Great-great granddaughter of the Quaker and prison reformer Elizabeth Fry, Richenda Martin came from an English middle-class Anglican family background and was, as her husband described her, 'an agnostic Christian socialist' (
My Strange Friend p.156). She married writer
David Martin (q.v.) in England during the Second World War, and they had one son,
Jan (q.v.). After a year spent in India, the Martin family settled in Australia. Having trained as a teacher, Richenda Martin taught at various country schools in Victoria. Richenda became her husband's first and foremost critic and editor. In his autobiography David Martin appreciatively writes about their collaboration and his wife's support for his work: 'I showed her the first draft of every substantial piece. She reads it and briefly and succinctly puts down her impressions, which I keep in mind as I tackle the second draft. That completed, I again turn the manuscript over to her, this time for as many comments as pleases her to make, be it on content, style, syntax, or grammar. Her observations appear on the "verso" of my page. They are numerous, detailed and often impassioned. Our arguments can be bitter, but it is a great thing to have an editor in your own house who is devoted to your work, incorruptibly and without reserve' (
My Strange Friend p.232). Richenda Martin died two years after her husband in 1999.
