Clare Mulley

Clare Margaret Mulley (born 31 July 1969) is a British biographer, known for documenting the life of Eglantyne Jebb, the founder of Save the Children, and has received the Daily Mail Biographers' Club Prize for The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb (2009).

In 2012 her biography of World War II SOE agent Krystyna Skarbek, a.k.a. Christine Granville, The Spy Who Loved: the Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's First Female Special Agent of World War II, was published by Macmillan.^[1] It has since been published in the USA (St Martin's 2013) and Poland (Swiat Ksiazki, 2013). In 2013 Mulley was presented with Poland's Bene Merito award by the Foreign Minister of Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski.

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.^[2] Her dissertation was on Affection or Affectation: The Role and Rhetoric of Maternalism in the Development of Women's Social Action in Victorian Britain.^[3] She lives in Essex, England, with her family.

Mulley has worked with Save the Children and Sightsavers International, raising charitable donations on behalf of the organisations. She has served as a member of the financial advisory board of the World Development Movement, a membership organisation in the United Kingdom which campaigns on issues of global justice and development in southern countries identified according to the global north-south divide. She was most recently a trustee of the national charity, Standing Together against Domestic Violence.

Mulley is a member of such groups as the Social History Society, the Voluntary Action History Society, Women's History Network, Royal Society of Literature, Biographer's Club, Society of Authors, English PEN, Walden Writers, Fawcett Society and National Secular Society.^[2]

She is also 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.

Works

Eglantyne Jebb

In 1999, while working with Save the Children, Mulley was introduced to the life of Victorian-era British social reformer Eglantyne Jebb, and became intrigued with her life and career.^[3] When Mulley took a maternity leave of absence, to have her first child, she began researching the life of Jebb, compiled her notes, and began writing the biography, The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb.^[4]

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] She never married.^[6]

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, the most universally accepted human-rights instrument in history. "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.^[7] The book has received positive reviews in print and electronic media across the English-language world.^[5][6][8] Then-UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown endorsed the book, calling it a "truly brilliant book".^[9] Reportedly, Brown read the book while away on holiday and was moved to offer the unsolicited review.^[9]

In 2007, Mulley was honoured as the recipient of the Daily Mail Biographers' Club Prize for The Woman Who Saved the Children.^[4] 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]

Christine Granville

In 2012 Macmillan published Mulley's newest biography, The Spy Who Loved: the Secrets and Lives of Christine Granville, Britain's First Female Special Agent of World War II.^[1] Reviewers have described Mulley's account of the spy's life as thrilling.Nigel Jones^[10] It received excellent reviews in the British, American, Canadian and Polish press.^[1][11][12]

Other

Mulley occasionally reviews, writes and blogs for various websites and publications, including The Spectator, History Today, The Express and The Church Times.^[4]

Bibliography

• Clare Mulley, The Woman Who Saved the Children: A Biography of Eglantyne Jebb, Oneworld Publications, 2009; ISBN 978-1-85168-657-5.
• C. 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.
• C. 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.

Notes

External links

• Clare Mulley official website
• Walden Writers 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