Eileen Earnshaw – Retired librarian and full-time letter writer

Published: September 29, 2011

EILEEN Earnshaw, a prolific writer, librarian and friend to many has died. She was 85.

Eileen, who lived in Oriel Court, Hampstead, was born in Leeds in 1926 and had already written a novel by the age of 10.

She kept a careful note of the books she had read from an early age, and by 16 had joined the Leeds library service to train as a librarian.

It would become a suitable vocation for this thoughtful and learned woman, who spent a lifetime surrounded by literature.

Eileen left Leeds for London aged 19 and got a job with the National Book League. It was during this period she met a Nigerian law student and in her early 20s moved with him to Africa, where they had two children. She worked at the University College Library in Ibadan.

When their marriage ended, she came back to London and worked at the BBC’s library until her retirement in 1986.

She read and wrote constantly. Friends recall her writing for up to 12 hours a day, a mixture of poetry, novels, non-fiction and autobiography.

She would have pieces printed in newspapers and magazines, but her novels were not published.

However, she was never bothered: she enjoyed the act of creating books and stories to share with friends.

She was well known to readers of the New Journal for her views on smoking. She wrote long letters complaining at the 2007 ban on smoking in public places. A regular at the café in the Swiss Cottage Community Centre, she was horrified to be told she could no longer light up there.

Her letters also appeared frequently in The Oldie, The Mature Times and national newspapers.
DAN CARRIER