Margery Sharp
Clara Margery Melita Sharp, born on January 25, 1905, in Salisbury, England, was a prolific British author known for her contributions to both children's literature and adult fiction. She spent part of her childhood in Malta, an experience that influenced her later writings. Sharp pursued higher education in French and art, ultimately choosing to focus on writing. By her early twenties, she was already contributing to notable magazines and had published her first novel, *Rhododendron Pie*, in 1930.
Sharp gained fame for her *Rescuers* series, which features whimsical animal characters on daring rescue missions, and some of these stories were adapted into animated films by Disney. Throughout her career, she wrote numerous novels, plays, and short stories, often characterized by unconventional and lively female protagonists. In addition to her literary work, she served as an army education lecturer during World War II and later wrote for television. Sharp's legacy includes not only her engaging narratives but also her ability to create memorable characters who resonate with readers of all ages. She passed away in London on March 14, 1991.
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Subject Terms
Margery Sharp
- Born: January 25, 1905
- Birthplace: Salisbury, Wiltshire, England
- Died: March 14, 1991
- Place of death: London, England
Biography
Clara Margery Melita Sharp was born on January 25, 1905, in Salisbury, Wiltshire, England, the third daughter of J. H. Sharp. Her family originally came from northern Yorkshire. Sharp spent part of her childhood in Malta, and she used this experience many years later in her novel The Sun in Scorpio. She attended Chiswick Hill High School in Malta from 1912 to 1913, and then went to Streatham Hill High School in London from 1914 to 1923. She studied at Bedford College of London University from 1925 to 1928, where she received a bachelor’s degree in French and participated in college journalism and other activities. She then studied art for a year at Westminster Art School. At that time, she had to choose between painting and writing as a career, and she chose the latter.
When she was twenty, she made her first trip to the United States as a member of a women’s debating team. She had begun writing while she was seven years old, and by the time she was twenty-one she was contributing to Punch magazine. Soon she also began contributing pieces to the Saturday Evening Post, Women’s Home Companion, Harper’s Bazaar, Fiction Parade, Strand, Ladies Home Journal, Collier’s, and many other magazines. She also became a contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Sharp wrote her first novel, Rhododendron Pie, in one month in 1930 while sharing an apartment with two other working girls. In 1934, her first play, Meeting at Night, was produced in London.
In 1938, she married Major Geoffrey Lloyd Castle, an artillery officer in the Royal Army who later became an aeronautical engineer. During World War II, she served as an army education lecturer, giving ten talks a week. Her work required extensive travel, and she wrote her novels Cluny Brown and Brittannica Mews in hotel rooms. In 1954, she wrote her first teleplay, The Birdcage Room.
Sharp is best known for her Rescuers series of children’s books, two of which have been made into animated feature films by the Disney studio. These books are animal fantasies featuring a white mouse named Miss Bianca and her sidekick Bernard, a brown mouse, who lead the Mouse Prisoner’s Aid Society to rescue those unjustly imprisoned. The Rescuers was named an American Library Association Notable Book. Sharp eventually became tired of the series and tried to retire it after the seventh book, but popular demand persuaded her to write two more.
Several of Sharp’s novels and short stories were adapted as films, including her story “The Tenant,” adapted as The Notorious Landlady, and her novel Cluny Brown. She was known for her zany, unconventional, and offbeat characters, usually female. Cluny Brown, for instance, is a parlor maid with a talent for plumbing. Her juvenile novel Something Light was named to the Horn Books Honor List. When Sharp was not writing, she liked to garden and paint. She died in London on March 14, 1991.