Greville Texidor literary papers.

Greville Texidor (1902-1964) was born in Woverhampton in 1902, daugher of Editha Foster. Frank Sargeson describes her as belonging to the upper reaches of the English middle classes. Details of her life before World War I are sketchy, but she appears to have travelled throughout the world in variety shows, at one time working as part of a contortionist act (see Gladys Salter's reminiscences).

At some stage she married a Spaniard (Manolo?) Texidor, with whom she lived for a time in Buenos Aires, and then in Spain itself. She was in Spain during the Civil War, working in an unknown capacity for the Republicans. From that she emerged (in Sargeson's words) with a German husband - Werner Droescher. They emigrated to New Zealand in 1941 with the aid of a Quaker organisation but their movements appear to have been restricted because of suspected enemy allegiances. They lived for a while in North Auckland and then established themselves in the Auckland radical literary set, becoming acquainted with Sargeson and Maurice Duggan.

It was during this period in New Zealand that Greville Texidor had her greatest success as a writer, having several short stories published in the literary magazines of the time, and in 1949 having her novel These Dark Glasses published by the Caxton Press. In 1948, Werner and Greville, with their daughter Rosamund, went to Australia and until 1954 lived in Hazelbrook, New South Wales, in the Blue Mountains area. This appeared to be an arrangement in communal living - although the details are not clear. Some time in 1953-54 Greville made a suicide attempt and later in 1954 the family left for Spain, via India, the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe. It seems that Werner had a job at the University of Barcelona.

In 1955 Greville bought the Can Kars house in Tossa de Mar, Genoa, where it appears she had lived before the war. She ran an English Tea Shop in Tossa until 1960.

Late in the 1950s Greville and Werner's marriage broke up, and although they were never formally separated and attempts were made at reconciliation, they remained apart. In 1961 Werner came to NZ to take up an appointment at the University of Auckland, and it seems that some time later Greville went to Australia, where she died in 1964.

See: Landfall XIX June 1965. Article by Frank Sargeson. Notes by Rosamund Droescher and Gladys Salter. A-198 Box 1, Folder 1. New Zealand New Writing no.3 - notes on contributors.