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Julia Briggs

Born

in London, The United Kingdom

December 30, 1943

Died

August 16, 2007

Genre

Biographies & Memoirs

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Julia Briggs was a writer and critic of great talents, a gifted scholar and a profoundly generous teacher who pioneered the study of children's literature and of women's writing in universities. Deeply humanist in outlook, she had an abiding belief in the value of literary study and in the power of education to transform lives.

Julia Ballam grew up in London. Her father, Harry, worked in advertising, but also tried his hand at writing. Her mother, Trudi, had been a commercial artist. Julia attended South Hampstead high school and in 1963 won a scholarship to study English at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

Beautiful and brilliant, she also became pregnant at the end of her first year and was, she believed, the first female undergraduate not to be Julia Briggs was a writer and critic of great talents, a gifted scholar and a profoundly generous teacher who pioneered the study of children's literature and of women's writing in universities. Deeply humanist in outlook, she had an abiding belief in the value of literary study and in the power of education to transform lives.

Julia Ballam grew up in London. Her father, Harry, worked in advertising, but also tried his hand at writing. Her mother, Trudi, had been a commercial artist. Julia attended South Hampstead high school and in 1963 won a scholarship to study English at St Hilda's College, Oxford.

Beautiful and brilliant, she also became pregnant at the end of her first year and was, she believed, the first female undergraduate not to be instantly expelled. She married the father, Peter Gold, and stayed on to give birth to her son and take a first-class degree. The marriage was short-lived, and in 1969 she married Robin Briggs, historian and fellow of All Souls College, with whom she had two more sons. They were divorced in 1989.

Julia always followed her literary instincts. At Oxford, while bringing up her family, she wrote a BLitt thesis on the English ghost story - not considered a proper subject for a doctorate - which became Night Visitors (1977), her first book. From 1978 she took up a permanent post as fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. In 1983 she published This Stage Play World: Texts and Contexts 1580-1625, revised in 1997 and still in use by students. She then devoted herself to finishing Donald Crompton's book on William Golding, A View from the Spire (1985), after he died. In 1987 she published a life of the children's writer and Fabian socialist, E Nesbit, A Woman of Passion, which contributed to the emerging study of children's literature, as did Children and Their Books: a Celebration of the Work of Iona and Peter Opie (1989), co-edited with Gillian Avery.

Very active in the Oxford English faculty, which she also chaired, Julia canvassed successfully for courses on women's writing. As general editor of the Penguin paperback re-issue of Virginia Woolf's work, when it came out of copyright in 1991, she oversaw the reprinting of 13 volumes, with introductions by renowned women scholars from Britain and the US, some of whom required delicate handling. She died aged 63 of a brain tumour. ...more

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Julia Briggs’s books

Average rating: 3.81 · 9,890 ratings · 719 reviews · 28 distinct works • Similar authors

	Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life – A Fresh Biography Exploring Her Creative Work Through Essays and Letters 4.15 avg rating — 678 ratings — published 2005 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Woman of Passion: The Life of E. Nesbit 3.77 avg rating — 43 ratings — published 1987 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Stage-Play World: Texts and Contexts, 1580-1625 3.87 avg rating — 38 ratings — published 1983 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Night Visitors: The Rise and Fall of the English Ghost Story 3.88 avg rating — 32 ratings — published 1977 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Reading Virginia Woolf 3.25 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2006 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Popular Children's Literature in Britain by Julia Briggs (Editor), Dennis Butts (Editor), M.O. Grenby (Editor) really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2008 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Book of Jewels 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	This Moment I Stand on: Woolf and the Spaces in Time 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Between the Sheets 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Virginia Woolf: A Biography 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

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Quotes by Julia Briggs (?)

“Our reading is always urged on by the instinct to complete what we read, which is, for some reason, one of the most universal and profound of our instincts. You”
― Julia Briggs, Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life

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Polls

What should our November non-fiction read (Biography) be?

Sylvia Pankhurst: Suffragette, Socialist and Scourge of Empire by Katherine Connelly

11 votes 28.2%

Virginia Woolf: An Inner Life by Julia Briggs - Liesl to lead

9 votes 23.1%

Cleopatra: A Life by Stacy Schiff

7 votes 17.9%

Passionate Nomad: The Life of Freya Stark by Jane Fletcher Geniesse

5 votes 12.8%

Victoria: The Queen: An Intimate Biography of the Woman Who Ruled an Empire by Julia Baird

4 votes 10.3%

Looking for Lorraine by Imani Perry - Carol to lead

2 votes 5.1%

June Jordan: Her Life and Letters by Valerie Kinloch

1 vote 2.6%

39 total votes

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Julia Briggs’s Followers (13)

Julia Briggs

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Julia Briggs’s books