Isabel Quigly

Elizabeth (Isabel) Madeleine Quigly FRSL (17 September 1926 – 14 September 2018) was a British writer, translator and film critic.

Quigly was born in Ontaneda, Spain, younger daughter of Richard Quigly, a railway engineer of Irish descent, and his wife Clarice, for whom her elder sister, usually known as "Cita", was named.

Quigly was named "Elizabeth" by her parents- under this name being registered with British authorities- but the Catholic priest who baptised her insisted Elizabeth was not a real name and named her "Isabel".

Although initially raised in considerable material comfort- boarding at the exclusive Assumption Convent on Kensington Square in London, accompanied by her beloved Spanish nanny, Tuki- her father was financially ruined; although she and her sister were kept on at the convent with fees waived, they were "made to feel socially inferior".

Quigly was subsequently educated at Godolphin School, Salisbury and, having "won scholarships from five different bodies", went up to Newnham College, Cambridge.

She was one of the first cohort of women to be awarded a full degree.

In her early career, Quigly worked for Penguin Books and Red Cross Geneva.

In 1953, her first book, and only novel, The Eye of Heaven, was published.

Other books include The Heirs of Tom Brown: The English School Story and Charlie Chaplin: Early Comedies.

She has also translated more than 100 books from Italian, Spanish and French.

Between 1956 and 1966, she was film critic of The Spectator.

Her most notable translations are Silvano Ceccherini's The Transfer, for which, in 1967, she won the John Florio Prize, and Giorgio Bassani's The Garden of the Finzi-Continis.

According to Robin Healey's Twentieth-Century Italian Literature in English Translation, Quigly was one of the top 10 translators of Italian literature of the last 70 years, alongside Archibald Colquhoun, Patrick Creagh, Angus Davidson, Frances Frenaye, Stuart Hood, Eric Mosbacher, Raymond Rosenthal, Bernard Wall and William Weaver.

The Eye of Heaven was autobiographical, based on Quigly's "impulsive and ultimately ill-fated marriage" to "impoverished but aristocratic sculptor" Raffaello Salimbeni, of Sienese origin and ten years her senior, whom she had met and fallen in love with when in Florence.

Already engaged to be married to another man, and with a position as a university lecturer awaiting her in Johannesburg, South Africa, she instead married Salimbeni, with whom she had a son, Crispin; shortly after his birth his parents separated.

Quigly "never allowed her son to see his father and could never herself return to Florence again. The story of her failed marriage was not one she liked to talk about."

She served as literary editor of The Tablet from 1985 to 1997.

She also contributed to numerous journals and newspapers, and served on the jury of various literary prizes including the Booker Prize jury in 1986.

Nevertheless, she and Salimbeni- who died in 1991- remained in contact, corresponding frequently; a trunkful of Quigly's letters contained an 80-page letter from Salimbeni.

Although they apparently only met once after their marriage ended, Quigly was "terribly distressed" at his death; a letter from him arrived thereafter.

Quigly and her son, Crispin, shared a close bond, working together on property renovations in Cambridge during his time as an undergraduate there, and later in south-west London.

Quigly died in Haywards Heath in 2018.