This was followed in 1955 by The Lady in the Tower, and, in 1957, by another love story, A Girl Among Poets, which won praise from Sir John Betjeman, who wrote of the author's "gift for describing farcical situations".
Due to his somewhat negative attitude to Crowley in these works, there were many involved in Thelema and ceremonial magic who were themselves critical of Symonds, including Israel Regardie, who called him "that most hostile biographer."
Edward Ardizzone was the illustrator for this book and Elfrida and the Pig (1959), a story about little girl who is not allowed to play with dolls until she finished her punishment which was to trim her parents' bushes.
After a period of writing children's books Symonds returned to biographies in 1959 with Madame Blavatsky, Medium and Magician, a life of the famous Theosophist.
[4] Novels followed, beginning with William Waste (1947), The Lady in the Tower (1955), A Girl Among Poets (1957), then a gothic fantasy, Bezill (1962), then Light Over Water (1963), in which a journalist researches into the world of the occult.
Psychological issues predominate in The Shaven Head (1974), and In Letters from England (1975), a German veteran of Stalingrad humbles himself by applying to work as an au pair for a London doctor.
He won critical praise in 1961 for his ITV play, I, Having Dreamt, Awake, about a prodigal son and con-man who returns home from America, after manufacturing a fortune, to impress his poor relations in London.
The Poison Maker, his final work for the stage was performed at the Old Red Lion Theatre in 2006, adapted and directed by the actress Vicki Carpenter who played Florence, with Eva Gray as Pansy.