Eileen Arbuthnot Robertson (10 January 1903 at Moor Lodge, South Holmwood,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

– 21 September 1961 in

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, London) was an English novelist, critic and broadcaster.Nicola Beauman: 'Robertson, Eileen Arbuthnot (pseud. E. Arnot Robertson) (1903–1961)', ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', online e. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2004
Retrieved 5 September 2010
Her 1931 novel ''Four Frightened People'' gave rise to a film of the same name in 1934.

Family

Robertson was the daughter of Dr George Arbuthnot Robertson (1860–1942), physician and surgeon, and his wife Elsie Margaret (née Brune). She was baptised on 18 March 1903 at St Mary's Church, Holmwood. Her one sister, Mary Arbuthnot, was born in 1899. Robertson was educated at Sherborne School for Girls, which she strongly disliked. The family moved to London in 1917. She later described the atmosphere in the family as "stultifying". She continued her education for two years in France and Switzerland. Robertson took her first job, on the London-based magazine ''Answers'', at the age of 19. In that year she also sat anonymously for the painting ''A Red Haired Girl'' by James McBey. On 26 February 1927 she was married in Kensington to H. E. (from 1951 Sir Henry) Turner (1891–1961), secretary-general of the Empire Press Union, later the

Commonwealth Press Union The Commonwealth Press Union (CPU), formerly the Empire Press Union, was an association composed of 750 members in 49 countries, including newspaper groups (with several hundred newspapers), individual newspapers, and news agencies throughout the Co ...

. They adopted a son, Gordon Turner, in the late 1930s. The Turners moved to Heath Street, Hampstead, in 1946. They were passionate sailors, as the sailing background of ''Ordinary Families'' shows. Turner's death in a boating accident precipitated Robertson's suicide five months later.

Writing

By her mid-twenties E. Arnot Robertson, as she chose to be called in print, was on her way to becoming a popular "

middlebrow The term middlebrow describes easily accessible art, usually literature, and the people who use the arts to acquire culture and "class" (Reputation, social prestige). First used in the British satire magazine ''Punch (magazine), Punch'' in 1925, t ...

" novelist with a large following, especially for her first five novels. ''Four Frightened People'' (1931), set in a

Malaya Malaya refers to a number of historical and current political entities related to what is currently Peninsular Malaysia in Southeast Asia: Political entities * British Malaya (1826–1957), a loose collection of the British colony of the Straits ...

that she never actually visited, became Volume 15 on the

Penguin Penguins (order (biology), order List of Sphenisciformes by population, Sphenisciformes , family (biology), family Spheniscidae ) are a group of Water bird, aquatic flightless birds. They live almost exclusively in the Southern Hemisphere: on ...

list in 1935. A

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

, directed by Cecil B. DeMille, was released in 1934. Equally celebrated was ''Ordinary Families'' (1933), the story of a young girl growing up with her family in

Pin Mill A pin mill is a mill that comminutes materials by the action of pins that repeatedly move past each other. Much like a kitchen blender, it breaks up substances through repeated impact. The mill is a type of vertical shaft impactor mill and consi ...

, Suffolk. Both titles were repeatedly reprinted into the 1980s in the

Virago A virago is a woman who demonstrates abundant masculine virtues. The word comes from the Latin word ''virāgō'' ( genitive virāginis) meaning vigorous' from ''vir'' meaning "man" or "man-like" (cf. virile and virtue) to which the suffix ''-ā ...

paperback series, as was her first novel, ''Cullum'', in 1989. However, her later novels added little to the reputation the earlier ones had given her, although she had "seemed at one time likely to develop into a novelist of considerable comic substance and power." Robertson also wrote astringent film criticism. Reviewing the young Bette Davis in ''

Dangerous Dangerous may refer to: Film and television * ''Dangerous'' (1935 film), an American film starring Bette Davis * '' Dangerous: The Short Films'', a 1993 collection of music videos by Michael Jackson * ''Dangerous'' (2021 film), a Canadian-Ameri ...

'' for the '' Picture Post'' in 1935, she said, "I think Bette Davis would probably have been burned as a witch if she had lived two or three hundred years ago. She gives the curious feeling of being charged with power which can find no ordinary outlet." She was involved in 1946 in protracted litigation with MGM over what the corporation perceived as unfairly negative reviews of their films. This contributed to her losing a job at the BBC, but her eventual legal costs of £8,000 were paid from the proceeds of a fundraising appeal made by the Critics' Circle. Robertson was a contestant on the BBC panel game My Word! from 1957 to 1961, partnering Frank Muir.My Word!
. BBC. bbc.co.uk. 28 October 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2017.

Bibliography

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Robertson, E. Arnot 1903 births 1961 suicides English film critics English women novelists Writers from London People educated at Sherborne Girls 20th-century English women writers 20th-century English novelists British women film critics People from Holmwood 1961 deaths

Family

Writing

Bibliography

Further reading

References