Edith Escombe


Edith Escombe was a Manchester-born English writer of stories and essays. Several of her works concern marriage and its demands on women.

Family

Edith Escombe was third in a family of six girls and two boys born to William Escombe, a Manchester shipping and insurance agent, and his wife Eliza, née Fergusson. She later lived at Bishopstoke, near Eastleigh, Hampshire with her mother, who died in 1930, and her sisters. The family firm provided them with a comfortable living. The firm was later the subject of a short history: Full and Down: The History of Escombe, McGrath & Company Limited by William Malcolm Lingard Escombe.

Works

Escombe's first book, Bits I Remember, published under the pseudonym "A Grown-Up", gives an entertaining account of her childhood and her education by governesses and in boarding school. Also humorous and subtle are some later novellas about women and marriage. A Tale that is Told and Stucco and Speculation both involve experimental marriages. Two other novellas, Love's Ghost and Le Glaive, were published in one volume in 1903.
Escombe's volume of essays, Old Maids' Children, explores child-rearing from the viewpoint of an aunt. Phases of Marriage is expressly critical of marriage as an institution and what it can do to women who are insufficiently educated and independent for the role.
Edith Escombe contributed regularly in the period 1902 to 1907 to The Parents' Review. A Monthly Magazine of Home-Training and Culture, on aspects of child care and education, such as "over-education", "natural growth" and "Christmas without children".