Educated at
South Hampstead High School, Ellis-Fermor gained an exhibition award to read English at
Somerville College, Oxford. Here she met and developed a friendly scholarly rivalry with fellow exhibitioner
Vera Brittain. In 1918 Ellis-Fermor became a lecturer in English Literature at Bedford College, and in 1930 was awarded the
Rose Mary Crawshay prize for English Literature by the British Academy for her work on
Christopher Marlowe and her edition of
Tamburlaine. In 1938 Ellis-Fermor published
Twenty Two Poems under the pseudonym Christopher Turnley, derived from Marlowe's first name and the middle name of her father, Joseph Turnley Ellis-Fermor. Appointed the first General Editor of the 2nd series of the
Arden Shakespeare in 1946 and Hildred Carlile Professor of English Language and Literature at Bedford College in 1947, Ellis-Fermor continued to contribute to the fields of English, Irish and Scandinavian drama (she translated
Ibsen for Penguin Books) until her death in 1958. ==Major publications==