Young Magic

Helen de Guerry Simpson was born in Sydney, Australia on the 1st December 1897. As a 17 year old she was sent to France and then on to Oxford, England to complete her education. Whilst there she founded the Oxford Women's Dramatic Society. She was sent down in 1921 apparently for breaking regulations prohibiting men and women students from acting together. Her early work of poems, plays, a novel and a collection of short stories found little commercial success. It was only with ‘Boomerang’ in 1932 that her success was established. Helen continued to write across the genres and by now had become intensely interested in politics. She was selected to run by the Liberals for the Isle of Wight parliamentary seat in the expected General Election of 39 or 40. Sadly this coincided with the rapid onset of cancer and her health very quickly deteriorated. Helen Simpson died in Worcestershire, England on the 14th October 1940. She was 42. In ‘Young Magic’ a young girl has definite supernatural abilities which she attempts to control. Years later when she returns home and begins a relationship those abilities begin to reappear in a more sinister form.