Susan Chitty
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Lady Susan Chitty (18 August 1929 – 13 July 2021) was an English novelist and a writer of biographies. Her memoir on her mother, which was viewed as a "literary assassination", caused an uproar with writers and family.


Early life

Her mother was Antonia White, a famed novelist, and her father was
Rudolph Glossop Rudolph Glossop (17 February 1902 – 1 March 1993) was a British mining and civil engineer and one of the founders of Geotechnical Engineering in the UK.Ronald E. Williams, "Rudolph Glossop: and the Rise of Geotechnology", Whittles, 201accessed ...
, a geologist, with whom White had had an affair; Susan did not know the true identity of her father until she was seven years old. Soon after birth, she was sent to a children's home. Her half-sister, Lyndall, was born eight months after Susan. Lyndall's father was
Tom Hopkinson Sir Henry Thomas Hopkinson (19 April 1905 – 20 June 1990) was a British journalist, picture magazine editor, author, and teacher. Early life Born in Manchester, his father was a Church of England clergyman and a scholar, and his mother had ...
, who later adopted Susan and she returned to live with him and her mother. Susan was educated at
Godolphin School Godolphin School is an independent boarding and day school for girls in Salisbury, England, which was founded in 1726 and opened in 1784. The school educates girls between the ages of three and eighteen. History Godolphin was founded by Eliz ...
. Afterwards, she won a scholarship to
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, Ir ...
, to study history. Owing to a mental health crisis, she did not complete her degree. She married
Thomas Chitty Thomas Chitty (1802 – 13 February 1878) was an English lawyer and legal writer who was pupil master to a generation of eminent lawyers and played a significant role in documenting the legal reforms of the 19th century. Early life Thomas was t ...
, another novelist (who used the pen name Thomas Hinde), in 1951, after meeting him at Oxford. He would later succeed his father as the 3rd Chitty baronet. The couple had four children; three daughters and a son.


Career

She published her first book in 1958, entitled ''Diary of a Fashion Model.'' The book was based on her experiences working as a writer for ''
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'', ...
''. She had joined the magazine after winning a talent contest in 1952. She left ''Vogue'' after giving birth to her first child. She and her husband purchased a cottage in Bow Cottage, West Hoathly,
West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ar ...
, where the two of them would write. The couple published one book together on their travels with two of their children from Santiago de Compostela, Spain, to Greece. They traveled on foot and by donkey. They also wrote ''On Next to Nothing'', a how-to guide on living cheaply. Chitty took her childhood love of horses and wrote two books on the care of them. She wrote her first biography on
Anna Sewell Anna Sewell (; 30 March 1820 – 25 April 1878)''The Oxford guide to British women writers'' by Joanne Shattock. p. 385, Oxford University Press. (1993) was an English novelist. She is known as the author of the 1877 novel ''Black Beauty'', her ...
, who wrote '' Black Beauty'', in 1972. This was the start of her writing biographies, mostly on Victorian era figures including
Charles Kingsley Charles Kingsley (12 June 1819 – 23 January 1875) was a broad church priest of the Church of England, a university professor, social reformer, historian, novelist and poet. He is particularly associated with Christian socialism, the working ...
,
Sir Henry Newbolt Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vit ...
, and
Gwen John Gwendolen Mary John (22 June 1876 – 18 September 1939) was a Welsh artist who worked in France for most of her career. Her paintings, mainly portraits of anonymous female sitters, are rendered in a range of closely related tones. Although sh ...
. Her most notable and controversial book was about her mother ''Now to My Mother: A Very Personal Memoir of Antonia White'', published in 1985, five years after her mother's death. She claimed that her mother was an emotional abuser to her and her sister. ''
The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was fo ...
'' would later call the memoir a "literary assassination" against White's work and career. The book sparked a bitter reaction from her sister Lyndall Hopkinson, who published her own memoir a year later to dispute Susan's recollection. Germaine Greer, during a discussion on literary biographies, attacked what Chitty had written. After a prolonged legal battle with her sister and executor of her mother's estate, Chitty was able to edit and publish her mother's diaries.


Later life

She published her last book in 1997 on
Sir Henry Newbolt Sir Henry John Newbolt, CH (6 June 1862 – 19 April 1938) was an English poet, novelist and historian. He also had a role as a government adviser with regard to the study of English in England. He is perhaps best remembered for his poems "Vit ...
. Her husband Thomas died in 2014. She died after a short illness in July 2021.


Published works


Novels

* ''The Diary of a Fashion Model'' (1958) * ''White Huntress'' (1963) * ''My Life and Horses'' (1966)


Non-fiction

* ''The Intelligent Woman's Guide to Good Taste'' (1958) * ''The Woman Who Wrote Black Beauty: A Life of Anna Sewell'' (1972) * ''The Beast and the Monk: A Life of Charles Kingsley'' (1975) * ''The Puffin Book of Horses'' (1975); co-written with Anne Parry * ''Charles Kingsley’s Landscape'' (1976) * ''The Great Donkey Walk − From Spain to Greece by Pilgrim Ways and Mule Tracks'' (1977); co-written with her husband. * ''The Young Rider'' (1979) * ''Gwen John'' (1981) * ''Lear'' (1986) * ''Playing the Game'' (1997)


Memoirs

* ''Now to My Mother: A Very Personal Memoir of Antonia White'' (1985)


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chitty, Susan English women novelists 1929 births 2021 deaths 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English non-fiction writers 20th-century British biographers People educated at Godolphin School Chitty family