Published in 2015 (first published 1989)
333 pages
Claire Harman began her career in publishing, at Carcanet Press and the poetry magazine PN Review, where she was co-ordinating editor.
Her first book, a biography of the writer Sylvia Townsend Warner, was published in 1989 and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for ‘a writer of growing stature’ under the age of 35. She has since published biographies of Fanny Burney and Robert Louis Stevenson and edited works by Stevenson and Warner. She writes short stories for radio and publication and was runner-up for the V.S.Pritchett prize for short fiction in 2008. Her latest book is a mixture of biography and criticism, Jane’s Fame: How Jane Austen Conquered the World.
Claire has taught English at the Universities of Manchester and Oxford and creative writing at Columbia University in New York City. She has appeared on radio and television and writes regularly for the literary press on both sides of the Atlantic, reviewing books, films, plays and exhibitions. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2006.
What is this book about?
Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
‘One of the most shamefully under-read great British authors of the past 100 years’ –Sarah Waters
The poet Sylvia Townsend Warner rose to sudden fame with the publication of her classic feminist novel Lolly Willowes in 1926, but never became a conventional member of London literary life, pursuing instead a long writing career in her own individualistic manner. Cheerfully defying social norms of the day, Warner lived in an openly homosexual relationship with the poet Valentine Ackland for almost forty years. Together, they were committed members of the Communist party and travelled twice to Spain during the Civil War, but Warner paid for her outspokenness with years of neglect, and channelled much of her emotional and intellectual energy into letters, poems and heart-breaking diaries that remained unpublished during her lifetime. In this enthralling and enlightening biography, Claire Harman tells the story of Warner’s remarkable life and restores her to her rightful place as one of Britain’s most unique and brilliant writers.
“As passionate and truthful, elegant and enchanting as its subject.” –George D Painter
“Harman skilfully weaves Sylvia’s stories and letters into the biography, and the brilliance of the samples on display constantly takes you aback… Outstanding” –Sunday Times
