Dorothy Elizabeth Finn
Dorothy Elizabeth "Betty" Finn, née Borrell (born 1928) was a British teacher and poet in Southern Rhodesia. She published poetry as D. E. Borrell, and other writing as D. E. Finn.[1]
Life
[edit]Born in Durham in 1928,[1] Borrell grew up in the mining village of Hetton-le-Hole. She gained a scholarship to Houghton-le-Spring Grammar School.[2] After the war she studied at Durham University,[1] and followed a sister in emigrating to Rhodesia.[2] There she worked as a teacher.
Borrell married fellow poet Hugh Finn, and the couple "tirelessly promoted poetry in Rhodesia".[3] Poetry in Rhodesia: 75 Years (1968) was the first of two anthologies edited by her. The book "was the first anthology that gave biographical details of the contributors and annotated local references that helped make the poems accessible to readers who were not Rhodesian."[3] Her own collection A Patch of Sky was published in 1979 as part of the Mopani Poets Series, brought out by the Poetry Society of Rhodesia.[3]
In 2000 she was forced to leave Zimbabwe. She gave film of her family life in Southern Rhodesia and Zimbabwe to the Imperial War Museum.[4]
Works
[edit]- (ed.) Poetry in Rhodesia: 75 Years. Salisbury: The College Press, 1968.
- 'Arthur Shearly Cripps: An Assessment', Zambezia: a journal of social studies in Southern and Central Africa, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1970.
- (ed.) Beneath a Rhodesian Sky. Salisbury: Graham Publishing, 1972.
- A Patch of Sky: Selected Poems of D. E. Borrell. Poetry Society of Rhodesia, 1979. Ed. Hugh Finn. Mopani Poets Series. Bound together with Zimbabwe Ruins by Musaemura B. Zimunya.
- Letter: Meaning of Art, New Scientist, 22 January 2014.
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Style, Colin; Style, O-lan, eds. (1986). Mambo Book of Zimbabwean Verse in English. Mambo Press. p. 393. ISBN 0869223674.
- ^ a b Finn, Betty (15 October 2005). "A Durham Childhood". WW2 People's War.
- ^ a b c Chennells, Anthony (2008). "White Rhodesian Poetry". In Roscoe, Adrian A. (ed.). The Columbia Guide to Central African Literature in English Since 1945. Columbia University Press. pp. 66–7. ISBN 978-0-231-13042-4.
- ^ "Scenes of Family Life in Rhodesia and South Africa during the Period of Unilateral Independence [Allocated Title]". Imperial War Museum.
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