Dame Ivy Compton-Burnett, DBE was an English novelist, published (in the original hardback editions) by Compton-Burnett. She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son.The daughter of a well-known homeopathic doctor, Compton-Burnett (pronounced 'Cumpton-Burnit') grew up in Hove and London. Her father had twelve children by two wives and Ivy's mother (the second wife) sent all her stepchildren away to boarding school as soon as possible.

In the author blurb of the old Penguin editions of her novels there was a paragraph written by Compton-Burnett herself:

"I have had such an uneventful life that there is little information to give. I was educated with my brothers in the country as a child, and later went to Holloway College, and took a degree in Classics. I lived with my family when I was quite young but for most of my life have had my own flat in London. I see a good deal of a good many friends, not all of them writing people. And there is really no more to say."