Kanonisk navn: Borden, Mary
Andre navne: Borden-Turner, Mary
Borden-Turner, May
Maclagan, Bridget (pseudonym)
Fødselsdato: 1886-05-15
Dødsdag: 1968-12-02
Køn: female
Nationalitet: USA
Fødested: Chicago, Illinois, USA
Dødssted: Warfield, Berkshire, England, UK
Bopæl: London, England, UK
Paris, France
Uddannelse: Vassar College
Erhverv: novelist
poet
short story writer
memoirist
nurse
Relationer: Spears, Edward (husband)
Organisationer: Voluntary Aid Detachment
Priser og hædersbevisninger: Croix de Guerre
Kort biografi: Mary Borden was born to a wealthy family in Chicago, Illinois. She graduated from Vassar College in 1907 and then went on a world tour. In 1908, she married George Douglas Turner, a Scottish missionary she met on her travels, and the couple had three daughters and lived in England. Under the pen name Bridget Maclagan, she published two novels, The Mistress of Kingdoms (1912) and Collision (1913). At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, she financed the establishment of a field hospital in France in which she herself served as a nurse. There she met Brigadier General Edward Louis Spears, who became her second husband in 1918 after a divorce. She went on to publish a graphic account of her experiences in the war, The Forbidden Zone (1929), as well as a volume of poetry, a collection of short stories, the controversial book The Techniques of Marriage (1933), and several more novels, including Action for Slander (1937), which was adapted into a film. During World War II, she ran a mobile field hospital in the Middle East and wrote about it in Journey Down a Blind Alley (1946). In the 1950s, she often travelled to the USA, in part to visit her nephew Adlai Stevenson, for whom she wrote some speeches. See also To War with Whitacker, The Wartime Diaries of the Countess of Ranfurly 1939-45; and A Woman of Two Wars: The Life of Mary Borden by Jane Conway (2010).

Medlemmer

Anmeldelser

Journey Down a Blind Alley af Mary Borden

On one level this is a chatty account of a voluntary Anglo-French mobile hospital, during World War II - first deployed in eastern France in February 1940, only to retreat in the face of the German invasion, all the way to Bordeaux and a Royal Navy ship back to England. Re-deployed in May 1941 to Egypt, by way of the Cape and Suez, the Ambulance Hadfield-Spears followed the ebb and flow of the war for the next four years - in Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Transjordan, across the breadth of north Africa, into Italy and finally back to France. This alone would be a fascinating story but what sets this book apart is the perspective of the author and the power of her prose. Mary Borden, wife of Major-General Sir Edward Spears, was an accomplished novelist, so the tone of this book, while factual and clear, can be eloquent and poetic, greatly increasing one's enjoyment. Apart from describing the challenges of setting up and maintaining the unit in wartime, there is a good account of the French medical staff and the (principally) English and American nurses - a thread which runs through the entire war. However, General Spears, a very early supporter of General de Gaulle, became British minister to Syria and Lebanon and was heavily involved in the tension and later conflict between the Free French and Vichy forces in the area. The situation was delicate and dangerous for, had the Vichy elements prevailed, German forces could have flowed south from the Caucasus and threatened Egypt. Mary Borden had a ringside seat to all this, spending considerable time in the Levant, where her good works included setting up local medical facilities. She never took to General De Gaulle and rightly so, for he both turned against General Spears and ultimately ordered the immediate disbandment of the Hadfield-Spears unit - the petulance, arrogance and antipathy towards the British which de Gaulle demonstrated are stark. Very different from Mary Borden's powerful, poetic, - and at times frankly distressing book about the Great War, "The Forbidden Zone", "Journey down a blind alley" is an outstanding wartiime memoir by a remarkable woman.… (mere)

Markeret

DramMan | Nov 30, 2022 |

The Forbidden Zone: A Nurse's Impressions of the… af Mary Borden

I was made aware of Mary Borden through a profile in 'Gentleman's Life', a Country Life supplement (of all places) - and this is a searing, often lyrical account of her experiences running field hospitals (which she also financed) near the frontline the first World War- an activity she reprised in WWII. She has great empathy and respect for the French 'poilus', often most frightfully wounded and dying. Her prose is powerful indeed, yet equally remarkable to me is the life she led - her accomplishments and grit in appalling circumstances. An outstanding person, far too little known.… (mere)

Markeret

DramMan | 2 andre anmeldelser | Dec 6, 2021 |

Verboden gebieden 1929 af BORDEN Mary

Haar impressies, abstract ,poëtisch en empathisch , beschrijven de miserie, gruwel en de afstompende routine in een fronthospitaal aan de Somme. Ze schrijft niet over de heroïek van de gevechten.. maar over de slachtoffers.

Markeret

gielen.tejo | Sep 11, 2020 |

The Forbidden Zone: A Nurse's Impressions of the… af Mary Borden

Mary Borden was an American woman (and heiress) from Chicago, married to a Briton and living in England, who volunteered to serve as a nurse in French hospitals on the Western Front.

This collection of "narratives" is a mixed bag. Some of the selections are full of "purple prose," overwritten, and reflecting a prose style which more austere authors of the 20th century discredited. Many 21st century readers will find these narratives unimpressive.

Other narratives - especially those in the "Somme" section of the book - are among the finest WWI writing I've read anywhere. I have been looking to find crisp, articulate, committed writing from medical personnel on the Western Front in WWI, and I've found it in "narratives" like "Moonlight" and "In the Operating Room" here in Borden's "Forbidden Zone."… (mere)

Markeret

yooperprof | 2 andre anmeldelser | Feb 4, 2018 |

Se flere anmeldelser