Madeleine Bingham

{{Short description|English writer (1912–1988)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}} '''Madeleine Mary Bingham''' (1 February 1912 – 16 February 1988, {{nee}} '''Ebel''', sometimes misspelled '''Madeline'''<ref>{{cite web |title=Madeline Bingham |url=http://www.newulsterbiography.co.uk/index.php/home/printPerson/100 |website=www.newulsterbiography.co.uk |publisher=Dictionary of Ulster Biography |access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref>) was a British playwright, novelist and historian. She also wrote under the pseudonym '''Julia Mannering'''.<ref name="west">{{cite book |last1=West |first1=Nigel |title=Historical Dictionary of British Intelligence |date=18 February 2014 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-7897-6 |pages=70–71 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HKPmAgAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+man+from+the+ministry%22+bingham&pg=PA70 |language=en |chapter=Bingham, Madeleine}}</ref> She was married to [[John Bingham, 7th Baron Clanmorris]], so had the title '''Baroness Clanmorris'''.<ref name=odnb>{{Cite ODNB|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/107308|title=Bingham, John Michael Ward, seventh Baron Clanmorris of Newbrook}}</ref>

==Early life and wartime work== Madeleine Ebel was born on 1 February 1912,<ref>{{cite web |url=https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?indiv=1&dbid=7579&h=6634039 |title=baroness Clanmorris Madeleine Mary Bingham in the England & Wales, Civil Registration Death Index |url-access=subscription |publisher=Civil Registration Death Index |via=Ancestry.com |access-date=19 July 2022}}</ref> the eldest daughter of Clement Ebel, managing director of a firm of interior decorators, and met John Bingham at a secretarial college, where he was learning shorthand and typing to prepare for a planned post as private secretary to a millionaire.<ref name=west /> They married on 28 July 1934.<ref name=odnb /> Madeleine worked for some time as a journalist for newspaper ''[[The Times]]''. Both Madeleine and John joined the [[MI5|Security Service]] soon after the start of [[World War II]]. She worked at [[Blenheim Palace]] in administration and later in the [[Special Operations Executive]], when she was based at the HQ in [[Baker Street]] and "kept a drawer of suicide tablets for agents".<ref name=west />

==Writing== Bingham wrote plays, historical biographies, and a miscellany of other books. She published her autobiography ''Peers and Plebs: Two Families in a Changing World'' in 1975, in which she described the contrast between her and her husband's backgrounds: hers Catholic, with mid-European roots, and his firmly Northern-Irish protestant. The book only covers her life up to 1937 and the birth of her son: she makes no reference to her or her husband's work with the security service.<ref name=west /> It is said that she had later planned to write a book about her husband's life, including the suggestion that he had been the model for [[John le Carré]]'s character [[George Smiley]], but that she was firmly told that "no such book would be tolerated".<ref name=west />

Her plays included a three-act comedy, ''The Men From The Ministry'', first performed at the [[Aldwych Theatre]] in London in 1946 and later in Bristol in 1948 or 1949, and ''The Real Mccoy'', performed in Sheffield in 1964.<ref>{{cite web |title=Madeleine Bingham |url=http://doollee.com/PlaywrightsB/bingham-madeleine.php#166381 |website=doollee.com |access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Production of The Man From The Ministry |url=https://theatricalia.com/play/3rq/the-man-from-the-ministry/production/87y |website=theatricalia.com |publisher=Thatricalia |access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Production of The Real McCoy |url=https://theatricalia.com/play/98w/the-real-mccoy/production/jy3 |website=theatricalia.com |publisher=Theatricalia |access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref>

Her books included biographies of [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]], Sir [[John Vanbrugh]], [[Henry Irving]] and [[Herbert Beerbohm Tree]],<ref name=west /> and wide range of further titles including ''Scotland under Mary Stuart : an account of everyday life'', ''Princess Lieven : Russian intriguer'', ''Earls and girls : dramas in high society'', ''The passionate poet : a romantic story based upon Lord Byron's loves and adventures'', and ''How to be a good daughter-in-law''.<ref>[https://discover.libraryhub.jisc.ac.uk/search?q=madeleine%20bingham Listing from JISC Library Hub]</ref>

A collection of the papers of John and Madeleine Bingham is held in the Gotlieb Contemporary Archive Collection at [[Boston University Libraries]]<ref>{{cite web |title=Collections at the Gotlieb Center |url=https://www.bu.edu/library/gotlieb-center/collections/ |website=www.bu.edu |publisher=Boston University Libraries |access-date=30 June 2022}}<br />{{cite web |title=List of contemporary collections |url=https://www.bu.edu/library/files/2022/05/Gotlieb_Contemporary_Collection_Names.pdf |publisher=Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center |access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref>

==Personal life== Madeleine Bingham died suddenly on 16 February 1988; her husband died six months later from cancer, and they were survived by their two children. Their son inherited the title and is [[Simon Bingham, 8th Baron Clanmorris]] (born 1937), and their daughter is the writer [[Charlotte Bingham]] (born 1942).<ref name=odnb />

==Selected publications== Bingham's publications listed in the catalogue of the [[British Library]] or [[WorldCat]] include: *''The man from the ministry'': French, 1947, a play *''The Passionate Poet, etc'': Museum Press, 1951, a novel by "Julia Mannering" about [[Lord Byron]]'s love-life<ref>{{cite web |last1=Davis |first1=G. Todd |title=Fictions of Byron: An Annotated Bibliography: 1950s |url=https://romantic-circles.org/reference/byron-fictions/1950.html |website=romantic-circles.org |publisher=University of Colorado at Boulder |access-date=1 July 2022 |language=en |date=1 January 2006}}</ref><ref name=carty /><ref name=furrowed /> *''Look to the rose'': Museum Press, 1953, a novel by "Julia Mannering"<ref name="carty">{{cite book |last1=Carty |first1=T. J. |title=A Dictionary of Literary Pseudonyms in the English Language |date=3 December 2015 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-95578-6 |page=294 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qQoeCwAAQBAJ&dq=%22look+to+the+rose%22+bingham&pg=PA294 |access-date=1 July 2022 |language=en}}</ref><ref name=furrowed>{{cite web |last1= |title=Update: University novels (and then some) |url=http://furrowedmiddlebrow.blogspot.com/2014/01/update-university-novels-and-then-some.html |website=Furrowed Midlebrow |access-date=1 July 2022 |date=28 January 2014}}</ref> *''Cheapest in the end'': Dodd, Meade, 1963 *''Your wedding guide'': Transworld, 1967 *''Something's burning : the bad cook's guide'': Corgi, 1968 *''Teach your own child'': Transworld, 1968 *''A Career for your daughter'': Corgi, 1969 *''How to be a good daughter-in-law'': Redemptorist Publications, 1969 *''Mary, Queen of Scots'': International Textbook, 1969 on [[Mary, Queen of Scots]] *''A career at forty'': Transworld, 1971 *''Scotland under Mary Stuart : an account of everyday life'': Allen and Unwin, 1971<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Sanderson |first1=Margaret H. B. |title=Review of Scotland under Mary Stuart |journal=The Scottish Historical Review |date=1972 |volume=51 |issue=152 |pages=209–210 |jstor=25528966 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/25528966 |issn=0036-9241}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cowan |first1=Ian B. |title=Review of Scotland Under Mary Stuart |journal=History |date=1973 |volume=58 |issue=192 |pages=98 |jstor=24408304 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/24408304 |issn=0018-2648}}</ref> *''Sheridan: the track of a comet'': Allen and Unwin, 1972, on [[Richard Brinsley Sheridan]] *''Masks and façades: Sir John Vanbrugh, the man in his setting'': Allen and Unwin, 1974, on [[John Vanbrugh]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Curl |first1=James Stevens |title=Review of Masks and Facades: Sir John Vanbrugh: The Man in his Setting |journal=Journal of the Royal Society of Arts |date=1975 |volume=123 |issue=5224 |pages=240–241 |jstor=41372125 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/41372125 |issn=0035-9114}}</ref> *''The Making of Kew'': Joseph, 1975, on [[Kew Gardens]] *''Peers and plebs: two families in a changing world'': Allen and Unwin, 1975, autobiography up to 1937 *''Henry Irving and the Victorian theatre'': Allen and Unwin, 1978, on [[Henry Irving]] (published in USA as ''Henry Irving: the greatest Victorian actor'' ) *'''The great lover' : the life and art of Herbert Beerbohm Tree'': H. Hamilton, 1978, on [[Herbert Beerbohm Tree]]<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Athanason |first1=Arthur N. |title=Beerbohm Tree: Shaw's Bane |journal=The Shaw Review |date=1979 |volume=22 |issue=3 |pages=151–152 |jstor=40682584 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/40682584 |access-date=1 July 2022 |issn=0037-3354}} ''Review of "The Great Lover"'')</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Shafer |first1=Yvonne |last2=Bingham |first2=Madeleine |title=The Great Lover |journal=Theatre Journal |date=May 1980 |volume=32 |issue=2 |pages=275 |doi=10.2307/3207136|jstor=3207136 }}</ref> *''Earls and girls: dramas in high society'': H. Hammilton, 1980 *''Princess Lieven : Russian intriguer'': Hamish Hamilton, 1982, on [[Dorothea Lieven]] *''Belinda and the baron : or The rape of the lock : a period comedy with music, based on the poem by Alexander Pope'' / words by Madeleine Bingham and Suzanne Ebel.: Thames, 1989

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb name|7479491|Madeleine Bingham}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bingham, Madeleine}} [[Category:20th-century English women novelists]] [[Category:20th-century English novelists]] [[Category:English women dramatists and playwrights]] [[Category:English women historians]] [[Category:Irish baronesses by marriage|Clanmorris]] [[Category:1912 births]] [[Category:1988 deaths]]