Netta Syrett was born Janet Syrett on 17th March 1865 in Ramsgate, Kent, one of 13 children.She was initially educated at home by her mother before those responsibilities passed to a German Governess and then, aged 11, Netta went to the North London Collegiate School. From there she attended Hughes Hall, Cambridge and completed a three-year course for a full teaching certificate in only one year.She taught for two years at a Swansea school before moving to teach at the London Polytechnic School for Girls. Her friend and colleague, Mabel Beardsley, introduced her to her brother, Aubrey, the famed illustrator and the then art editor for the illustrated quarterly 'The Yellow Book', and its literary editor, the American Henry Harland, who then published 3 of her short stories. Her writing is also notable for its use of women characters who were less dependent on others and the society around them and were able to forge new independent paths.Her debut novel, 'Nobody's Fault' (1896) was the beginning of a long and prolific output. For the next several years her writing and teaching careers ran alongside each other. A highly critical review of her controversial, for those times, play 'The Finding of Nancy' suggesting it was an autobiography led to calls from overly moral parents for her to resign her teaching position. Netta now concentrated solely on her writing, only retiring in 1939.Netta Syrett died after a long illness in London on 15th December 1943.
During the Victorian era the publishing of magazines and periodicals accelerated at a phenomenal rate. This really was mass market publishing to a hungry audience eager for literary sustenance. Many of our greatest authors contributed and expanded their reach whilst many fledging authors also found a ready source for their nascent works and careers.Amongst the very many was 'The Yellow Book'. Although titled as 'An Illustrated Quarterly' it was sold as a cloth-bound hardback and within were short stories, essays, poetry, illustrations and portraits. It was edited by the American author Henry Harland, who also contributed, and its art editor was no less that the formidable Aubrey Beardsley, the enfant terrible of illustration.Its yellow cover and name gave it an association with the risqué and erotic yellow covered works published in France. It was a visual shorthand for ideas that would push many boundaries of Society to more open interpretations. Being complete in each volume and slightly aloof it stayed away from serialised fiction and advertisements. Within each lavishly illustrated edition were literary offerings that included works by such luminaries as Henry James, H G Wells, W B Yeats, Edith Nesbit, George Gissing and many others from the ascetic and decadent movements of the time. The other notable inclusion was women both as contributors and amongst its editing staff, which was at odds with the then patriarchal gender norms. Although it only survived for 13 issues its reach and influence were second to none.
