241:, in which he revealed the background to her "disappearance", how she had "turned her back on the literary world after a series of personal tragedies and medical crises which made her question the value of literature and embark on a restless, self-torturing spiritual quest". Her mental and physical health deteriorated following an emergency operation on New Year's Day 1978 to save her eyesight. Tonks characterised her dual detached retinas as her "reward" for "10 long years searching for God", believing they had been acquired through her practice of extreme Taoist eye exercises. Taoism had only been the most recent in a series of spiritual explorations with mediums, healers, spiritualists and Sufis. These had begun in 1968, when she rejected Christianity following the sudden death of her mother and her apparently unwanted divorce.
249:
made the decision to "confront her profession" and burnt the manuscript of an unpublished novel, apparently in the belief that the work was spiritually dangerous. She had, not long before, in the
October of the same year, also burnt a large number of valuable Oriental artefacts that had been bequeathed to her many years before, on the basis that they were the cause of supernatural ill-effects. That October she travelled to Jerusalem and was baptised near the River Jordan on 17 October 1981, the day before her 53rd birthday. "Obliterating her former identity as the writer Rosemary Tonks, she dated her new life from that 'second birth'", according to Astley, and thereafter she never read any books apart from the Bible.
316:
as well. She includes incidents and experiences directly from her past, often with only a thin fictional veil to disguise them. Some critics felt this was a fault and labelled the autobiographical dimension of her writing "feminine" in a pejorative sense; others decided her directness was invigorating and showed the uniqueness of her voice, making for a lively, distinct fictional world. Whatever the verdict, Tonks' novels deal with aspects of her life up to 1972, when her last work was published. Her fiction, in particular, moved from a dissatisfaction with urban living found in both her collections of poetry and in satiric novels such as
358:
said "the movements of an individual awareness – often rather self-conscious in its singularity – supply the themes of most of her work." Daisy
Goodwin commented on her poem, "Story of a Hotel Room", about infidelity: "This poem should be read by anyone about to embark on an affair thinking that it's
315:
although her critics admit that her grasp of the
English language and her sense of London are sharp. The anthologist, Keith Tuma, called these long-form works "poetic novels". Her novels are a kind of fictional autobiography in which she plays not only the leading role but one or two supporting roles
324:
to a pronounced loathing of middle to upper-middle class materialism in her later work. Her distaste for materialism meant that Tonks also developed an interest in the symbolist movement, which eventually led her to a conception of spirituality as the only alternative to materialism. This embrace of
265:
to exuberant disbelief at modern civilisation. There are illicit love affairs in seedy hotels and scenes of café life across Europe and the Middle East; there are sage reflections on men who are shy with women. She often targets the pathetic pretensions of writers and intellectuals. Yet she is often
248:
to recuperate, to the home of her aunt, Dorothy (a "double aunt", who was both
Gwendoline's sister and married to Desmond's brother, Myles). In 1980 she moved into a house behind the seafront where she lived alone for the next 33 years, using her former married name, Rosemary Lightband. In 1981 she
277:
in a poem on the page which is completely different from the ear's reaction". Of her style, she said "I have developed a visionary modern lyric, and, for it, an idiom in which I can write lyrically, colloquially, and dramatically. My subject is city life – with its sofas, hotel corridors, cinemas,
67:
in Africa before
Rosemary was born. She spent her early years in and out of different schools and children's homes. Already suffering in her childhood from troubling eye conditions, Tonks was nevertheless an enthusiastic reader and writer from a young age.
75:
at
Wentworth college in Bournemouth. While still at school, she wrote the story which would form her authorial debut when BBC radio broadcast it in 1946. She published children's stories while a teenager, the first in 1946, which she also illustrated:
22:
333:
Critics praised Tonks as a cosmopolitan poet of considerable innovation and originality. She has been described as one of the very few modern
English poets who has genuinely tried to learn something from modern French poets such as
682:
32:(17 October 1928 – 15 April 2014) was an English poet and author. After publishing two poetry collections, six novels, and pieces in numerous media outlets, she disappeared from the public eye following her conversion to
205:'s Phoenix Press in Newbury from 1976 until 1980, when the project was abandoned following her conversion to a puritanical form of Christianity. Little was known publicly about her subsequent life past that point. As
103:, forced a return to England. She lived in Paris in 1952–1953, before returning to London where she settled with her husband in Hampstead. They later divorced and lived several doors from each other for some years.
209:
wrote in 2004, she "Disappeared! What happened? Because I admire her poems, I've been trying to find out for years... no trace of her seems to survive – apart from the writing she left behind." In the 30-minute
619:
Desmond's brother Myles was married to
Gwendoline's sister Dorothy, the aunt who was later to provide Rosemary with refuge in Bournemouth when her life crisis had become unbearable alone.
162:
956:
p. 556: Brief Tonks biography by Tuma; pp. 557–559: Tonks' poems: "The Sofas, Fogs and
Cinemas"; "The Little Cardboard Suitcase"; "The Ice-cream Boom Towns"; (all 1967)
197:(Bodley Head, 1967), and after both books went out of print following each publisher's decision to axe their poetry lists, she was discussing a selected edition of her work with
659:
278:
underworlds, cardboard suitcases, self-willed buses, banknotes, soapy bathrooms, newspaper-filled parks; and its anguish, its enraged excitement, its great lonely joys."
509:
In general, available sources are silent on the location in Africa where
Desmond Tonks died. One review of the 2016 edition of Tonks' collected works states "Nigeria".
848:
182:
1118:
225:"; Tonks had disappeared from public view and was living a hermetic existence, refusing telephone and personal calls from friends, family and the media.
325:
what she called "the invisible world" may have ultimately led her to distrust the act of writing itself, and caused her to abandon writing as a career.
1108:
257:
Tonks's poems offer a stylised view of an urban literary subculture around 1960, full of hedonism and decadence. The poet seems to veer from the
1133:
1011:
986:
920:
500:
In works, anthologies, and other publications that appeared before her death, those that included Tonks' year of birth stated it as "1932".
1113:
787:
Rosemary Tonks, a talented Englishwoman who took early retirement from poetry back in the Sixties, summarised the visual position well
734:
531:
411:
949:
1128:
653:
273:
quotes Tonks in support of his own position on the visual importance of poetry in print: "There is an excitement for the
1103:
1098:
83:
In 1949, aged 20, she married Michael Lightband (a mechanical engineer and later, a financier), and the couple moved to
33:
805:
1059:
869:
168:
1123:
766:
60:
932:
907:
519:
237:, followed by his introduction to the 2014 Bloodaxe Books edition of her collected poetry and selected prose,
177:
115:, writing stories and reviewing poetry for the BBC European Service. She published poems in collections and
244:
In the aftermath of the surgery she was left almost blind for the next few years, and in 1979 she moved to
269:
She believed poetry should look good on a printed page as well as sound good when read. Poet and essayist
998:
885:
It is about flirtation as a method of self-organization, and a crush as a method of self-torture. All of
572:
969:
1006:. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 14. Detroit, Mich. USA: Gale Research. pp. 715–720.
609:"Rosemary Tonks obituary: Poet and novelist who turned her back on the literary world for four decades"
1093:
1088:
270:
141:
129:
1027:
222:
202:
355:
262:
233:
Following her death in April 2014, Neil Astley published an obituary and then an article in the
608:
1007:
982:
945:
916:
785:– via Faculty of Arts, Charles University Prague: Centre for Irish Studies. p. 19:
730:
527:
407:
64:
45:
809:
663:
372:
describes a substantial comic achievement—this is from a 2023 Tonks reassessment: "All of
153:
135:
72:
364:
335:
1082:
865:
369:
221:
observed, from the literary world's perspective, she'd "evaporated into air like the
206:
147:
123:
1073:
613:
577:
308:
218:
117:
981:. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Detroit, USA: Gale Group. pp. 287–293.
245:
211:
88:
56:
36:
in the 1970s; little was known about her life past that point, until her death.
307:
Writing novels in a highly personal style that at times approached the tone of
347:
343:
50:
1069:
1046:
1038:
635:
198:
21:
802:
359:
just a fling. It is much harder than you know to separate sex from love."
266:
buoyant and chatty, bemused rather than critical, even self-deprecating.
92:
100:
84:
48:, she had a difficult childhood. She was the only child of Gwendoline (
774:
773:. Vol. 2003, no. 14, Autumn. pp. 12–31. Archived from
339:
727:
Bedouin of the London evening: Collected poems & selected prose
404:
Bedouin of the London evening: Collected poems & selected prose
59:, the surgeon, painter, and in the 1920s, professor of fine art at
849:
Andrew O'Hagan. (9 November 2004). "Selling poems to the people".
96:
20:
311:
in its cynical observations of urban living, Tonks as a novelist
217:
documentary, "The Poet Who Vanished", broadcast 29 March 2009,
803:
61406. Tonks, Rosemary. The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996
112:
847:
Daisy Goodwin. (2004). "Poems to Last a Lifetime". Quoted in
831:
829:
290:
The idiotic cut of the stanzas; the novels, full up, gross.
87:
for his work, where she began to write poetry. Attacks of
944:. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 556–559.
942:
Anthology of twentieth-century British and Irish poetry
163:
Anthology of Twentieth-Century British and Irish Poetry
748:
746:
524:
The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland after 1945
174:
The Firebox: Poetry in Britain and Ireland after 1945
997:
968:
931:
906:
288:Simply wears me out. And their idea of literature!
55:) and Desmond Tonks. Her father was the nephew of
767:"The Outnumbered Poet: Poets and Poetry Readings"
720:In: new anthology of Rosemary Tonks' (2014) works
160:Her work appears in many anthologies, including:
406:. Hexham, Great Britain: Bloodaxe Books. 2014.
283:
685:Bedouin of the London Evening: Collected Poems
281:Her poem, "The Sofas, Fogs and Cinemas" ends:
183:Oxford Book of Twentieth Century English Verse
602:
600:
598:
596:
594:
592:
590:
588:
566:
564:
562:
560:
558:
556:
554:
286:—All this sitting about in cafés to calm down
8:
354:showed "an original sensibility in motion".
835:
820:
376:, however—every single sentence—is funny."
979:British novelists since 1960: Third Series
676:
674:
672:
475:On Wooden Wings: The Adventures of Webster
78:On Wooden Wings: The Adventures of Webster
1004:British novelists since 1960. Part 2: H-Z
996:Poirier, Michelle; Halio, Jay L. (1983).
889:, however—every single sentence—is funny.
712:
710:
708:
706:
704:
63:. A mechanical engineer, Desmond died of
629:
627:
550:
493:
313:had a mixed critical reception at best,
44:Born Rosemary Desmond Boswell Tonks in
681:Brooks-Motl, Hannah (1 January 2016).
1060:"The Writer Who Burned Her Own Books"
915:. London: Penguin. pp. 245–247.
870:"The Writer Who Burned Her Own Books"
765:O'Driscoll, Dennis (September 2003).
729:. Hexham (GB): Bloodaxe Books. 2014.
717:Astley, Neil (2014). "Introduction".
293:I have lived it, and I know too much.
49:
7:
752:
297:With black, exhausting information.
1043:, BBC Radio documentary, March 2009
1119:20th-century English women writers
14:
189:Tonks published two collections,
1109:English expatriates in Pakistan
970:"Rosemary Tonks (1932 [
911:. In Edward Lucie-Smith (ed.).
573:"Rosemary Tonks, the lost poet"
448:(Bodley Head, 1969); US title,
639:(London); 30 October 2004 p. 8
456:The Way Out of Berkeley Square
295:My café nerves are breaking me
166:(2001, edited by Keith Tuma);
1:
905:Lucie-Smith, Edward (1978) .
239:Bedouin of the London Evening
229:Withdrawal from literary life
1134:People from Gillingham, Kent
1040:Lost Voices – Rosemary Tonks
977:. In Merritt Moseley (ed.).
652:, Bloodaxe Books. Quoted in
571:Astley, Neil (31 May 2014).
391:Notes on Cafés and Bedrooms
352:Notes on Cafés and Bedrooms
191:Notes on Cafés and Bedrooms
34:Fundamentalist Christianity
1150:
1114:20th-century English poets
607:Neil Astley (2 May 2014).
436:(Adam Books, 1963 or 1964)
1002:. In Jay L. Halio (ed.).
999:"Rosemary Tonks (1932– )"
933:"Rosemary Tonks (b. [
913:British poetry since 1945
462:The Halt during the Chase
397:Iliad of Broken Sentences
195:Iliad of Broken Sentences
169:British Poetry since 1945
1066:on Rosemary Tonks. 2023.
855:Accessed 12 January 2007
666:Accessed 12 January 2007
450:Love Among the Operators
151:; she read on the BBC's
1129:English women novelists
1070:Works by Rosemary Tonks
940:. In Keith Tuma (ed.).
808:1 December 2007 at the
633:Motion, Andrew (2004).
253:Character of her poetry
40:Early life and marriage
16:English poet and author
662:2 October 2006 at the
329:Assessment of her work
300:
26:
1054:The Exploding Library
648:Astley, Neil (2004),
468:
446:Businessmen as Lovers
322:Businessmen as Lovers
111:Tonks worked for the
24:
930:Tuma, Keith (2001).
368:, writer and critic
130:Transatlantic Review
1104:English women poets
1099:Writers from London
967:Rak, Julie (1999).
777:on 13 November 2006
526:. London: Picador.
483:(John Murray, 1951)
477:(John Murray, 1948)
464:(Bodley Head, 1972)
458:(Bodley Head, 1970)
442:(Bodley Head, 1968)
399:(Bodley Head, 1967)
193:(Putnam, 1963) and
1031:– Rosemary Tonks:
1029:Backlisted Podcast
868:(3 January 2023).
356:Edward Lucie-Smith
263:Charles Baudelaire
27:
1050:by Rosemary Tonks
1013:978-0-8103-0927-2
988:978-0-7876-3101-7
922:978-0-14-042122-4
683:"Rosemary Tonks,
271:Dennis O'Driscoll
176:(1998, edited by
1141:
1017:
1001:
992:
976:
955:
939:
926:
910:
908:"Rosemary Tonks"
892:
891:
882:
880:
862:
856:
845:
839:
836:Lucie-Smith 1978
833:
824:
821:Lucie-Smith 1978
818:
812:
800:
794:
793:
790:
784:
782:
762:
756:
750:
741:
740:
724:
714:
699:
698:
678:
667:
646:
640:
631:
622:
621:
604:
583:
582:
568:
538:
537:
516:
510:
507:
501:
498:
469:Children's books
417:
314:
99:, contracted in
91:, contracted in
65:blackwater fever
54:
46:Gillingham, Kent
1149:
1148:
1144:
1143:
1142:
1140:
1139:
1138:
1124:Polio survivors
1079:
1078:
1024:
1014:
995:
989:
966:
963:
961:Further reading
952:
929:
923:
904:
901:
896:
895:
878:
876:
864:
863:
859:
851:Daily Telegraph
846:
842:
834:
827:
819:
815:
810:Wayback Machine
801:
797:
788:
780:
778:
764:
763:
759:
751:
744:
737:
725:
716:
715:
702:
697:(4): 249–254. .
680:
679:
670:
664:Wayback Machine
647:
643:
632:
625:
606:
605:
586:
570:
569:
552:
547:
542:
541:
534:
518:
517:
513:
508:
504:
499:
495:
490:
471:
424:
414:
402:
387:
382:
331:
312:
305:
299:
296:
294:
292:
291:
289:
287:
255:
231:
154:Third Programme
136:London Magazine
109:
73:boarding school
71:Tonks attended
42:
17:
12:
11:
5:
1147:
1145:
1137:
1136:
1131:
1126:
1121:
1116:
1111:
1106:
1101:
1096:
1091:
1081:
1080:
1077:
1076:
1067:
1064:The New Yorker
1057:
1044:
1036:
1023:
1022:External links
1020:
1019:
1018:
1012:
993:
987:
962:
959:
958:
957:
950:
927:
921:
900:
897:
894:
893:
874:The New Yorker
857:
840:
838:, p. 245.
825:
823:, p. 247.
813:
795:
757:
755:, p. 556.
742:
736:978-1780372389
735:
700:
691:Chicago Review
668:
641:
623:
584:
549:
548:
546:
543:
540:
539:
533:978-0330372558
532:
522:, ed. (1998).
511:
502:
492:
491:
489:
486:
485:
484:
481:Wild Sea Goose
478:
470:
467:
466:
465:
459:
453:
443:
437:
431:
430:(Putnam, 1963)
423:
420:
419:
418:
413:978-1780372389
412:
400:
394:
393:(Putnam, 1963)
386:
383:
381:
378:
365:The New Yorker
330:
327:
304:
301:
284:
254:
251:
230:
227:
108:
105:
41:
38:
30:Rosemary Tonks
25:Rosemary Tonks
15:
13:
10:
9:
6:
4:
3:
2:
1146:
1135:
1132:
1130:
1127:
1125:
1122:
1120:
1117:
1115:
1112:
1110:
1107:
1105:
1102:
1100:
1097:
1095:
1092:
1090:
1087:
1086:
1084:
1075:
1071:
1068:
1065:
1061:
1058:
1055:
1051:
1049:
1045:
1042:
1041:
1037:
1035:
1034:
1030:
1026:
1025:
1021:
1015:
1009:
1005:
1000:
994:
990:
984:
980:
975:
973:
965:
964:
960:
953:
951:9780195128949
947:
943:
938:
936:
928:
924:
918:
914:
909:
903:
902:
898:
890:
888:
875:
871:
867:
866:Audrey Wollen
861:
858:
854:
852:
844:
841:
837:
832:
830:
826:
822:
817:
814:
811:
807:
804:
799:
796:
792:
776:
772:
768:
761:
758:
754:
749:
747:
743:
738:
732:
728:
722:
719:
713:
711:
709:
707:
705:
701:
696:
692:
688:
686:
677:
675:
673:
669:
665:
661:
658:
657:, April 2005.
656:
651:
645:
642:
638:
637:
630:
628:
624:
620:
616:
615:
610:
603:
601:
599:
597:
595:
593:
591:
589:
585:
580:
579:
574:
567:
565:
563:
561:
559:
557:
555:
551:
544:
535:
529:
525:
521:
520:O'Brien, Sean
515:
512:
506:
503:
497:
494:
487:
482:
479:
476:
473:
472:
463:
460:
457:
454:
451:
447:
444:
441:
438:
435:
432:
429:
426:
425:
421:
415:
409:
405:
401:
398:
395:
392:
389:
388:
384:
379:
377:
375:
371:
370:Audrey Wollen
367:
366:
360:
357:
353:
349:
345:
341:
337:
328:
326:
323:
319:
310:
302:
298:
282:
279:
276:
272:
267:
264:
260:
252:
250:
247:
242:
240:
236:
228:
226:
224:
220:
216:
213:
208:
207:Andrew Motion
204:
200:
196:
192:
187:
185:
184:
179:
175:
171:
170:
165:
164:
158:
156:
155:
150:
149:
148:Poetry Review
144:
143:
138:
137:
132:
131:
126:
125:
124:New Statesman
120:
119:
114:
106:
104:
102:
98:
94:
90:
86:
81:
79:
74:
69:
66:
62:
58:
52:
47:
39:
37:
35:
31:
23:
19:
1074:Open Library
1063:
1056:, BBC. 2022.
1053:
1047:
1039:
1032:
1028:
1003:
978:
971:
941:
937:] 1932)"
934:
912:
886:
884:
877:. Retrieved
873:
860:
850:
843:
816:
798:
786:
779:. Retrieved
775:the original
770:
760:
726:
721:
718:
694:
690:
684:
654:
649:
644:
634:
618:
614:The Guardian
612:
578:The Guardian
576:
523:
514:
505:
496:
480:
474:
461:
455:
449:
445:
439:
433:
427:
403:
396:
390:
380:Publications
373:
363:
361:
351:
332:
321:
317:
309:Evelyn Waugh
306:
285:
280:
274:
268:
258:
256:
243:
238:
234:
232:
223:Cheshire cat
219:Brian Patten
214:
203:John Fairfax
194:
190:
188:
181:
178:Sean O'Brien
173:
167:
161:
159:
152:
146:
140:
134:
128:
122:
118:The Observer
116:
110:
82:
77:
70:
43:
29:
28:
18:
1094:2014 deaths
1089:1928 births
1048:The Bloater
1033:The Bloater
887:The Bloater
655:The Indexer
650:Being Alive
440:The Bloater
374:The Bloater
336:Paul Éluard
318:The Bloater
246:Bournemouth
215:Lost Voices
212:BBC Radio 4
180:); and the
89:paratyphoid
57:Henry Tonks
53: Verdi
1083:Categories
879:6 February
617:. London.
545:References
428:Opium Fogs
348:Al Alvarez
344:surrealism
974:]– )"
753:Tuma 2001
636:The Times
581:. London.
340:symbolism
199:John Moat
142:Encounter
95:, and of
806:Archived
660:Archived
235:Guardian
93:Calcutta
899:Sources
101:Karachi
85:Karachi
1010:
985:
948:
919:
789:
781:25 May
733:
530:
452:(1970)
422:Novels
410:
385:Poetry
338:about
303:Novels
145:, and
121:, the
107:Career
488:Notes
350:said
259:ennui
97:polio
61:Slade
1008:ISBN
983:ISBN
946:ISBN
917:ISBN
881:2023
783:2023
771:MAZE
731:ISBN
528:ISBN
434:Emir
408:ISBN
342:and
320:and
201:and
1072:at
972:sic
935:sic
791:...
362:In
275:eye
261:of
113:BBC
51:née
1085::
1062:.
1052:,
883:.
872:.
828:^
769:.
745:^
703:^
695:59
693:.
689:.
671:^
626:^
611:.
587:^
575:.
553:^
346:.
186:.
172:;
157:.
139:,
133:,
127:,
80:.
1016:.
991:.
954:.
925:.
853:.
739:.
723::
687:"
536:.
416:.
Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
