Ursula Orange (1909 – 1955) was a mid-20th-century British novelist who is known for focusing her books on the domestic lives and career aspirations of young women.

Biography

Little has been written about Ursula Orange's life. She was born Ursula Marguerite Dorothea Orange in 1909, the daughter of Hugh William Orange, who received a knighthood for contributions to

education in India Education in India is primarily managed by state-run public education system, which fall under the command of the government at three levels: central, state and local. Under various articles of the Indian Constitution and the Right of Child ...

. Her paternal grandfather was the medical pioneer William Orange CB, MD, FRCP, LSA, second superintendent of

Broadmoor Hospital Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital in Crowthorne, Berkshire, England. It is the oldest of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth Hospital near Liverpool and Rampton Secure ...

.Richard Lansdown, Richard (De3cember 2014)
"William Orange CB, MD, FRCP, LSA: A Broadmoor pioneer"
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Journal of Medical Biography The ''Journal of Medical Biography'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1993 covering the lives of people in or associated with medicine, including medical figures and well-known characters from history and their afflictions. The jo ...

'' 23(2). Retrieved September 28, 2017. She married a man named Dennis Tindall with whom she had a daughter, the writer

Gillian Tindall Gillian Tindall (born 4 May 1938) is a British writer and historian. Among her books are ''City of Gold: The Biography of Bombay'' (1992) and ''Celestine: Voices from a French Village'' (1997). Her novel ''Fly Away Home'' won the Somerset Maugha ...

. She was for a time the assistant secretary for the British

Poetry Society The Poetry Society is a membership organisation, open to all, whose stated aim is "to promote the study, use and enjoyment of poetry". The society was founded in London in February 1909 as the Poetry Recital Society, becoming the Poetry Society ...

. According to her daughter, who wrote about her in the autobiographical 2009 book ''Footprints in Paris'', her death in 1955 at the age of 46 was by suicide.

Books

Orange wrote a total of six novels, which have been called "unjustly forgotten". She wrote in a lightly comic vein that concealed serious intentions, and her style has been referred to as "the

Angela Thirkell Angela Margaret Thirkell (; , 30 January 1890 – 29 January 1961) was an English and Australian novelist. She also published one novel, ''Trooper to Southern Cross'', under the pseudonym Leslie Parker. Early life She was the elder daughter of ...

school at its best." Her protagonists tended to be young women of middle-class upbringing who were grappling with the challenges of jobs, children, and romantic entanglements. For example, her first novel, ''Begin Again'' (1936), is about several young women who are dissatisfied with their lives in various ways—some are tired of their London jobs while others long to leave the country for London or to have exciting affairs. Of this book, one critic remarked that the women are deftly drawn with a light comic touch but the male characters are somewhat dimmer. ''

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'' (1941), Orange's third novel, unfolds during World War II, giving a dark undercurrent to the surface comedy. Set in an English village in the early days of the war, the story features a comic cast ranging from war evacuees to shady businessmen, all entangled in odd schemes and domestic complications of various sorts. The key characters are two women of quite different characters. Caroline Cameron is witty and charming but not altogether likeable; bored with her spoiled daughter and her smothering husband, she is ready to strike out on her own. Constance Smith, on the other hand, is kind-hearted and sociable but suffers from a disastrous marriage. The pleasure of the novel lies partly in the way all the complications are worked out by the end. It was published in America by Morrow under the title ''Ask Me No Questions''. ''To Sea in a Sieve'' (1937) is about a rebellious young woman who gets involved in radical movements and is torn between two men. ''Company in the Evening'' (1944) is about a young mother who works in a literary agency. ''Have Your Cake'' (1942) and ''Portrait of Adrian'' (1945) round out the six.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Orange, Ursula 1909 births 1955 deaths 20th-century English novelists 20th-century British women writers 1955 suicides Suicides in the United Kingdom