Julia Briggs (1943-2007)

Julia Briggs was Hertford’s first women fellow, holding the position from 1978-95 before becoming an Emerita Fellow. She passed away in 2007.

She completed a BLitt thesis on the English ghost story at Oxford. Her work on this became her first book, Night Visitors (1977).

In 1983, she published This Stage Play World: Texts and Contexts 1580-1625, an influential work on Renaissance literature that was later revised in 1997 and remains a valuable resource for students. Julia also displayed a deep sense of literary stewardship when she completed A View from the Spire (1985) after the death of Donald Crompton, honouring his work on William Golding.

Julia’s biography of E. Nesbit, A Woman of Passion (1987), marked an important contribution to the study of children’s literature and intersected with her work on Children and Their Books: a Celebration of the Work of Iona and Peter Opie (1989), which she co-edited with Gillian Avery. As an advocate for expanding the curriculum, Julia promoted courses in women’s writing within the Oxford English faculty, which she also chaired.

Perhaps one of her most visible contributions came as the general editor for the Penguin reissue of Virginia Woolf’s works in 1991, as Woolf’s works entered the public domain. Julia was responsible for managing the reissue of 13 volumes, each introduced by distinguished women scholars—a project that required both scholarly expertise and deft interpersonal skills.

In 2006, she was awarded the OBE for her services to English literature and education.