2008); and died on 20 June 2006, aged 86.

Footnotes

References

* ''Muriel Spark, The Biography'', Martin Stannard, W.W. Norton & Co, (2009) * ''Curriculum Vitae: A Volume of Autobiography'',

. Constable (1992) p. 192 * ''Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life'',

Hermione Lee Dame Hermione Lee, (born 29 February 1948) is a British biographer, literary critic and academic. She is a former President of Wolfson College, Oxford, and a former Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature in the University of Oxford and Pr ...

, Random House (2014) * ''Catholicism - An Introduction: Teach Yourself'',

, Hachette UK (2010) * ''Time and Concord: Aldeburgh Festival Recollections'', Wake-Walker, Jenni, Autograph (1997) p. 122-123 * ''The Reimann School: A Design Diaspora'', Yasuku Suga, Artmonsky Arts (2014) p. 50 * ''Why I Am Still a Catholic: Essays in Faith and Perseverance'',

, Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd (2005) * ''Inside the Forties: Literary Memoirs, 1937-57'', Derek Stanford, Sidgwick & Jackson Ltd (1977) p. 188

Life & career

Footnotes

References

External links