From Punch, 8th December, 1943
IN MEMORIAM
The deeply regretted death of E. M. Delafield (Mrs. A. P. Dashwood) is
a sad loss not only to her many friends, but to a large circle of
readers in these pages and elsewhere, who were delighted by the
sureness of her skill. They valued the never-failing ingenuity which
she brought as a critic and humorist to every folly and absurdity of
domestic life. She had contributed to Punch almost every week for more
than eleven years, and nearly up to the end of her last illness. It was
some time before her work, though well-known, had its due esteem from
critics; but those who knew her books written at the end of the last
war and just after it were astonished at her power to detect and expose
humbug, self-importance, careerism and conceit. The woman who by
self-imposed martyrdom inflicts constant trouble and annoyance on her
family and friends, the fussy, the foolish and the vain were the
constant targets of her wit. No one was less guilty of such weaknesses
herself. None if she had detected them in herself would have been more
swift and ready to laugh at them. She had a host of imitators, but they
never rivalled her talent at its best. For herself and for her writing
she will be greatly mourned and missed.
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