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Marghanita Laski (24 October 1915 – 6 February 1988) was an English
journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...
,
radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30  hertz (Hz) and 300  gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a tr ...
panellist and
novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...
. She also wrote literary biography, plays and short stories, and contributed about 250,000 additions to the ''
Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the first and foundational historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP). It traces the historical development of the English language, providing a c ...
''.


Personal life

Marghanita Laski was born in
Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The ...
, England, to a prominent family of
Jew Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
ish intellectuals (
Neville Laski Neville Jonas Laski (18 December 1890 – 24 March 1969) was an English judge and leader of Anglo-Jewry. Family Laski came from a distinguished family. His father was Nathan Laski (1863-1941), a Lithuanian Jewish Manchester cotton merchant a ...
was her father,
Moses Gaster Moses Gaster (17 September 1856 – 5 March 1939) was a Romanian, later British scholar, the ''Hakham'' of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation, London, and a Hebrew and Romanian linguist. Moses Gaster was an active Zionist in Romani ...
her grandfather, and
Harold Laski Harold Joseph Laski (30 June 1893 – 24 March 1950) was an English political theorist and economist. He was active in politics and served as the chairman of the British Labour Party from 1945 to 1946 and was a professor at the London School o ...
her uncle). She was educated at Lady Barn House School in Manchester and
St Paul's Girls' School St Paul's Girls' School is an independent day school for girls, aged 11 to 18, located in Brook Green, Hammersmith, in West London, England. History St Paul's Girls' School was founded by the Worshipful Company of Mercers in 1904, using part o ...
in
Hammersmith Hammersmith is a district of West London, England, southwest of Charing Cross. It is the administrative centre of the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, and identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London ...
, worked in fashion, then studied English at
Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, I ...
, where she was a close friend of Inez Pearn, who was later to become a novelist and marry
Stephen Spender Sir Stephen Harold Spender (28 February 1909 – 16 July 1995) was an English poet, novelist and essayist whose work concentrated on themes of social injustice and the class struggle. He was appointed Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry by th ...
and subsequently, after a divorce, Charles Madge. While at Oxford, she met John Eldred Howard, founder of the
Cresset Press The Cresset Press was a publishing company in London, England, active as an independent press from 1927 for 40 years, and initially specializing in "expensively illustrated limited editions of classical works, like Milton's ''Paradise Lost''" goi ...
; they married in 1937. During this time, she worked as a journalist. Laski lived at Capo Di Monte in Judge's Walk,
Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the London Borough o ...
, North London, and in the Hertfordshire village of
Abbots Langley Abbots Langley is a large village and civil parish in the English county of Hertfordshire. It is an old settlement and is mentioned (under the name of Langelai) in the Domesday Book. Economically the village is closely linked to Watford and w ...
.


Career

After her son and daughter were born, Laski began writing in earnest. Most of her output in the 1940s and 1950s was fiction. She wrote the original screenplay of the 1952 UK film '' It Started in Paradise'' and sold the film rights to a novel to
John Mills Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portray ...
: '' Little Boy Lost'' (1949), about an Englishman in search of a lost son in the ruins of post-war France. However, when the
film adaptation A film adaptation is the transfer of a work or story, in whole or in part, to a feature film. Although often considered a type of derivative work, film adaptation has been conceptualized recently by academic scholars such as Robert Stam as a dia ...
was released in 1953, she was upset that it had been turned into a musical starring
Bing Crosby Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, musician and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwide. He was a ...
. She turned towards non-fiction in the 1960s and 1970s, producing works on
Charlotte Mary Yonge Charlotte Mary Yonge (1823–1901) was an English novelist, who wrote in the service of the church. Her abundant books helped to spread the influence of the Oxford Movement and show her keen interest in matters of public health and sanitation. ...
,
Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
,
George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
and
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
. An omnivorous reader, from 1958 she became a prolific and compulsive contributor to the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (OED) and by 1986 had contributed about 250,000 quotations, making her (according to
Ilan Stavans Ilan Stavans (born Ilan Stavchansky on April 7, 1961) is a Mexican-American author and academic. He writes and speaks on American, Hispanic, and Jewish cultures. He is the author of ''Quixote'' (2015) and a contributor to the ''Norton Anthology ...
) "the supreme contributor, male or female, to the OED".Albin, Verónica
On Dictionaries: A Conversation with Ilan Stavans
''Translation Journal'', Volume 9, No. 2, April 2005.
In the 1960s, Laski was science fiction critic for ''
The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and '' The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. First published in 1791, it is the ...
''. On 1 October 1970, ''The Times'' published Laski's controversial article about bestselling historical novelist, Georgette Heyer. Entitled "The Appeal of Georgette Heyer" it raised a storm of protest with multiple letters sent to the newspaper decrying Laski's criticism of Heyer. Laski was a member of the Annan Committee on broadcasting between 1974 and 1977. She joined the Arts Council in 1979, was elected its Vice Chair in 1982, and served as the Chair of the Literature Panel from 1980 to 1984.


Broadcasting

Laski was a panellist on the popular UK BBC panel shows '' What's My Line?'' (1951–63), ''
The Brains Trust ''The Brains Trust'' was an informational BBC radio and later television programme popular in the United Kingdom during the 1940s and 1950s, on which a panel of experts tried to answer questions sent in by the audience. History The series was ...
'' (late 1950s), and '' Any Questions?'' (1960s).


Overall views

An avowed
atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...
,Christine Finn: Chapter Eight
Stanford University.
Laski was also a keen supporter of the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament The Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) is an organisation that advocates unilateral nuclear disarmament by the United Kingdom, international nuclear disarmament and tighter international arms regulation through agreements such as the Nuc ...
. Her play, ''The Offshore Island'', is about
nuclear warfare Nuclear warfare, also known as atomic warfare, is a theoretical military conflict or prepared political strategy that deploys nuclear weaponry. Nuclear weapons are weapons of mass destruction; in contrast to conventional warfare, nuclear ...
.


Critical reception

Anthony Boucher William Anthony Parker White (August 21, 1911 – April 29, 1968), better known by his pen name Anthony Boucher (), was an American author, critic, and editor who wrote several classic mystery novels, short stories, science fiction, and radio d ...
described her novella '' The Victorian Chaise Longue'' as "an admirably written book, highly skilled in its economic evocation of time, place and character – and a relentlessly terrifying one." ''Ecstasy: A Study of Some Secular and Religious Experiences'' has been compared to ''
The Varieties of Religious Experience ''The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature'' is a book by Harvard University psychologist and philosopher William James. It comprises his edited Gifford Lectures on natural theology, which were delivered at the University o ...
'' by
William James William James (January 11, 1842 – August 26, 1910) was an American philosopher, historian, and psychologist, and the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States. James is considered to be a leading thinker of the lat ...
in its importance. ''Tory Heaven'', a counterfactual novel depicting a Britain ruled by a rigidly hierarchical Conservative dictatorship and satirising middle-class attitudes towards the
Attlee ministry Clement Attlee was invited by King George VI to form the Attlee ministry in the United Kingdom in July 1945, succeeding Winston Churchill as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. The Labour Party had won a landslide victory at the 1945 gen ...
, was described as "wickedly amusing" by Ralph Straus of ''
The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News UK, whi ...
'', and as "an ingeniously contrived and wittily told tale" by Hugh Fausset of the ''
Manchester 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 G ...
'': writing about the book in 2018,
David Kynaston David Thomas Anthony Kynaston (; born 30 July 1951 in Aldershot) is an English historian specialising in the social history of England. Early life and education Kynaston was educated at Wellington College, Berkshire and New College, Oxford, fr ...
called it a "highly engaging, beautifully written novel".


Death

Laski died at
Royal Brompton Hospital Royal Brompton Hospital is the largest specialist heart and lung medical centre in the United Kingdom. It is managed by Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust. History Consumption in the 19th Century In the 19th century, consumption was a c ...
, London, due to a smoking-related lung problem, on 6 February 1988, aged 72. She was survived by her husband and children.


Works

*''Love on the Supertax'' (1944), comic novel *''Stories of Adventure'' (1946)"Selected with an introduction by M. Laski. The Carved Cartoon. By Austin Clare.-The Little Doctor. By Darley Dale.-Finn the Wolfhound. By A. J. Dawson.-Bevis. By Richard Jefferies."--British Library catalogue *''The Patchwork Book'' (1946), editor *''To Bed with Grand Music'' (1946), as Sarah RussellBurchfield (2004) *''Victorian Tales for Girls'' (1947), editor *''Tory Heaven or Thunder on the Right'' (1948), political satire *'' Little Boy Lost'' (1949), novel *''Toasted English'' (US edition of ''Tory Heaven'') (1949) *''Mrs Ewing, Mrs Molesworth and Mrs Hodgson Burnett'' (1950), biography *''The Village'' (1952) novel, reprinted 2004 *''It Started in Paradise'' (1952), film screenplay *'' The Victorian Chaise-longue'' (1953) novel, reprinted 1999 *''The Tower'' (1955), short story *''Apologies'' (1955), caricature *''The Offshore Island'' (1959) play *''Ecstasy: a Study of Some Secular and Religious Experiences'' (1961), psychology *''A Chaplet for Charlotte Yonge'' (1965) editor with
Georgina Battiscombe Georgina Battiscombe (21 November 1905 – 26 February 2006) was a British biographer, specialising mainly in lives from the Victorian era. She was born Esther Georgina Harwood, the elder daughter of George Harwood, a former clergyman, Li ...
*''
Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
and Her World'' (1969), literary history *''God and Man'' (1971), with
Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh Anthony of Sourozh (russian: Митрополит Антоний Сурожский, secular name Andrei Borisovich Bloom, russian: Андрей Борисович Блум and commonly known as Anthony Bloom; 19 June 1914 – 4 August 2003) ...
religion *''
George Eliot Mary Ann Evans (22 November 1819 – 22 December 1880; alternatively Mary Anne or Marian), known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, poet, journalist, translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era. She wrot ...
and Her World'' (1973) literary history *'' Kipling's English History'' (1974) Rudyard Kipling poems, editor *''Everyday Ecstasy'' (1980), psychology *''Ferry, the Jerusalem Cat'' (1983), story *''From Palm to Pine:
Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)'' The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...
Abroad and at Home'' (1987), biography *''Common Ground: an Anthology'' (1989), editor *''To Bed with Grand Music'' (2001) (posthumous)


References


Sources

*
Marghanita Laski at Persephone Books
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Laski, Marghanita 1915 births 1988 deaths 20th-century biographers 20th-century British dramatists and playwrights 20th-century British short story writers 20th-century English novelists Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford British women short story writers Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament activists English anti–nuclear weapons activists English atheists English biographers English dramatists and playwrights English Jewish writers English journalists English radio presenters English short story writers English women journalists Jewish atheists Jewish women writers People educated at St Paul's Girls' School Women biographers