Julia Namier

Lady Julia Namier (also known as Iulia de Beausobre, née Iulia Michaelovna Kazarina) (1893-1977) was a Russian writer, who married the British historian Lewis Bernstein Namier. She wrote several works on Christian spirituality, and a biography of her husband.[1][2]

Biography

Iulia Michaelovna Kazarina was born in 1893, and was brought up in St Petersburg, Russia.

Her first husband, Nicolai de Beausobre, a Russian diplomat, died of communist persecution in the 1930s, and Iulia herself was exiled to a concentration camp. She was ransomed by her former governess, a British woman, and migrated to Britain. She left Russia in 1934.

In Britain she published an autobiography, The Woman Who Could Not Die (1938) and reflections on Creative Suffering (1940). She went on to publish a translation of Russian Letters of Direction by Macarius the Elder of Optino (1944), and a life of St Seraphim of Sarov, Flame in the Snow (1945), based on popular sources rather than the official hagiography.[3]

In 1947 she married the historian, Lewis Bernstein Namier. After his death in 1960 she wrote his biography, for which she received the James Tait Black Award in 1971.

She died in 1977.

The song by Silent Planet named Wasteland is about her journey.

Selected works
  • The Woman Who Could Not Die (1938)
  • Creative Suffering (1940)
  • Russian Letters of Direction by Macarius the Elder of Optino (1944)
  • Flame in the Snow A Russian Legend (1945)
  • Lewis Namier: A Biography (1971)

Further reading

References
  1. Lewis Namier bio in Oxford DNB
  2. Catholic Herald profile
  3. Amazon page
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