From Library Journal
An 88-year-old former teacher of art at various girls' schools, Ashbee here offers an incisive and well-written biography that records the considerable achievements of her emboldened mother, Janet. In her first full-length book, Felicity goes beyond her scholarly articles on art history and material culture, deliberately enhancing her mother's reputation to do her story justice. The result is the only study available on her mother's life, principally because Janet remained in the shadow of her renowned husband, C.R. Ashbee (CRA), and his famous Guild of Handcraft, Inc., a commercialized version of the British Arts and Crafts Movement. Janet was open-minded; in 1898 she married (with reservations) a lifelong homosexual who was nearly 15 years her senior. The joy that came from four children kept the 43-year marriage together, even as Janet called "The Lady of the Guild" accompanied CRA at supper gatherings and conversations with his guildsmen. Janet wrote hundreds of personal and domestic letters, easily worthy of publication, which confirm the liberalism of her early years and conservatism in motherhood. Along with her outstanding autobiography, Rachel, these letters inform Felicity's fine work. Recommended for biography collections. Mary H. Bruce, formerly with Towson Univ. Lib., MD Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

"This biography chronicles one woman's valiant life in a vanished era of emerging feminism and bold socialist thought." "C. R. Ashbee was, some would say, the key figure in the British Arts and Crafts movement around 1900. Regarded as heir to William Morris in political belief and design reform, Ashbee (and his Guild of Handicraft) gained international fame in his own time and remains a legend today. Although much has been written about him, to date there has been no full study of his remarkable wife." This book reveals Janet Ashbee as a gifted woman of emotional warmth, strength, and unconventionality, qualities that enhanced her husband's work. But meeting the challenge of making a fruitful relationship and a practical marriage with C. R. Ashbee - predicated upon acceptance of his acknowledged and well-known homosexuality - represents one of the central themes of the book.

FROM THE CRITICS

Library Journal

An 88-year-old former teacher of art at various girls' schools, Ashbee here offers an incisive and well-written biography that records the considerable achievements of her emboldened mother, Janet. In her first full-length book, Felicity goes beyond her scholarly articles on art history and material culture, deliberately enhancing her mother's reputation to do her story justice. The result is the only study available on her mother's life, principally because Janet remained in the shadow of her renowned husband, C.R. Ashbee (CRA), and his famous Guild of Handcraft, Inc., a commercialized version of the British Arts and Crafts Movement. Janet was open-minded; in 1898 she married (with reservations) a lifelong homosexual who was nearly 15 years her senior. The joy that came from four children kept the 43-year marriage together, even as Janet called "The Lady of the Guild" accompanied CRA at supper gatherings and conversations with his guildsmen. Janet wrote hundreds of personal and domestic letters, easily worthy of publication, which confirm the liberalism of her early years and conservatism in motherhood. Along with her outstanding autobiography, Rachel, these letters inform Felicity's fine work. Recommended for biography collections. Mary H. Bruce, formerly with Towson Univ. Lib., MD Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

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