In Bayswater: One family is home to many secrets in this classic modernist short story
Written by Mary Butts
Narrated by David Shaw Parker and Ghizela Rowe
()
About this audiobook
Her early years were spent at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour. Sadly in 1905 her father died, and she was sent for boarding at St Leonard's school for girls in St Andrews.
Her mother remarried and, from 1909, Mary studied at Westfield College in London, and here, first became aware of her bisexual feelings. She was sent down for organising a trip to Epsom races and only completed her degree in 1914 when she graduated from the London School of Economics. By then Mary had become an admirer of the occultist Aleister Crowley and she was given a co-authorship credit on his ‘Magick (Book 4)’.
In 1916, she began the diary which would now detail her future life and be a constant reference point for her observations and her absorbing experiences.
During World War I, she was doing social work for the London County Council in Hackney Wick, and involved in a lesbian relationship. Life changed after meeting the modernist poet, John Rodker and they married in 1918.
In 1921 she spent 3 months at Aleister Crowley's Abbey of Thelema in Sicily; she found the practices dreadful and also acquired a drug habit. Mary now spent time writing in Dorset, including her celebrated book of short stories ‘Speed the Plough’ which saw fully develop her unique Modernist prose style.
Europe now beckoned and several years were spent in Paris befriending many artists and writing further extraordinary stories.
She was continually sought after by literary magazines and also published several short story collections as books. Although a Modernist writer she worked in other genres but is essentially only known for her short stories. Mary was deeply committed to nature conservation and wrote several pamphlets attacking the growing pollution of the countryside.
In 1927, she divorced and the following year her novel ‘Armed with Madness’ was published. A further marriage followed in 1930 and time was spent attempting to settle in London and Newcastle before setting up home on the western tip of Cornwall. By 1934 the marriage had failed.
Mary Butts died on 5th March 1937, at the West Cornwall Hospital, Penzance, after an operation for a perforated gastric ulcer. She was 46.
Her story ‘In Bayswater’ grippingly describes a man’s friendship with a dysfunctional family he rents a room from. As each facet reveals itself his opinion and decisions change, back and forth, this way and that….
More audiobooks from Mary Butts
The Church - A Short Story Collection: From devout priests to sacreligious necromancers and everything in between Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories About Siblings: Friends come and go, but family is forever Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMary Butts - Six of the Best: Their legacy in 6 classic stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Top 10 Short Stories - Horror - The Women: The ten best horror stories written by female authors Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStories About Imagination & Dreams: The world inside your mind where anything is possible Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAngèle au Couvent: A young girls search for happiness in art is challenged by her religious commitments and society Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsShort Stories About Grief: Allow this incredible collection of stories to help healing through words Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMary Butts - A Short Story Collection: Popular dark humour and modernist author that has been sadly forgotten by time Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to In Bayswater
Related audiobooks
Strange Devices of the Sun and Moon Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Upstate: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Antarctica: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Esther Waters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Jane Austen Society: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Longest Journey Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Life of Ma Parker: A sympathetic yet real look at the struggles of the lower class Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Heart of the Garden Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Affair Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman Who Spoke to Spirits Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Crime Writer Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Where Coyotes Howl Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mother Winter: A Memoir Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Blacksmith's Wife Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5The Chandelier Ballroom Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSeen and Not Heard Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Cater Street Hangman Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ann Veronica Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daughter's Hope Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWild Mountain Thyme Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Summer Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Keeper of Lost Things: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Undaunted: A Western Romance Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Penelope and the Wicked Duke: A Sweet Regency Romance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSummer (Unabridged) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHans Christian Andersen: Fairytales and Short Stories Volume 6, 1866 to 1875 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInto the Valley Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Under A Scottish Sky Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5Leaving: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Mr. Incoul's Misadventure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Anthologies For You
The Book of Extraordinary Impossible Crimes and Puzzling Deaths: The Best New Original Stories of the Genre Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Marple: Twelve New Mysteries Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Shadow Over Innsmouth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Vintage Christmas: A Collection of Classic Stories and Poems Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5FaceOff Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kink: Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dark Screams: Volume One Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stories from Suffragette City Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Oz Reimagined: New Tales from the Emerald City and Beyond Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5MatchUp Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Humour - A Short Story Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Reunion Beach: Stories Inspired by Dorothea Benton Frank Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Timeless Classics Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Best American Short Stories 2021 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGhost Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dangerous Women: Original Stories from Today's Greatest Suspense Writers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Greatest Short Stories of All Time Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Howls From the Dark Ages: An Anthology of Medieval Horror Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Perfect Crime Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Come Join Us By the Fire: 35 Short Horror Tales from Nightfire Books Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Flight or Fright Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Best American Short Stories 2022 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Anonymous Sex Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wavedancer Benefit Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Howls From Hell: A Horror Anthology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Behaving Badly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Related categories
Reviews for In Bayswater
0 ratings0 reviews