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Christine Longford

Christine LongfordChristine Longford painted by Henry Lamb

Christine Longford (née Trew) was born in Somerset in 1900 and then lived in Oxford, where her widowed mother took in paying guests, and went to Oxford High School. In 1918 she won a scholarship to Somerville College to read Greats. She married the sixth Earl of Longford in 1925 and a year later moved permanently to Ireland, where she and her husband lived in Dublin during the week and Pakenham Hall, now Tullynally Castle, at weekends. During the next few years Christine travelled extensively in Poland, Hungary and Yugoslavia; after that both Longfords became deeply involved in the Gate Theatre, Dublin. Christine Longford wrote four novels between 1930 and 1935, Making Conversation (1931), Country PlacesJiggins of Jigginstown and Printed Cotton. She also wrote plays for the Gate Theatre and an unpublished memoir. Edward Longford died in 1961 and Christine in 1980. They had no children.

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