Born in Glasgow, educated at Oxford, where she was the first woman to edit the university magazine, Cherwell, Elizabeth Mavor (1927-2013) was the author of five novels. The fourth, A Green Equinox (1973) was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Drawn to the lives of women, both real and imaginary, who flouted convention, her non-fiction works include two historical biographies: The Virgin Mistress: A Study in Survival (1964); and The Ladies of Langollen (1971).
Funny and brave and moving and absolutely bonkers. I love this novel -- Charlotte Mendelson A Green Equinox is a book of astounding precocity in content, imagery, character and style . . . a masterly study of pretension, hypocrisy, and the immeasurable folly of refinement * Times Literary Supplement * Elizabeth Mavor relishes spirited, unorthodox women, free with their tongues and ready to snap their fingers at convention * London Review of Books * Funny and brave and moving and absolutely bonkers. I love this novel