Helen Simpson
Helen Simpson was an Australian novelist and playwright born on December 1, 1897, in Sydney. Coming from a background of "French aristocratic stock," she was educated in France and became one of the first female undergraduates at Oxford University, where she studied music. Throughout her career, Simpson was active as a writer, contributing a diverse range of works, including novels, plays, translations, biographies, and even cookbooks. In 1927, she married physician Dennis J. Browne and spent much of her life in England and Australia. Tragically, she lost her life in the London Blitz just weeks before her 43rd birthday when the hospital where she was recovering from surgery was bombed. Simpson is notably recognized for her collaboration with playwright Winifred Ashton, with whom she co-authored three mystery novels featuring the character Sir John Samaurez. Additionally, her novel "Under Capricorn" was adapted into a film by Alfred Hitchcock, and her work "Boomerang" won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1933. Despite her early death, Simpson's contributions to literature continue to be remembered and appreciated.
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Helen Simpson
Writer
- Born: 1897
- Birthplace: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
- Died: 1940
Biography
Born December 1, 1897, in Sydney, Australia, of “French aristocratic stock,” novelist and playwright Helen De Guerry Simpson was educated in France and later studied music at Oxford University, one of the first female undergraduates to enroll there. Active as a writer from her early twenties onward, Simpson published plays, novels, translations from the French, histories, biographies, and even cookbooks.
Married in 1927 to Dennis J. Browne, a physician, Simpson lived thereafter in England and Australia. She died a victim of the Blitz several weeks short of her forty-third birthday when the London hospital in which she was recuperating from surgery was bombed by German aircraft. More than six decades after her death, Helen Simpson is best known for three mystery novels co- authored with the actor and playwright Winifred Ashton (1888- 1965), who wrote under the pseudonym of Clemence Dane. Simpson is credited with the plotting and mystery structure of the tales featuring theater manager, actor, and amateur sleuth Sir John Samaurez, while Ashton would supply the details and realistic theatrical setting.
Helen Simpson was also the author of Under Capricorn (1937), later adapted for the screen by Alfred Hitchcock. Her novel Boomerang (1932) won a James Tait Black Memorial Prize in 1933.