Biography

Born in Essex

Essex

Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...

, Ursula Bloom was the daughter of the Reverend Harvey Bloom, of whom she wrote a biography entitled Parson Extraordinary, and she also wrote about her great-grandmother, Frances Graver (born 1809) who was of gypsy (Diddicoy) breeding. Graver became known as The Rose of Norfolk, (the title of the book by Ursula Bloom). Graver became the wife of the royal chaplain. She had eight children. Ursula Bloom lived for a number of years in Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon is a market town and civil parish in south Warwickshire, England. It lies on the River Avon, south east of Birmingham and south west of Warwick. It is the largest and most populous town of the District of Stratford-on-Avon, which uses the term "on" to indicate that it covers...

, which was the subject of her book, Rosemary for Stratford-upon-Avon

She wrote her first book at the age of seven. Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...

 was always a dominant influence; she had read every book of his before she was ten years of age, and then re-read them in her teens. A popular novelist, she wrote over twenty radio plays and non-fiction titles, and over 500 other titles. She appeared frequently on British television

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...

. Her journalistic experiences were written about in her book The Mightier Sword

Her hobbies included needlework

Needlework

Needlework is a broad term for the handicrafts of decorative sewing and textile arts. Anything that uses a needle for construction can be called needlework...

, which she exhibited, and cooking

Cooking

Cooking is the process of preparing food by use of heat. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely across the world, reflecting unique environmental, economic, and cultural traditions. Cooks themselves also vary widely in skill and training...

.

Bloom married twice--in 1916 to Arthur Brownlow Denham-Cookes, with whom she had one son, Pip, born in 1917, and in 1925 to Charles Gower Robinson. Bloom became close friends later on in life with Dr Crippen's love, Ethel Le Neve.

Works

• Victorian Vinaigrette
• The Elegant Edwardian
• Youth at the Gate
• Down to the Sea in Ships
• War isn't Wonderful
• Twilight of a Tudor
• The Dragonfly
• The Flight of the Falcon
• The Ring Tree
• The Girl Who Loved Crippen {The Story of Dr Crippen
  Hawley Harvey Crippen
  Hawley Harvey Crippen , usually known as Dr. Crippen, was an American homeopathic physician hanged in Pentonville Prison, London, on November 23, 1910, for the murder of his wife, Cora Henrietta Crippen...
  
  and Ethel Le Neve)
• Parson Extraordinary (About Bloom's father - The Reverend Harvey Bloom)
• Rosemary for Stratford-opon-Avon (Written about the town by Bloom while she was living there)
• Rosemary for Frinton (Norfolk - UK)
• The Rose of Norfolk (About Bloom's Great Grandmother - Frances Graver)
• Tea Is So Intoxicating (as Mary Essex)
• The Amorous Bicycle (as Mary Essex)
• Haircut For Samson (as Mary Essex)
• Nesting Cats (as Mary Essex)
• Eve Didn't Care (as Mary Essex)
• Marry To Taste (as Mary Essex)
• Freddy For Fun (as Mary Essex)

Footnotes