Clare Mulley

Clare Margaret Mulley (born 1969) is an English award-winning biographer.

Her first book, The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb (Oneworld, 2009) was republished in 2019 to mark the centenary of Save the Children. The Spy Who Loved: The Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's First Female Special Agent of the Second World War (Macmillan, 2013) has been widely translated, and optioned by Universal Studios. Mulley's third book, The Women Who Flew for Hitler (Macmillan, 2017), is a joint biography of two women at the heart of the Third Reich but who ended their lives on opposite sides.

Mulley contributes to TV and radio for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, Sky and The History Channel. As well as speaking at most of Britain's major literary and history festivals, she has given talks for TEDx at Stormont, has spoken at the House of Lords, the Imperial War Museum, the National Army Museum, the Special Forces Club, and the British Library. She also lectures on the women of SOE for the Andante group travel company Historical Trips.

Mulley writes and reviews non-fiction for The Telegraph, The Spectator, and History Today. She was Chair of the Judges for the Historical Writers Association 2017 Non-Fiction Crown.

Life

Clare Mulley was born in 1969 in Luton, England. In 2006 she graduated from the University of London with a distinction for her master's degree in Social and Cultural History.[1] Her dissertation was on Affection or Affectation: The Role and Rhetoric of Maternalism in the Development of Women's Social Action in Victorian Britain.[2]

Before writing, Mulley worked with Save the Children and Sightsavers International, raising charitable donations on behalf of the organisations. She has also served as a member of the advisory board of the World Development Movement, a British NGO which campaigns on issues of global justice and development in southern countries identified according to the global North–South divide, and as a trustee of the national charity, Standing Together against Domestic Violence.

Mulley is a member of the Historical Writers Association, Women's History Network, Royal Society of Literature, Biographer's Club, Society of Authors, English PEN, Fawcett Society, Writers Against Racism and National Secular Society.[1]

As well as reviewing non-fiction for The Spectator and History Today magazines, and occasionally writing for other publications, Mulley often appears on radio and television and is a seasoned public speaker and literary chair, with extensive experience making presentations and lecturing in academic conferences, literary festivals and museums throughout the UK and in Poland, including at the Imperial War Museum, National Army Museum, Special Forces Club and Warsaw Uprising Museum.

Clare Mulley lives in Essex, England, with her husband, the artist Ian Wolter and their three daughters. [3]

Works

The Woman Who Saved the Children (Eglantyne Jebb)

In 1999, while working for Save the Children, Mulley was introduced to the life of Victorian-era British social reformer Eglantyne Jebb.[2] Her biography The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb[4] (Oneworld, 2009).

Jebb was an unlikely children's champion; she privately confessed that she was not fond of children, once referring to them as "the little wretches" and laughing that "the dreadful idea of closer acquaintance never entered my mind".[5]

Jebb had soon won huge public support, as well as the backing of celebrities such as George Bernard Shaw, who wrote "I have no enemies under the age of seven". Five years later, she wrote the pioneering statement of children's human rights that has since evolved into the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. "It is not impossible to save the children of the world", she wrote. "It is only impossible if we make it so by our refusal to attempt it."

The biography was published in 2009, to coincide with the 90th anniversary of Save the Children and the 20th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.[6] The book was published to critical acclaim and then-UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown called it a "truly brilliant book".[7] Reportedly, Brown read the book while away on holiday and was moved to offer the unsolicited review.[7]

As noted on the copyright page of the book, all of the author's royalties are donated to Save the Children's international programmes.[8]

The Spy Who Loved (Krystyna Skarbek a.k.a. Christine Granville)

In 2012 Macmillan published Mulley's biography, The Spy Who Loved: the Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's First Female Special Agent of World War II.[9]

The book received excellent reviews in the British, American, Canadian and Polish press.[9][10][11] Nigel Jones[12]

The biography has now been published in Britain, the USA (St Martin's 2013), Poland (Swiat Ksiazki, 2013), Hungary and China.

In 2013 Mulley was awarded with the Bene Merito honorary distinction by the then Foreign Minister of the Republic of Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski.

The Women Who Flew for Hitler (Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg)

Mulley's most recent work, "The Women Who Flew for Hitler" was published by Macmillan in the UK and St Martin's Press in the US, in 2017.

Hanna Reitsch and Melitta von Stauffenberg defied gender expectation to become leading test pilots for the Third Reich during the Second World War. Both became Honorary Flight Captains, and both were awarded the Iron Cross for their service. Yet although both were motivated by deeply held convictions about honour and patriotism, their contrasting views on the Nazi regime meant they ended their lives on opposites sides of history.

'Vividly drawn... this is a thrilling story' wrote Anne Sebba in The Telegraph,[13] while The Times called the book 'popular history of a high order',[14] and The Spectator thought it was 'well researched and beautifully written'.[15] 'Superb and beautifully written, well paced and full of drama', The Literary Review.

Other

For her writing, Mulley has been awarded the Republic of Poland's National Honour, the Bene Merito.

Mulley contributes to TV and radio , e.g. 'BBC2, Rise of the Nazis (2019); BBC1 D-Day 75 (2019); BBC1 Newsnight (2019); Channel 4, David Jason's Secret Service; Channel 5 Adolf and Eva: Love and War, and radio e.g. The Today Programme, PM, Women's Hour, Great Lives.

Mulley reviews and writes for various publications, including The Spectator, History Today, and The Telegraph.[4]

In 2017 she was Chair of the judges for the Historical Writers Association Non-Fiction Crown.[16]

Mulley is an honorary patron of the Wimpole History Festival, and a regular speaker and chair at many Literary and History Festivals. In 2017 she gave a TEDx talk at Stormont, and she has lectured at the House of Lords, Imperial War Museum, National Army Museum, Special Forces Club, University Women's Club and British Library. She is a historian guide for the travel company Historical Trips.

A former blogger for 'The History Girls', Mulley now guest blogs for various groups including the Refugee Council, English PEN, and various museums and festivals. All her blogs appear on her website.

Bibliography
  • Clare Mulley, The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb, Oneworld Publications, 2009; ISBN 978-1-85168-657-5.
  • Clare Mulley, contribution to: Carole Angier and Sally Cline, eds., The Arvon Book of Life Writing: Writing Biography, Autobiography and Memoir, Methuen Drama, 2010; ISBN 978-1-4081-2418-5.
  • Clare Mulley, The Spy Who Loved: the Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's First Female Special Agent of World War II, Macmillan, 2012; ISBN 978-1-4472-2565-2.
  • Clare Mulley, introduction to Xan Fielding, Hide and Seek: Story of a Wartime Agent, Folio, 2014
  • Clare Mulley, The Women Who Flew for Hitler: The True Story of Hitler's Valkyries, Macmillan, 2018

Notes
  1. "About the Author". Clare Mulley. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  2. "Interview". Clare Mulley. Archived from the original on 16 May 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  3. https://www.claremulleyblog.co.uk/p/about.html?m=1
  4. "Clare Mulley: Books, Biogs, Audiobooks, Discussions at". Amazon.co.uk. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  5. "Home of the Daily and Sunday Express". Express.co.uk. 19 March 2010. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  6. "Radio 4 Woman's Hour". BBC. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  7. Simon Hoggart (12 March 2010). "Simon Hoggart's week: EU? It's just an abusive imps' tea party". London, UK: Guardian. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  8. "Evenings". Blogs.abc.net.au. 3 June 2010. Archived from the original on 20 June 2011. Retrieved 31 March 2011.
  9. Clare Heal, "Glamorous Wartime Spy Who Loved Life... and Dashing Men" Express.co.uk, Home of the Daily and Sunday Express, 8 July 2012; accessed 25 June 2014.
  10. Review of The Spy Who Loved, The Spectator; accessed 25 June 2014.
  11. Ben Macintyre"The Spy Who Loved". The New York Times. 19 July 2013.
  12. "The Spy Who Loved: review". The Daily Telegraph. London, UK. 3 July 2012.
  13. https://www.telegraph.co.uk/books/what-to-read/women-war-did-feel-fly-hitler-fight-red-army/
  14. https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/review-the-women-who-flew-for-hitler-by-clare-mulley-c8ljv59ms
  15. https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/07/hitlers-glamorous-high-flyers/
  16. https://historicalwriters.org/hwa-crowns-2017/
  • Clare Mulley official website
  • New York Times review of The Spy Who Loved
  • The Spectator review of The Spy Who Loved
  • The Telegraph review of The Spy Who Loved
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