The Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett Estate is delighted to invite applications for a generous new scholarship to enable a student, independent scholar or academic to develop and disseminate new research into any aspect of the work or legacy of one of the most famous 20th century English writers.
Ivy Compton-Burnett was born in London in 1884. Her fiction deals with domestic situations in large households and studies human weaknesses and foibles. The families in her novels are dysfunctional in one way or another. She developed a highly individualistic style, relying heavily on formal dialogue, and her work demands constant attention on the reader’s part. The result is to create a claustrophobic fictional world, dominated by the psychological exploration of small-scale power-abuse and persecution.
Ivy wrote 20 novels over a period of 45 years. Her work has been translated into several languages, with particularly devoted admirers in Italy and France. There has been longstanding admiration of Ivy’s unique contribution to literature.
For Dame Hilary Mantel, double Booker-Prize winning novelist, she was “One of the most original, artful and elegant writers of our century.” The French writer Natalie Sarraute described her as “One of the greatest novelists England has ever had.”
“It is astonishing, amazing. It is like nothing else in the world. It is a work of genius.” The New Statesman wrote of Pastors and Masters.
For the American novelist Francine Prose she was “like Jane Austen on bad drugs”. Edward Sackville-West said that “Her books are, one and all, monumentally funny.”
Ivy was made a Dame of the British Empire two years prior to her death in 1969.
For more information about Ivy, visit: www.ivycompton-burnett.com
The scholarship carries a stipend of € 2,000. The research may be conducted at any time in the nine months between July 2025 and April 2026. During this period the scholar is invited to stay for up to one month from 10th March until 9th April 2026 rent-free at the magnificent Palazzo Butera in Palermo, Sicily (www.palazzobutera.it). On Saturday 27th June 2026 Palazzo Butera will host a reception at which the Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett Scholar will present their research to an invited audience. This reception is likely to include an interview with the scholar by Maria Aitken.
The Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett Estate will on the advice of the selection panel facilitate the publication of the research, which might take the form of an essay in English of between 10,000-15,000 words in length, or of a film or a podcast.
Applicants should submit a CV, a covering letter and a separate statement of the proposed research. See below for a full list of application conditions. Candidates from a range of academic disciplines may apply, including undergraduate or postgraduate students of English Literature, Sociology, and Psychology, but applications are also invited from established academics, independent scholars, writers, and creatives from the world of theatre and film.
The selection panel for applicants will comprise the following: the director, writer and actress Maria Aitken; the novelist Philip Hensher; Dr Mark Wormald, Fellow in English, Pembroke College, Cambridge; Dr Claudio Gulli, Director of Palazzo Butera; and Richard Compton-Burnett, Chair of the Ivy Compton-Burnett Estate. It is anticipated that one or more of the panellists will be available to provide advice and direction on request to the Scholar in the course of their research.
Please send applications to Ivy@comptonburnett.com before 30th April 2025. The judges may invite shortlisted applicants to attend a brief online interview. The winner will be informed by the middle of June 2025, with an announcement made early in July 2025.
Conditions of application
Applications should consist of the following elements:
a curriculum vitae; a covering letter describing the applicant’s qualifications, experience and motivation for the research, and including the name of a referee familiar with the applicant’s recent work who has agreed to write on their behalf; an outline of the research proposed, including a statement of how the research will enhance Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett’s reputation and stimulate further academic study of her life and work (500-1000 words in total).
Referees should send their reference directly to Ivy@comptonburnett.com by the closing date, 30 April 2025.