In 1894, by her own account, she "ran away from home", having saved £5 and borrowed more, and set up house in rented rooms, living by teaching and by writing articles and stories, becoming one of a group of young writers around Henry Harland's Yellow Book - that shocking quarterly periodical of which Sharp writes that it contained "not enough impropriety to cover a sixpence". Women were expected to learn housecraft, and either marry or care for their parents. She was sent to boarding school for two years - the only formal education she had - and seems to have been much happier at school than in the turmoil of her family. She was the ninth of 11 children, and is wry about the irritations of being the eldest of the younger half of the family, lorded over by the older group. Sharp was one of a generation of women who broke out of the expectations of previous generations. Faber is republishing the book, and Manchester University Press, at the same time, is bringing out Angela V John's biography. She writes with dry wit, curiosity about social and private life, and an unerring sense of the telling detail.
I read her autobiographical book, Unfinished Adventure, published in 1933, with admiration and pleasure. That was how I came to meet Evelyn Sharp, suffragist, journalist, writer of school stories, whose fairy tales were published in the literary journal the Yellow Book, and illustrated by Aubrey Beardsley. He sent back a reading list, English and German. I asked Jack Zipes, the fairy story expert, if he could think of connections between fairy stories and turn-of-the-century socialism.
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