Violet Mary Clifton (née Beauclerk) (2 November 1883 (Rome) – 20 November 1961) was an English writer, and a descendant of

Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans, KG (8 May 167010 May 1726) was an illegitimate son of King Charles II of England by his mistress Nell Gwyn. Biography On 21 December 1676, a warrant was passed for "a grant to Charles Beauclerc, the ...

, the illegitimate son of king Charles II and

Nell Gwyn Eleanor Gwyn (2 February 1650 – 14 November 1687; also spelled ''Gwynn'', ''Gwynne'') was a celebrity figure of the Restoration period. Praised by Samuel Pepys for her comic performances as one of the first actresses on the English stage ...

. She married English landowner and traveller John Talbot Clifton (1868-1928) in 1907 in

Brompton Oratory Brompton Oratory is a large neo-classical Roman Catholic church in the Knightsbridge area of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London. Its full name is the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, or as named in its Grade II* archite ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, whom she had met in Peru. They lived in the Clifton family seat at

Lytham Hall Lytham Hall is an 18th-century Georgian country house in Lytham, Lancashire, from the centre of the town, in of wooded parkland. It is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a designated Grade I listed building, the only one ...

, Lancashire, Kylemore House in Connemara, Ireland, and then at

Kildalton Castle Kildalton Castle is a ruined Victorian country house near Port Ellen on the island of Islay in the Inner Hebrides, Argyll, Scotland. It was built in ashlar in 1870 to a rambling plan in the Scots baronial style. Although roofs have fallen in the ...

on the Scottish island of

Islay Islay ( ; gd, Ìle, sco, Ila) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The isl ...

. After her husband died in 1928 in the Canary Islands on the way home from an abortive expedition to

Timbuktu Timbuktu ( ; french: Tombouctou; Koyra Chiini: ); tmh, label=Tuareg, script=Tfng, ⵜⵏⴱⴾⵜ, Tin Buqt a city in Mali, situated north of the Niger River. The town is the capital of the Tombouctou Region, one of the eight administrativ ...

she had his body embalmed and accompanied it back to Scotland for burial, Her biography of her colourful husband, published under the title ''The Book of Talbot'', won the 1933

James Tait Black Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Unit ...

WH Auden Wystan Hugh Auden (; 21 February 1907 – 29 September 1973) was a British-American poet. Auden's poetry was noted for its stylistic and technical achievement, its engagement with politics, morals, love, and religion, and its variety in ...

praised the book in a review that appeared in the '' Criterion''. In 1935

Nevill Coghill Nevill Henry Kendal Aylmer Coghill (19 April 1899 – 6 November 1980) was an English literary scholar, known especially for his modern English version of Geoffrey Chaucer's ''Canterbury Tales''. Life His father was Sir Egerton Coghill, 5th ...

nominated her for the

Nobel Prize in Literature ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , caption = , awarded_for = Outstanding contributions in literature , presenter = Swedish Academy , holder = Annie Ernaux (2022) , location = Stockholm, Sweden , year = 1901 , ...

, but the prize was ultimately not awarded that year. Her other books include ''Vision of Peru'' and ''Islands of Queen Wilhelmina'', later reissued as ''Islands of Indonesia''. She died at Lytham Hall in 1961. John and Violet's son was the dilettante film producer Harry Talbot de Vere Clifton, who squandered much of the family's remaining wealth. Harry Clifton gifted a carved Lapis Lazuli to

William Butler Yeats William Butler Yeats (13 June 186528 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, writer and one of the foremost figures of 20th-century literature. He was a driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and became a pillar of the Irish liter ...

, inspiring the poem ''Lapis Lazuli''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton, Violet Mary 1883 births 1961 deaths English biographers English women non-fiction writers Women biographers