Cynthia Asquith

Lady Cynthia Mary Evelyn Asquith (1887 – 1960) was an English writer, now known for her ghost stories and diaries. She also wrote novels and edited a number of anthologies, as well as writing for children and on the British Royal family.

Her father was Hugo Richard Charteris, 11th Earl of Wemyss (1857 – 1937) and her mother Mary Constance Wyndham (see The Souls). She married Herbert Asquith in 1910.

In 1913 she met D. H. Lawrence in Sicily, and became a friend and correspondent. During World War I she took a position as secretary to J. M. Barrie, which she kept for 20 years. The author L. P. Hartley became a lifelong friend after they met in the early 1920s.

Works

• The Ghost Book (1927) editor
• The Black Cap (1928) editor
• Shudders (1929) editor
• When Churchyards Yawn (1931) editor
• My Grimmest Nightmare (1935) editor
• The Spring House (1936) novel
• One Sparkling Wave (1943) novel
• This Mortal Coil (1947) stories
• Haply I May Remember (1950)
• What Dreams May Come? (1951) stories
• The Second Ghost Book (1952) editor
• Portrait of Barrie (1954)
• The Third Ghost Book (1956) editor
• Married to Tolstoy (1960) biography
• Thomas Hardy at Max Gate (1969)

Reference

• The Diaries of Cynthia Asquith 1915–1918 (1968)
• Best Friends: Memories of David and Rachel Cecil, Cynthia Asquith, L. P. Hartley and Others (1991) Julian Fane