Olive Dehn

Olive Marie Dehn (29 September 1914 – 21 March 2007) was an English children's writer, anarchist, farmer and poet who was active from the 1930s to the 2000s. She began her writing career with a satirical poem in German, and wrote stories for the BBC Radio programme Children's Hour. Dehn moved into children's literature and into farming at her home in the Ashdown Forest. In 1960, she became a member of the Committee of 100 to take non-violent direct action against nuclear power, and successfully campaigned with her husband David Markham for the release of the Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky. The Olive Dehn Papers on her life and career were deposited at the Seven Stories in Newcastle.

Early life

Dehn was born at Belfield Road, Didsbury, near Manchester, England, on 29 September 1914. She was the only daughter and middle child of the cotton merchant Frederick Edward Dehn, and his wife, Helen Dehn, née Susman, a German-Jew. after the poem was intercepted at the German border en route to Punch in London. and wrote the children's stories, Two more books, The Nixie From Rotterdam and Tales of the Taunus Mountains, followed in 1937.

Personal life and legacy

She described herself as a "granarchist" and did not have rules at home. Dehn was married to the actor and libertian anarchist David Markham from 5 June 1937 until his death in 1983. They had four daughters: Sonia, Petra, Kika and Jehane. Through the marriages of her daughters Kika and Jehane, Dehn was the mother-in-law of the actors Roger Lloyd-Pack and Corin Redgrave. She died on 21 March 2007, at her home in Coleman's Hatch, East Sussex.

The Olive Dehn Papers are stored at the Seven Stories in Newcastle. Her papers were deposited at the museum by her daughters.