Thread by @QuadRoyal

So one of the women in my new book is Tirzah Garwood. She was an artist who met, and married, Eric Ravilious when he was her tutor at college.

She was an extraordinary artist and her early wood cuts received a huge amount of critical praise. Some people thought she was more talented than her husband. So why don't we remember her?

One reason is that she got married and had children. Eric Ravilious travelled the country making his watercolours and designing; Tirzah made some woodcuts but not for long.

At first she also had to share a house with Edward Bawden and his wife Charlotte. Below is Ravilious's picture of this domestic harmony. Tirzah wrote "Living like this with Eric and Edward was very hard work and I didn’t have much time to enjoy the country..."

"...I got annoyed with Edward if he was unreasonable which he was almost continually, being fussy about his vegetarian food and childishly silly about housework, doing nothing unless Eric did exactly the same amount."
Tirzah had to cater for all their artist friend visitors.

Eventually she stopped making art and just concentrating on creating marbled papers. The pram in the hall is far more of a creative obstacle for women than it ever is for men.

Maybe this is what she wanted, but it's notable that after Ravilious died in an air crash in 1941, she went back to painting and created beautiful strange images. She died of breast cancer in 1951.

Tirzah is just one of the women I found when travelling the old roads - there is more about her and a whole cast of other extraordinary walkers, artists and writers. You can pledge for a copy now on Unbound.
tinyurl.com/TheHardWayBook

And you can even get a special amazing women tote bag with one of the pledge levels too.

@KeeptheStripes @Ravilious1942 @TownerGallery And I can spell really, I can...

@MrTimDunn Which is why @KathleenJamie writing about watching birds through the utility room window while she folds the washing is so essential

@MrTimDunn @KathleenJamie Also, just you wait until we get to Penelope Betjeman.

@jackiewatson05 @Ravilious1942 And the contrast with someone like Claire Leighton, who co-habited rather than marry and perhaps not coincidentally produced a huge body of really wonderful work - not just woodcuts but also posters and books. I cannot recommend her biography of her mother too highly.

@jackiewatson05 @Ravilious1942 And she made enough money to commission Tecton to build her a studio, a building which I am going to envy all my life (and which the council allowed to be demolished less than twenty years ago)

@jackiewatson05 @Ravilious1942 And thank you for subscribing!

It wasn't just Tirzah. A bit of extra thread about two more women - one of whom did create an extraordinary body of work and who probably deserves a thread of her own one day.