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"There is nobody in all this writing world even remotely like her."

Norman Shrapnel, Guardian

Introducing Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett

“She wrote as a poet writes: the words cut, the sentences stun, the structure is austere but inescapably powerful.” – John Updike. Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett’s writing style is one of the most distinctive and idiosyncratic in 20th-century English literature. She is famously known for her dialogue-driven novels, dry, cool, writing style laced with irony. Her novels explore the tensions of upper-middle-class family life, often dissecting family power struggles and human cruelty with a detached, almost surgical precision. Discover her compelling literary legacy which spans over 45 years from her 1925 debut novel, to her final posthumous work published in 1971.

Explore Ivy's Works

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Pastors & Masters

1925

Sealing Ivy's reputation as an acute observer, this enigmatic novel is set in a small private school, portraying the lives and petty concerns of the Headmaster, his wife and friends.

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Brothers & Sisters

1929

Novelists have always been tempted by the closed situation, that is, by the confinement of several characters, in a particular place out of which there is no escape

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Men & Wives

1931

Harriet Haslam, the epitome of the maternal power figure, whose genuine but overpowering love dominates the novel and whose self-knowledge drives her into insanity. 

She has looked at human nature's hidden side, and looked away; but not before writing it down.

Joanne Hutchinson

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Ivy in the media

Find out more about the incomparable Ivy

Dame Ivy was known in literary circles as ‘the English Secret’ and had gained a reputation as one of the most original writers of her time, writing 19 novels between 1925 and her death in 1969. 

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