Irene Byers


Irene Byers, was an English novelist, poet and children's writer who wrote around forty books mostly published in the 1950s and 1960s.

Life

In her early career Byers worked as a freelance journalist specialising in interviews with famous people such as John Gielgud and Sybil Thorndike. Byers gave up her career on marriage, around 1930, to Cyril Byers, but took up writing again after her children were at school. She also wrote poems for her children during the war.
She was a regular contributor to the BBC's Woman's Hour and two of her books were serialised on Children's Hour. She also became an active member of the Croydon Writers' Circle. The circle provided support for her writing which was important as praise from her husband was rare.

Works

Many of Byers' works were written for children, including books on nature study. The Tablet reviewed Byers' 1953 "The Young Brevingtons" in Books of the Week as:
Her 1954 book Tim of Tamberly Forest was broadcast as "a serial play in four episodes" on BBC radio Children's Hour in 1955. The original novel was reviewed by The Spectator as:
Her book Jewel of the Jungle was broadcast on Children's Hour in July 1956.

Translations

Irene Byers' books have been translated into several languages, among them Dutch, German, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish.