First published in 1922, The Camomile opens with Ellen and her brother Ronald living under the strict oversight of their religious aunt in Glasgow. Her confidence bolstered, having spent three years studying music in Germany, Ellen finds a position teaching music, and uses this position to rent a room away from home.Published seven years ahead of A Room of One’s Own, and often compared to Woolf’s masterpiece, The Camomile is a stirring and fascinating work that exposes the difficulties for women to make it in the creative arts, and it still resounds with truth today.
