Temple Lane

Life
1899-1978 [pseud. of Mary Isabel Leslie]; dg. Rev. J. M. Leslie, later Dean of Lismore; b. Dublin, raised in in Co. Tipperary; ed. Sherbourne Girls’ Schol, and TCD; Large Gold Medal, 1922; PhD.; wrote poetry from 1937; also wrote other novels Jean Herbert; poet and novelist, with successful titles including Full Tide (1923), and Friday’s Well (1943) - which was successfully adapted for the stage by Frank Carney (A Bolt from the Blue, 1950); contrib. to Irish Writing (ed., David Marcus for the Irish Press) during 1952. IF2 DIL ATT

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Works
Fiction,
  • Burnt Bridges (London: John Long 1925; pop. edn. 1926);
  • No Just Cause (London: John Long 1925), pop. edn. 1926;
  • Defiance (London: John Long 1926);
  • Second Sight (London: John Long 1926);
  • Watch the Wall (London: John Long 1927);
  • The Band of Orion (London: Jarrolds [1928]);
  • The Little Wood (London: Jarrolds [1930]);
  • Blind Wedding (London: Jarrolds [1931]);
  • Sinner Anthony (London: Jarrolds [1933]);
  • The Trains Go South (London: Jarrolds [1938]), foreword by Lynn Doyle;
  • Battle of the Warrior (London: Jarrolds [1940]);
  • House of My Pilgrimage (Dublin: Talbot Press; London: Frederick Muller 1941);
  • Friday’s Well (Dublin: Talbot 1943);
  • Come Back! (Dublin: Talbot 1945);
  • My Bonny’s Away (Dublin: Talbot 1947).
Poetry
  • Fisherman’s Wake (Dublin & Cork: Talbot, n.d.), 47pp., and Do. [another edn.] (London: Longmans [1940]); Curlews (Dublin: Talbot 1945), 57pp.

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References
Stephen Brown, Ireland in Fiction [Pt. I] (Dublin: Maunsel 1919), identifies Temple Lane as the pen-name of Mary Isabel Leslie (1899-1975) [chk]; b. Dublin, dg. Dean of Lismore; ed. Shelbourne Sch. and TCD; poet and novelist, also light novels as Jean Herbert.

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Desmond Clarke, Ireland in Fiction [Pt II] (Cork: Royal Carbery 1985), lists Blind Wedding (1931), Big House, divorce, religious differences, travel; The Little Wood (1930) [tragic love-life of homesick girl]; Battle of the Warrior [Big House, Irish civil War and class distinction]; House of Pilgrimage (1941) [a love story involving two ‘good’ families, the one the evicted and the other the evicters of older days]; Friday’s Well (1943) [Big House, love and tragedy]; Come Back (1945) [Big House, marriage of convenience, happy ending]; My Bonny’s Away (1947) [romance of French girl in Ireland]; The Trains Go South, with foreword by Lynn Doyle (1938) [a tale of filial devotion treated with ‘shrewdness ... understanding ... and real sensitivity so characteristic of the writer’, acc. Clarke].

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Belfast Central Public Library holds Come Back (1945); Friday’s Well; House of My Pilgramage (1945); My Bonny’s Away (1947); The Trains Go South (n.d.). alsom under M. Leslie, Child’s Book of Verse (1910); Girlhood in the Pacific (1940).

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