Dr Elena Mary

Writer, historian, speaker.

My research focuses on women, fashion, violence and the body. I have a PhD in History from the University of Oxford.

My research uses the female body as a lens through which to view the past. I have a particular expertise in Modern British history (c. 1840-1960).

I wrote about Victorian diaries and our obsession with self-quantification for @aeonmag Habit-tracking, bullet journals, fitbits - the obsession with becoming a better, more efficient, more productive version of ourselves is nothing new. Link in bio 🕰️🍵🏃🏻‍♀️📈 📸 This striking photograph of the British actress Margaret Lockwood held by the @nationalportraitgallery was taken in 1948. Note her perfectly arched brows and signature ‘beauty spot’, which was imitated by her adoring fans - at the height of her fame she was receiving over 15,000 fan letters a week! 🖼 This is a painting of Elinor Glyn (b. 1864), the infamous novelist and screenwriter, from 1914 when she was 50. It was commissioned by her lover Lord Curzon, who gave her the magnificent sapphires she wears. She had initially wanted to be painted sitting on a tiger skin (!), but was still pleased with the result which emphasised her striking red hair and white skin.
💒 Growing up in a respectable but not wealthy household, Elinor was determined to marry into upper-class society. In 1892, aged 28, she married Clayton Glyn, a barrister and landowner from Essex, and gained a reputation for lavish hosting and outlandish behaviour. However, the marriage soon soured: Clayton was more passionate about food, drink, and gambling than his new wife, and his debts began to mount up.
📚 Elinor had two daughters, Margot (b.1893) and Juliet (b.1898). During her second pregnancy, Elinor worked as a fashion and beauty columnist, and in 1900 she published her first novel based on her experiences as a young debutante. The book was a huge success, and she began a career as a romance novelist, writing at least a novel a year to support herself and her family.
❤️‍🔥 She had quickly tired of her profligate husband and began a string of affairs, although she never remarried after his death in 1915. Her most famous book, Three Weeks (1907) was inspired by an intense dalliance with Lord Alistair Innes Ker (16 years her junior). The novel was an instant sensation, describing a passionate affair between an exotic foreign queen and a younger British aristocrat. It sold millions of copies and was made into a film in 1923. After the publication of the novel she began a relationship with Lord Curzon, which lasted until she read in the papers of his engagement to an heiress in 1916. Apparently she burned 500 of his love letters and never spoke to him again! 
💣 During WW1 she worked in France as a newspaper correspondent, and was one of only two women present at the signing of the Treaty of Versailles in 1919! 
🎬 After the war, Glyn went to work in Hollywood as a screenwriter and director. She coined the concept of the ‘it-girl’, and in 1927, she made the film ‘It’ starring Clara Bow. 📸 This is a late 1870s photograph of the pioneering social reformer Beatrice Webb (b. 1858) held by the @nationalportraitgallery I wrote about Lillie Langtry - royal mistress, actress and shrewd businesswoman - for @engelsbergideas. A beauty icon with a turbulent personal life, Lillie paved the way for the influencers of today. Link in bio! #history #royalhistory #fashionhistory #beauty #historical 📸 This still of the actress and dancer Jessie Matthews is taken from 'First a Girl' (1935), a hugely successful musical comedy about cross-dressing in which Jessie plays a woman posing as ‘Bill’, a successful drag artist with the stage persona ‘Victoria’ (#queerhistory). I’m so obsessed with Jessie’s perfect dark lipstick. Note also the use of lighting and shadow to emphasise her gorgeous bone structure and long feathery eyelashes. 📸 This gorgeous photograph of Queen Elizabeth held by @nationalportraitgallery was taken by Cecil Beaton in 1939. The Queen wears a stunning off-the-shoulder tulle evening gown designed by the famous couturier Norman Hartnell, accessorised with two magnificent diamond necklaces and a tiara. After the abdication crisis of 1936, when Edward VIII gave up the throne to marry the American divorcee Mrs. Wallis Simpson, Bertie and Elizabeth had been crowned King and Queen in May 1937. This dress was one of several designed for a hugely successful state visit to Paris in 1938. Hartnell's gowns with their old-fashioned wide crinoline skirts and elaborate embellishment caused such a fashion sensation that they directly inspired @dior Christian Dior's 1950s 'New Look'. 🖌This striking portrait of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, Duchess of York, later Queen Elizabeth, was painted by Philip de László in 1925 when she was 25 years old. The sumptuous draped blue fabric creates a gorgeous contrast with the perfectly smooth, white flesh of her neck and shoulders, and emphasises the blue of her eyes. 💄 This stunning portrait of the Scottish actress Deborah Kerr held by @nationalportraitgallery was taken in 1948 by Cecil Beaton. Her pose and the elegantly draped fabric highlight the serene beauty, grace and poise for which Kerr - a trained ballet dancer - was famous. If you look closely you can see her painted fingernails to match her dark lipstick, typical of the period. Defined brows, red lips and nails, and matte skin were all the rage, and women did their best to recreate the Hollywood glamour of stars such as Kerr despite the disruption and shortages created by WW2.

Instagram / BlueSky