Elizabeth Bowen: Writer and woman of substance

'Heart-cloven and split-minded’, Elizabeth Bowen’s upbringing gave her a special Anglo-Irish insight into culture and society — one which still resonates today, writes Patricia Laurence

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) was a major modern writer, and, if she had been a man, John Banville asserts, “she would be recognised as one of the finest novelists of the 20th century”.