Leland Bardwell


Constan Olive Leland Bardwell was an Irish poet, novelist, and playwright. She was born in India to Irish parents William Hone and Mary Collise, and moved to Ireland at the age of two. Her father's family were of the Anglo-Irish Hone family.

Life and reputation

Having moved from India, Bardwell grew up in Leixlip, County Kildare. She was educated at Alexandra School and later at the University of London.
She is considered an important poet by her contemporaries. On the publication of Bardwell's fourth collection of poetry, The White Beach, Eilean Ni Chuilleanain stated "it is good to see her work of the decades collected – it has inspired many Irish poets, male and female, and should be much more widely known", adding that her work was "witty, full of sharp intimate honesty, full of truth and surprises."
It was recently announced that Bardwell's novel Girl on a Bicycle will be republished by Irish publisher Liberties Press.
Bardwell lived in Sligo and was a member of Aosdána. One of her children is the composer John McLachlan.

Published works

Poetry
Prose
Bardwell has published four novels:
A collection of short stories:
And a memoir:
Plays
Bardwell's plays have been produced by RTÉ and BBC.

Editor

In 1975, she co-founded the long running literary magazine Cyphers.