Mirabel Cecil, author of a string of noted biographies, often written with her husband Hugh

‘The heroine’s goal is constant – love, true love,’ she wrote in Heroines in Love 1750-1974. ‘…Mr Alright will not do’

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Mirabel Cecil , who has died aged 80, was a force of nature and talented in all that she undertook, not least in the biographies she wrote with her husband Hugh Cecil.
In Clever Hearts (1990) the Cecils explored the lives of Hugh’s maternal grandparents, the literary and drama critic Desmond MacCarthy and his wife Molly, daughter of the Eton housemaster Francis Warre Warre-Cornish. The book was well-received, winning both the Duff Cooper Prize for the best non-fiction book of the year and the Marsh Biography Award.
Imperial Marriage (2005) was another jointly written book featuring Hugh’s family, in this case Lord Edward Cecil (1867-1918), fourth son of the prime minister Lord Salisbury, and a hero of the Siege of Mafeking in 1899-1900. His marriage, however, was more problematical, for his wife fell in love with Viscount Milner, whom she would marry after Edward Cecil’s death in 1918.
Hugh and Mirabel Cecil also revived the reputation of the artist Rex Whistler with three books: In Search of Rex Whistler: His Life and His Work (2012); Family, Friendships, Landscapes: Rex Whistler’s Inspiration (2015) and Love and War (2015). The last two titles contained many previously unpublished illustrations.
In addition they produced a guide, Rex Whistler at Mottisfont Abbey, where the artist had painted his last mural before being killed in the Second World War.
Mirabel Cecil’s most personal book, however, was the biography of her adored brother, Sebastian Walker: A Kind of Prospero (1996). Sebastian, a vital figure in so many lives, had been the founder of Walker Books, the vastly successful children’s publisher, before dying of Aids in 1991.
Christine Mirabel Charlotte Louise Walker was born in Cheltenham on July 22 1944, the daughter of Richard Walker, who ran the Walker Crossweller engineering company. The firm’s Mira electric shower was named after Mirabel.
Two years younger than Sebastian, she was not a favoured child. She was, however, taught to sail, which proved an enduring delight.
At Cheltenham Ladies College she showed no interest at all in academic study. Going on to Trinity College Dublin, however, she left no one in doubt as to the strength of her personality, the sharpness of her wit and her love of parties. There was also a hint of her future: under the pseudonym Theodora Thrashbints she wrote a gossipy column about student social life in a university magazine.
Arriving in London, she started her career as a copy editor at Country Life, soon graduating to writing articles and working on the magazine’s design. Subsequently she became a contributor to The World of Interiors and The Times.
Bold, playful, generous and funny, Mirabel Walker made many friends, none more important than the journalist and author Virginia Ironside, at whose flat she turned up one day, not entirely fortuitously, just as Hugh Cecil thought he was leaving.
They married in 1972, a match that proved wonderfully fruitful and successful, both in the family they created and the books they wrote.
There was no doubting Hugh’s intellectual and literary gifts; it was Mirabel, however, who brought these talents to fruition, snatching his written manuscripts from him and driving them to be typed up before he could change his mind about anything. She even hovered over him as he wrote his books on the First and Second World Wars.
Her first book, Heroines in Love 1750-1974 (1974), was hers alone, and followed the fortunes of fictional heroines over two centuries and more as they evaded lust-crazed rapists in the 18th century, exemplified propriety in the 19th century, and found their ideal as happy housewives in the 20th.
“Despite all the changes,” Mirabel wrote, “the heroine’s goal is constant – love, true love. She is waiting for Mr or preferably Lord Right. Mr Alright will not do.” This approach was very much akin to Mirabel’s own progress.
The advent of children inevitably slowed down the Cecils’ major literary endeavours, though at the same time inspiring them to write books for the young, published by Sebastian Walker.
Teddy Tales appeared in four books in 1980. In the same year Mirabel Cecil wrote Ruby the Donkey: A Winter Story, Spiky the Hedgehog, Cora the Rook and Zigzag the Bee, all beautifully illustrated by her Norfolk neighbour Christina Gascoigne.
Blue Bear’s Race (1982), illustrated by and written with Hugh, featured some of his lovingly preserved toys, while The Surprise Bear (1987) presented a group of 17 bears visited by a disturbing interloper.
Mirabel Cecil’s last book, The Journal of Mrs Soane’s Dog, Fanny, by Herself (2013), was set in Sir John Soane’s house at 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, and relates Fanny’s adventures with the cat next door.
Mirabel Cecil possessed a keen visual sense, and wherever her family lived – there was a spell in the converted kitchens at Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire – she promoted beauty. Her book on the designer David Mlinaric was published in 2008.
At Wiveton she was a generous supporter of the church, for which she provided new lighting and heating systems, as well as restoring the organ in memory of her brother Sebastian.
With Sebastian, Mirabel Cecil had been closely involved with the charity Music in Country Churches, which had been founded by Ruth, Lady Fermoy, grandmother of Diana, Princess of Wales, and Alan Wilkinson. After Sebastian’s death Mirabel served for several years as a trustee.
In the course of her life she worked with many charities, including the Lettering and Commemorative Arts Trust, which encouraged artists to produce beautifully designed memorials and tombstones.
Hugh Cecil died in 2020. In his last years he had been afflicted by a rare illness, progressive supranuclear palsy, which gradually deprived him of movement and affected his speech. Throughout this trauma Mirabel’s love and support were unfailing.
She lived on at Wiveton, delighting in her children and grandchildren, cultivating her garden and still enjoying lunch parties and conversational bravura. Even the onset of cancer failed to extinguish her spirit.
In her final days she was editing, with Robert, Marquess of Salisbury, a book of sermons given at Hatfield House during lockdown by the Reverend Paul Gismondi.
Hugh and Mirabel Cecil had two sons and two daughters. The eldest, Conrad Cecil, is an actor and a devoted Shakespearean. Clementine is a writer and journalist with a special interest in Russia. David is a music and film producer living in Uganda. Stella is an artist and theatre designer.
Mirabel Cecil, born July 22 1944, died October 5 2024
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