Background
She was born in Dublin. Her mother, Margaret O"Shaughnessy, was a Catholic girl who eloped at the age of 21 with a Protestant English architect named Powis Hoult.
She was born in Dublin. Her mother, Margaret O"Shaughnessy, was a Catholic girl who eloped at the age of 21 with a Protestant English architect named Powis Hoult.
Her first book,, appeared in 1928. This collection of five short stories received considerable critical acclaim, and has been reprinted several times, both individually and in selected editions. lieutenant was followed by a novel,, which deals with a woman"s unhappy marriage to an alcoholic.
The marriage was dissolved in 1934.
Her next two books, and its sequel, show Irish family life before World War I. In 1939 she settled in London, in Bayswater, not far from Violet Hunt upon whom Claire Temple in There Were Number Windows (1944) is modelled. In 1957 she returned to live in Ireland.
In 1977 she published her last book She died at Jonquil Cottage, Greystones, County Wicklow, on April 6, 1984.