Ann Bridge
Ann Bridge, born Mary Dolling Sanders in 1889 in Hertfordshire, England, was a British novelist known for her insightful and well-researched works. Raised in a large family, she received a solid education, culminating in a diploma from the London School of Economics. An avid mountain climber and a member of the Ladies' Alpine Club, her early life was marked by adventure and personal challenges. Bridge married Owen St. Clair O'Malley, a British Foreign Office official, in 1923. Their life together, characterized by diplomatic experiences and personal trials—including O'Malley's involvement in a scandal—greatly influenced her writing.
Under her pseudonym Ann Bridge, she published her first novel, *Peking Picnic*, in 1932, which won the Atlantic Monthly prize. Her novels often draw on her life in various countries, with themes blending history, romance, and comedy. Works like *Illyrian Spring* gained popularity and boosted tourism to the locations featured in her stories. A polyglot and a convert to Catholicism in 1948, Bridge wrote a total of twenty-six novels, many of which have been translated into multiple languages, reflecting her keen observations on human nature and the complexities of life.
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Subject Terms
Ann Bridge
Fiction and Nonfiction Writer
- Born: September 11, 1889
- Birthplace: Porters, Hertfordshire, England
- Died: March 9, 1974
- Place of death: Unknown
Biography
At her 1889 birth in Hertfordshire, England, to businessman James Harris Sanders and American Marie Louise Day, the future novelist Ann Bridge was called Mary Dolling Sanders. She was the seventh of nine children. After a primary education at home, she received a diploma from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1913. In 1910, she became a member of the Ladies’ Alpine Club, claiming mountain climbing to be the greatest enjoyment of her early life. Her father suffered bankruptcy in 1911, and she was forced to work for the London Charity Organization.
She married British Foreign Office official Owen St. Clair O’Malley, the son of the eminent Irish lawyer and judge Sir Edward O’Malley, in 1923. Her husband joined the Foreign Office in 1911, and O’Malley worked for the British Government breaking German ciphers during World War. In 1926, O’Malley’s husband was assigned to Peking but returned to England in disgrace after being caught up in an illegal currency scheme. O’Malley’s own insightful arguments helped clear her husband’s name, and he was reinstated. At this time, she began writing using the pseudonym Ann Bridge because of her husband’s position.
Many of O’Malley’s novels are based on personal experience, which includes her lifetime role as a diplomat’s wife and her sadness at having to live with a philandering husband. Her first novel, Peking Picnic (1932) was an instant hit and won the 1933 Atlantic Monthly prize. The Ginger Griffin (1934) and Four-Part Setting (1939) also utilized O’Malley’s life experience in China. Illyrian Spring (1935), set in Yugoslavia, was so popular that it increased tourism to the area.
A strong woman physically, who spoke six languages, O’Malley also lived in Hungary, Russia, the United States and Ireland. In 1948, she converted to Catholicism. Highly recognized for her scrupulous research, Bridge wrote books noted for their mix of history, romance and comedy and, above all, insightful observations of human life and sympathetic understanding of the human dilemma. In all, she wrote twenty-six novels, many of which have been translated into sixteen languages.