Antonia White

Antonia White (born Eirene Adeline Botting; 31 March 1899 – 10 April 1980) was a British writer and translator, known primarily for Frost in May, a semi-autobiographical novel set in a convent school.

She attempted to give a detailed description of the evil characters, but, because of her lack of experience, she was unable to describe their wickedness except to say that they "Indulged in nameless vices".

Antonia White's translations of Colette's Claudine novels were recognised for their elegance and erudition and remain the standard texts today.

In the subsequent five years, after undergoing treatment for mental illness and reconverting to Catholicism, she completed the Clara Batchelor trilogy, which includes The Lost Traveller, about her relationship with her mother and father, The Sugar House, about her first unconsummated marriage, and Beyond the Glass, about an intense love-affair followed by a breakdown, which is vividly described.

Her career as a writer seems to have been driven by the desire to cope with a sense of failure, resulting initially from her first attempt at writing, and with mental illness.

She is quoted as saying,The old terrors always return and often, with them, a feeling of such paralyzing lack of self-confidence that I have to take earlier books of mine off their shelf just to prove to myself that I actually wrote them and they were actually printed, bound, and read.

[citation needed]With regard to the content of her writing, White remarked, "My novels and short stories are mainly about ordinary people who become involved in rather extraordinary situations.

I do not mean in sensational adventures but in rather odd and difficult personal relationships largely due to their family background and their incomplete understanding of their own natures.

[citation needed] White passed away at St Raphael's Care Home in Danehill, East Sussex near Haywards Heath.

She writes, "We have Nanda’s arrival at Lippington, first impressions, subsequent adaptations, apparent success and, finally, head-on crash."

Without a lapse from this style Antonia White traverses passages of which the only analogy is to be found in James Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man."

This comparison, which can be considered high praise, also suggests that White's writing is both reminiscent of 19th century realism and indicative of modernist tendencies.

[citation needed] In light of the quartet’s recurring focus on theatre, theatrical performance and acting, Frances Babbage has discussed Frost in May through the lens of theatre-fiction: "close attention to the novels reveals [theatre] as a trope figuring powerfully in the narrative, not limited to specific episodes but implicitly shaping the protagonist’s entire journey.