Phyllis Bottome

• Name — Phyllis Bottome • Born — 31 May 1882 • Birthplace — Rochester, United Kingdom • Died — 22 August 1963 • Place of death — London • Occupation — writer • Spouse — Alban Ernan Forbes Dennis • Genre — novels, nonfiction • Notable Works — The Dark Tower, The Mortal Storm

Bottome was born in 1882, in Rochester, Kent, the daughter of an American clergyman, Rev. William MacDonald Bottome, and an Englishwoman, Mary (Leatham) Bottome. In 1901, following the death of her sister Wilmett from tuberculosis, Bottome was diagnosed with the same disease. She travelled to St Moritz in the hope that this would improve her health as mountain air was perceived as better for patients with tuberculosis. In 1917, in Paris, she married Alban Ernan Forbes Dennis, a British diplomat working, first, in Marseilles and then in Vienna as Passport Control Officer, a cover for his real role as MI6 Head of Station with responsibility for Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia. They had met in 1904 at a villa in St Moritz, where Bottome was lodging. Bottome studied individual psychology under Alfred Adler, and was his patient, while in Vienna. Later, in 1939, she wrote a biography of him (Alfred Adler: Apostle of Freedom) at his behest: in her preface she writes, "I fully realize my lack of qualifications in undertaking the great task of writing Adler's life; but it was a task laid upon me by Adler himself." In 1924 she and her husband started a school in Kitzbühel in Austria. Based on the teaching of languages, the school was intended to be a community and an educational laboratory to determine how psychology and educational theory could cure the ills of nations. One of their more famous pupils was Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond novels. In 1960, Fleming wrote to Bottome, "My life with you both is one of my most cherished memories, and heaven knows where I should be today without Ernan." It has been argued that Fleming took the idea of James Bond from the character Mark Chalmers in Bottome's spy novel The Lifeline. Other pupils at Kitzbühel who went on to become authors included Ralph Arnold, Cyril Connolly (who wrote about his time there in The Unquiet Grave), and Nigel Dennis. In 1935, her novel Private Worlds was made into a film of the same title. Set in a psychiatric clinic, Bottome's knowledge of individual psychology proved useful in creating a realistic scene. Bottome saw her share of trouble with Danger Signal, which the Hays Office forbade from becoming a Hollywood film. Germany became Bottome's home in the late 1930s, and it inspired her novel The Mortal Storm, the film of which was the first to mention Hitler's name and be set in Nazi Germany, and openly criticized the Nazi regime. Film historian Pam Hirsch wrote, "Bottome's novel had unflinchingly shown the effects of the rise of Nazism, and also, to some extent, helped to explain why Jews had not immediately left Germany in the face of rising Nazi persecution." Bottome was an active anti-fascist. A New York Times report Bottome's visit to the city in October 1938 said, "The present government of Great Britain, according to Miss Bottome, is definitely pro-Nazi. She charged that Mr. Chamberlain had brought back from Germany dishonor without peace and that war would occur as soon as Germany asked for something Great Britain 'really wants.'" In total, four of her works—Private Worlds, The Mortal Storm, Danger Signal, and The Heart of a Child—were adapted to film. Bottome died in London on 22 August 1963. Forbes Dennis would die in July 1972 in Brighton. There is a large collection of her literary papers and correspondence in the British Library acquired in 2000 (Add MSS 78832-78903). A second tranche, consisting of correspondence and literary manuscripts, was acquired by the British Library in 2005. The British Library also holds the Phyllis Bottome/Hodder-Salmon Papers consisting of correspondence, papers and press cuttings relating to Bottome.