Somerville and Ross: The World of the Irish R. M.

Somerville and Ross were two extraordinary Irish writers. Cousins and products of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy world, they reacted both with and against their environment to present in their books a deceptively indulgent view of the Irish and English. The reality of their lives was somewhat different. Each was gifted, but it was only in combination that they could fulfil their true potential. When Martin Ross died in 1915, Edith continued, through spiritual communication, to see herself as collaborating with her dead cousin, whose name she never ceased to add to the title page of her books. The book also provides a picture of the two women's often surprising reactions to home rule, and presents us in particular Edith Somerville in the fascinating alternative guises of master of fox hounds, spiritualist, artist and practical feminist.