Spectator Books: Eglantyne Jebb, the extraordinary woman who founded Save The Children

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🗓️ 3 April 2019

⏱️ 25 minutes

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Summary

In this week’s books podcast Sam is talking to Clare Mulley about The Woman Who Saved The Children, her biography of Eglantyne Jebb reissued to coincide with next week’s centenary of Save The Children, the charity that Jebb founded. Eglantyne was a fascinating and deeply unconventional figure — a nice young gel from the Shropshire squirearchy who refused to fit into the social, sexual or professional pigeonholes her background seemed to destine her for. Instead she found herself investigating war crimes in Macedonia, campaigning against the postwar economic blockade of Germany, revolutionising charity fundraising, clashing with the law and pioneering the concepts that would go on to become the Declaration of the Rights of the Child.

Spectator Books is a series of literary interviews and discussions on the latest releases in the world of publishing, from poetry through to physics. Presented by Sam Leith, The Spectator's Literary Editor. Hear past episodes of Spectator Books here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is Spectator Radio, the Spectator's curated podcast collection.
0:10.1	Hello and welcome to the Spectator's books podcast. I'm Sam Leith, the literary
0:14.1	entrance spectator. This week I'm joined by a regular spectator contributor and a favourite of
0:19.0	magazine, Claire Mully, who's talking about
0:22.2	the brilliantly named Eglantine Jeb, who is the subject of her first book, which is just now
0:27.9	being reissued, because for those of you who don't know Eglantine Jeb, I'm sure you will do,
0:33.2	she was the founder of Save the Children, which celebrates its, what is it, Claire?
0:36.7	Centenary, it's Centenary this year, and it's the, Save the Children, which celebrates its, what is it, Claire? Centenary, this year.
0:39.0	And it's the, also the anniversary, there's another anniversary, isn't there?
0:42.8	It's the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
0:45.7	Ah, yes, which is also...
0:47.4	Which evolved directly from her pioneering statement of children's human rights.
0:51.0	Excellent.
0:51.4	Eglantine's work. So she's described as the white flame,
0:56.2	or more informally, you call her an inspirational spinster in a brown cardigan. Who was this brown
1:02.8	cardigan figure? I mean, Anne, how did you first come across her? I came across it because I used to
1:07.4	work at Save the Children quite a few years ago now and it amazed me
1:11.4	she was this remarkable woman who not only set up Save the Children but then the International Save
1:16.2	the Children Alliance she then five years later went on to write her revolutionary statement
1:21.8	of children's human rights and she she really I mean these changed the way the whole world both regards and treats children and yet she's almost completely forgotten and it saved the children there wasn't much evidence of her there
1:33.4	there was a meeting room name and a tiny bit on the website which was quite new then and I decided I went on maternity leave thereby showing far less commitment to save the children than she because she never had children of her own and dedicated her life to the cause. And I just thought, I'll root around in the archives and see
1:46.7	what I can pull up being quite a nosy person. And I found all these extraordinary leaflets that she'd
	...

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