Molly Keane 1904-1996)

Molly Keane was born in County Kildare, Ireland, and reputedly wrote her first novel “The Knight Of Cheerful Countenance” to supplement her dress allowance.

It was published under the pseudonym M.J. Farrell, and she went on to publish more stories under that name. These satirical novels portrayed a 1920s Anglo-Irish aristocratic world of governesses, hunts and balls that was dying out.

Then she turned her attention to plays, but the death of her husband left her too grief-stricken to write.

It was 20 years later that the actress Peggy Ashcroft persuaded her to submit the unpublished manuscript of “Good Behaviour” under her own name. It was shortlisted for the 1981 Booker Prize, but it didn’t tempt her back to writing.

Her novels, once seen as dated, are now a wonderfully fun social history of a lost era.