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Clare Mulley
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Book
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Publisher | Oneworld | ||
ISBN | 978-185168657 | ||
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Reviewer
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Vicky
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Synopsis
This is an unconventional biography of an unconventional woman who did not care for children, but dedicated her life to establishing Save the Children and promoting her revolutionary concept of children's human rights. In this award-winning biography, Clare Mulley brings to life this beautiful, charismatic, and passionate spinster in a brown cardigan who helped save millions of lives and permanently changed the way the world treats children. All royalties from the book will be donated to Save the Children which marks its 90th anniversary in 2009.
Clare Mulley
Review
Clare Mulley's biography of Eglantyne Jebb "The Woman Who Saved the Children" is informative, warm and very personal. Through her award winning writing she has brought to life a very unsual woman that time has forgotten.
The charity Save the Children was founded by Eglantyne Jebb and her sister Dorothy Frances Buxton in 1919, after Eglantyne's visit to Eastern Europe and Germany in 1918 and saw for herself the dying children there and profoundly wanted to do something about it.
Although Eglantyne was not a lover of children and found it difficult to be around them for any length of time, she was a visionary and could see the larger picture of what needed to be done in a humanitarian way to save them from such dire circumstances.
Clare has very eloquently told the story of a woman beset with sadness and chronic illness but who was also immensly spiritual with a very dry sense of humour as seen in the sketch below that Eglantyne has drawn of herself charging along with papers falling out of her hands!
Self portrait by Eglantyne 1920
Each chapter is headed by a sketch drawn by Eglantyne with a quote from her - the above one comes with "The world is not ungenerous, but unimaginative and very busy". And today the world is spinning like a top out of control!
Through each chapter we get to see more and more of Eglantyne's complex life her sexuality, love affairs and her tremendous spirituality along side the incredibly work that she did against all odds in trying to "Save the Children"
A book that I more than highly recommend which is being published to celebrate the 90th anniversary of the founding of the "Save the Children" charity. All the author's royalties are going to the charity.
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