author
Rosalind Murray
1890–1967
Best known for novels such as The Leading Note and The Happy Tree, she wrote with unusual insight about family life, faith, and the pressures placed on women in the early 20th century. Her work moves easily from sharp social observation to serious spiritual reflection.
1 Audiobook
The happy tree
by Rosalind Murray
About the author
Born in London in 1890, she was the daughter of the classical scholar Gilbert Murray and Lady Mary Howard, and grew up in Glasgow and Oxford. She was educated by governesses and at Priors Field School, and published her first novel, The Leading Note, when she was only twenty.
Over the next several decades she wrote fiction including Moonseed, Unstable Ways, and The Happy Tree. Her novels are often noted for their close attention to emotional life and social expectations, especially in the worlds of marriage, family, and inner conflict.
Later in life, her writing increasingly reflected her Roman Catholic faith, and she also produced theological and reflective works alongside her fiction. She died in 1967, leaving behind a body of work that blends intelligence, feeling, and a quietly searching moral seriousness.