Edna O'Brien and Ernest Gebler

Hah! In the local newsagents and discovered Grand - The Journal of One Grand Books. Very enjoyable read. Fiction, Poetry, Memoirs and interesting biographies - Edna O'Brien the standout read. 

Now, interesting aside - the article shows a black and white picture of Edna sitting by a window in her Chelsea home in London, in 1971. That's just about the time I used to travel to see my grandparents in the same area. Not saying I saw Edna, but in a peculiar way, it's comforting to know a writer of her literary talent was just around the corner.

Sad to read about her soured relationship with husband Ernest Gebler (an author - yes, I had to look him up). Turns out, Ernest was a divorcee when he met Edna in 1952. His fame was a novel which became a movie starring Spencer Tracy: The Plymouth Adventure. Edna was working in a pharmacy. He became a Svengali of sorts - introducing her to publishers, perhaps encouraging her writing and probably wished he hadn't when her debut novel The Country Girls eclipsed his. Don't think he was too happy.

He was known to be fiercely critical of writing—annotating library books with comments like “this boy can’t write” or “doesn’t he know what an adverb is?” 

But, without him, we might not have heard of Edna.

You can read part of the printed article online here: Grand Edna O'Brien