Emily Hilda Daniell, born Emily Hilda Young (21 March 1880 – 8 August 1949) was an English novelist, children's writer and mountaineer, writing as E. H. Young. She supported the women's suffrage movement.
Life
Emily Young was born in Whitley Bay, Northumberland, to Frances Jane Young and William Michael Young, a shipbroker. Her sister, Gladys Young, became an actress.
When the First World War broke out in 1914, Young went to work first as a stable groom and then in a munitions factory. Her husband, a sergeant in the Royal Garrison Artillery, was killed on 1 July 1917 during preparations for the Third Battle of Ypres.
On 14 August 1915, she led Henderson, Ivor Richards and James Roxborough on a pioneering route up the Idwal Slabs. Previously thought impregnable by experienced climbers such as O. G. Jones, Henderson later testified to her "remarkable qualities of balance, speed, and leadership, and to her sound judgment of rock and route".
Legacy
Popular in its time, Young's work is occasionally read today. In 1927 Young's publisher, Harcourt, Brace & Co, announced a fifth printing of her 1925 novel William. A decade later the novel was chosen one of the first ten Penguin paperbacks by Allen Lane, issued in July 1935. In 1941 the Reader's Club, a new "literary guild" that sought to revive overlooked books, made Young's William their first selection.
In 1980, a four-part series based on her novels – mainly Miss Mole – was shown on BBC television as Hannah. The feminist publishers Virago reprinted several of her books in the 1980s. Her final novel, Chatterton Square (1947) which tackled the divorce laws by exploring the options open to the mid-century woman - unmarried, separated, miserably married - was re-issued in 2020.
The Clifton and Hotwells Improvement Society has marked her Clifton home with a plaque.
The E. H. Young Prize for Greek Thought was an annual essay prize awarded in her memory at Bristol Grammar School.