Born: 19 April 1899, Ireland
Died: 18 February 1978
Country most active: Ireland
Also known as: Temple Lane, Jean Herbert
This biography is republished from The Dictionary of Irish Biography and was written by Frances Clarke. Shared by permission in line with Creative Commons ‘Attribution’ (CC BY) licencing.
Leslie, Mary Isobel (‘Temple Lane’) (1899–1978), novelist, critic, and poet, was born 19 April 1899 in Portobello House, Dublin, one of two daughters of the Rev. John Herbert Leslie, a Church of Ireland clergyman from Cahir, Co. Tipperary, who was subsequently appointed dean of Lismore cathedral, Co. Waterford, and Mary Richardson Leslie (née Smith) of Clonmult, Midleton, Co. Cork. Much of her childhood was spent with her father’s relatives in Tipperary. Educated in England, she went on to attend TCD, from where she graduated MA (1922), with a Large Gold Medal. She went on to receive a D.Litt. (1943), submitting a thesis on Felicia Hemans, and briefly lectured at the college. The first of her novels, Burnt bridges (1925), was followed by works such as Watch the wall (1927), a romance set during the Napoleonic wars, The little wood (1930), which won the Tailteann gold medal, and her wartime best-seller Friday’s well (1943), which was subsequently adapted for the stage by Frank Carney. She also produced lighter fiction under the pseudonym ‘Jean Herbert’.
Encouraged by her friend Austin Clarke to write poetry, she published two volumes of verse (Fisherman’s wake (1940) and Curlews (1946)), and from 1937 contributed her work to a variety of papers and magazines, including the Irish Times, Dublin Magazine, Dublin Opinion, Country Life, the Sunday Independent, and Irish Writing. She also gave readings of her poetry on Radio Éireann. Her best-known poem, ‘The fairy tree’, proved extremely popular, and was set to music by Vincent O’Brien. She also wrote critical pieces on several Irish women writers, among them Winifred Letts, Teresa Deevy, and Kathleen Nott. A friend of Augusta Gregory and Elizabeth Bowen, she was among the group of writers who regularly attended the Dublin salon of Seumas O’Sullivan and Estella Solomons. She died 18 February 1978 at Kylemore clinic, Ballybrack, Co. Dublin, and was buried in Lismore cathedral.