Time is not a great healer. It is an indifferent and perfunctory one. Sometimes it does not heal at all. And sometimes when it seems to, no healing has been necessary.

She attended Addiscombe College Hove in 1898–1901 then boarded for two terms in 1901–2 at Howard College Bedford before embarking on a university degree in Classics. Compton-Burnett was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in 1967. " In her essay collection L'Ère du soupçon (1956) an early manifesto for the French nouveau roman Nathalie Sarraute hails Compton-Burnett as an "one of the greatest novelists England has ever had".

She was awarded the 1955 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for her novel Mother and Son. Compton-Burnett.