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Slipstream: A Memoir
Elizabeth Jane Howard has been married three times - firstly to Peter Scott, the naturalist and son of Captain Scott, and most famously and tempestuously to Kingsley Amis. Her closest friends have included some of the greatest writers and thinkers of the day - Laurie Lee, Arthur Koestler and Cecil Day-Lewis, among others.Slipstream is a superlative work of autobiography. Honest and unflinching, it brilliantly illuminates the literary world of the latter half of the 20th century, as well as giving a highly personal insight into the life of one of our most beloved British writers. This will be one of the most anticipated, and talked about, memoirs of the season.
581 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
77 people are currently reading
911 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Jane Howard
66 books662 followersElizabeth Jane Howard, CBE, was an English novelist. She was an actress and a model before becoming a novelist. In 1951, she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit. Six further novels followed, before she embarked on her best known work, a four novel family saga (i.e., The Cazalet Chronicles) set in wartime Britain. The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off were serialised by Cinema Verity for BBC television as The Cazalets (The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion and Casting Off). She has also written a book of short stories, Mr Wrong, and edited two anthologies.
Her last novel in The Cazalet Chronicles series, "ALL CHANGE", was published in November 2013.
Her last novel in The Cazalet Chronicles series, "ALL CHANGE", was published in November 2013.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 79 reviews
May 5, 2016
Elizabeth Jane Howard (EJH), one of my favorite writers, is someone truly deserving of wider recognition for her extraordinary literary talent. With this memoir, she has shown herself to be unflinchingly honest about herself, her family, friends and acquaintances, as well as life as she came to know it. Indeed, the reason for EJH penning this memoir with the title "Slipstream" is because, as she states plainly to the reader, "I feel as though I have lived most of my life in the slipstream of experience. Often I have had to repeat the same disastrous situation several times before I got the message. ... I do not write this book as a wise, mature, finished person who has learned all the answers, but rather as someone who ... is still trying to change, find things out and do a bit better with them."
EJH was born in 1923, the oldest of 3 and the only daughter in a middle-class family where sons were favored, especially by her mother, with whom she tried all her life to have a close relationship. Her mother, before marrying her father, had had ambitions to be a ballet dancer, having once danced in the corps de ballet of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. But upon meeting EJH's father, a First World War combat veteran who was ruggedly handsome with an infectious charm and ease with people, she put aside all thoughts of an independent career to fulfill the expected role of wife and mother and all that that entailed for women of her generation.
EJH, as she was growing up, was also expected to accept her allotted slot as a female in a family where modesty, restraint, and self-effacement were fostered and expected to be practiced as a matter-of-course. “I was very well aware that [Robin, her oldest brother] was the favourite – with our first nanny, with the Yorkshire cook who adored him, but above all with our mother. All I can remember feeling about this is a sense of inferiority. I was thin, with thick brown lamentably straight hair and a sallow complexion; my brother was clearly more loveable. His being musical was also much in his favour: both my parents, above any other art, revered music and I had no discernible talent for it.”
EJH was largely privately educated and speaks very candidly of many of the insecurities she had as a child, adolescent, and young adult. It became increasingly clear to me as I read deeper into this memoir, that she was trying so hard to find herself, develop talents as a way of asserting her own identity and finding personal fulfilment, and establish friendships with people she could trust and love. I was deeply moved also by her honesty and her observations of her family. EJH as a child, had a very close relationship with her father, who always treated her with great affection. Then as she entered into adolescence, that relationship became somewhat strained and remote (the reasons for that I leave to the reader of this review to discover for him/herself). EJH and her father would only become closer again when she herself was married to her first husband Peter Scott (the son of the late Arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott of the ill-fated Antarctic expedition of 1911-12 who was a naval officer who distinguished himself through his Second World War service and later as a celebrated artist, illustrator, and naturalist), with whom she would have her only child, Nicola.
Elizabeth Jane Howard married for the first time in 1942, age 19, had her daughter the following year, and struggled for a time to have careers in acting and modelling. The memoir is studded with photos from various phases of her life and it is easy to see how EJH as a young woman had many men who desired her. Despite her own diffidence and unease about her own appearance, EJH was a very attractive and charming woman. After leaving Peter Scott in 1946 (they divorced 5 years later), she found a job as a publishing editor. Here she began to flourish and develop relationships with a variety of people in the artistic and literary communities. These were the years --- from the late 1940s and well into the 1960s --- in which EJH began to develop her talents as a novelist, book reviewer, and short story writer. She had lovers by the score (not to suggest that EJH was an 'easy woman'; she wasn't; she was a woman who, by own her admission, "was still at the stage when my sense of self rested almost entirely upon how somebody else saw me. I wanted his affection and interest more than anything else in the world."), was briefly married for a second time, travelled fairly widely, and met during the early 1960s at the Cheltenham Literary Festival (which she helped organize) the writer Kingsley Amis, who would later figure prominently (for good and ill) in her life. They married in 1965.
EJH shares with the reader a lot of the ups and downs of her marriage to Amis. She said that his disciplined approach to his writing much impressed her as well as his bonhomie when he was in a light and generous mood. But, as the marriage went on, his drinking grew to excess, and Amis came to resent EJH. As far as I was concerned, the man deserved a good slap from time to time! Anyway, I'm not going to speak any further about that. Read "SLIPSTREAM" and you will marvel at the kind of life Elizabeth Jane Howard was able to establish, through much struggle. She impressed me as a smart, at times shrewd, discerning, fun-loving, and compassionate person.
One more thing I like to say about this memoir that I especially liked was a listing EJH made, between the Preface and the first chapter, in a section entitled 'Cast of Characters' in which she identifies many of the distinguished and famous persons she came to know throughout her life.
"SLIPSTREAM" is a memoir that I will long cherish. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves to read memoirs.
EJH was born in 1923, the oldest of 3 and the only daughter in a middle-class family where sons were favored, especially by her mother, with whom she tried all her life to have a close relationship. Her mother, before marrying her father, had had ambitions to be a ballet dancer, having once danced in the corps de ballet of Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. But upon meeting EJH's father, a First World War combat veteran who was ruggedly handsome with an infectious charm and ease with people, she put aside all thoughts of an independent career to fulfill the expected role of wife and mother and all that that entailed for women of her generation.
EJH, as she was growing up, was also expected to accept her allotted slot as a female in a family where modesty, restraint, and self-effacement were fostered and expected to be practiced as a matter-of-course. “I was very well aware that [Robin, her oldest brother] was the favourite – with our first nanny, with the Yorkshire cook who adored him, but above all with our mother. All I can remember feeling about this is a sense of inferiority. I was thin, with thick brown lamentably straight hair and a sallow complexion; my brother was clearly more loveable. His being musical was also much in his favour: both my parents, above any other art, revered music and I had no discernible talent for it.”
EJH was largely privately educated and speaks very candidly of many of the insecurities she had as a child, adolescent, and young adult. It became increasingly clear to me as I read deeper into this memoir, that she was trying so hard to find herself, develop talents as a way of asserting her own identity and finding personal fulfilment, and establish friendships with people she could trust and love. I was deeply moved also by her honesty and her observations of her family. EJH as a child, had a very close relationship with her father, who always treated her with great affection. Then as she entered into adolescence, that relationship became somewhat strained and remote (the reasons for that I leave to the reader of this review to discover for him/herself). EJH and her father would only become closer again when she herself was married to her first husband Peter Scott (the son of the late Arctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott of the ill-fated Antarctic expedition of 1911-12 who was a naval officer who distinguished himself through his Second World War service and later as a celebrated artist, illustrator, and naturalist), with whom she would have her only child, Nicola.
Elizabeth Jane Howard married for the first time in 1942, age 19, had her daughter the following year, and struggled for a time to have careers in acting and modelling. The memoir is studded with photos from various phases of her life and it is easy to see how EJH as a young woman had many men who desired her. Despite her own diffidence and unease about her own appearance, EJH was a very attractive and charming woman. After leaving Peter Scott in 1946 (they divorced 5 years later), she found a job as a publishing editor. Here she began to flourish and develop relationships with a variety of people in the artistic and literary communities. These were the years --- from the late 1940s and well into the 1960s --- in which EJH began to develop her talents as a novelist, book reviewer, and short story writer. She had lovers by the score (not to suggest that EJH was an 'easy woman'; she wasn't; she was a woman who, by own her admission, "was still at the stage when my sense of self rested almost entirely upon how somebody else saw me. I wanted his affection and interest more than anything else in the world."), was briefly married for a second time, travelled fairly widely, and met during the early 1960s at the Cheltenham Literary Festival (which she helped organize) the writer Kingsley Amis, who would later figure prominently (for good and ill) in her life. They married in 1965.
EJH shares with the reader a lot of the ups and downs of her marriage to Amis. She said that his disciplined approach to his writing much impressed her as well as his bonhomie when he was in a light and generous mood. But, as the marriage went on, his drinking grew to excess, and Amis came to resent EJH. As far as I was concerned, the man deserved a good slap from time to time! Anyway, I'm not going to speak any further about that. Read "SLIPSTREAM" and you will marvel at the kind of life Elizabeth Jane Howard was able to establish, through much struggle. She impressed me as a smart, at times shrewd, discerning, fun-loving, and compassionate person.
One more thing I like to say about this memoir that I especially liked was a listing EJH made, between the Preface and the first chapter, in a section entitled 'Cast of Characters' in which she identifies many of the distinguished and famous persons she came to know throughout her life.
"SLIPSTREAM" is a memoir that I will long cherish. I highly recommend it to anyone who loves to read memoirs.
February 8, 2019
This was absolutely fascinating, more so because I could see the autobiographical parts of her novels that I've read (I think I've still got about four to read). This memoir covers many years, lots of people (and many writers), affairs, marriages, and houses. She must have caused the end of lots of people's marriages, but she doesn't comment on that - her biggest regret seemed to be how she brought up (or didn't bring up), her only daughter.
It was so readable, despite the huge cast. Sometimes I felt that she was listing them because she was afraid to miss anyone out, and no one - except perhaps Kingsley Amis - came off that badly. But anyway, when I read an autobiography I'm not really looking for the dirt on people the author has known, but an account of their life, and this I got in this wonderful book.
It was so readable, despite the huge cast. Sometimes I felt that she was listing them because she was afraid to miss anyone out, and no one - except perhaps Kingsley Amis - came off that badly. But anyway, when I read an autobiography I'm not really looking for the dirt on people the author has known, but an account of their life, and this I got in this wonderful book.
June 10, 2014
EJH is not kind to herself in this memoir, which makes for painful but gripping reading and reveals that almost everything in the Cazalets is autobiographical. Unloved by her mother, married too young, neglectful of her own daughter and repeatedly unfaithful - all of this is laid bare. The first three quarters are more compelling than the final section as once she has separated from Kingsley Amis, the books becomes a list of house renovations and friends who have been kind to her in her old age, which is less interesting than her thwarted literary ambitions and failed love affairs. The characters who flit across these pages are remarkable too - Cecil Day Lewis, Laurie Lee, Elizabeth Taylor, Sybille Bedford... A good introduction to the life of a remarkable writer, as well as a must for all fans of her novels.
October 11, 2023
An interesting memoir by a good, underrated writer, overshadowed especially by her third husband Kingsley Amis. Anyone who labours under the mistaken idea that marriages were happy in the old days before we fell into the decadence of no-fault divorce or that people didn't get up to sexual high-jinks or cheat on their spouses or have torrid or careless or ill-advised sexual affairs or abortions really needs to read books by people who actually lived in those decades they're so eager to idealize. Howard certainly had a lot of sex with a lot of men, much of it in the vain hope that sleeping with someone would make him love her. Not a good reason to have sex with someone. She seems to have had a great gift for friendship but not much of one for long-term romantic or marital relationships. One thing that always shocks me about memoirs of twentieth-century figures, especially women, is just how routine and how extreme the sexual harassment and abuse was, how completely women expected men to paw them and pounce on them and drop their trousers at them (relatives, bosses, co-workers, acquaintances, friends' husbands), seeing this behaviour as annoying and dismaying but inevitable, like bad weather, something to deal with and protect yourself against as best you could.
I haven't read much of her fiction, but this memoir has certainly reminded me that I ought to. I've put a few volumes on hold at the library.
I haven't read much of her fiction, but this memoir has certainly reminded me that I ought to. I've put a few volumes on hold at the library.
February 10, 2019
I thoroughly enjoyed it. It made me want to re-read her books just to see how much of herself she put in them.
February 7, 2010
Born in London in 1923, Elizabeth Jane Howard was privately educated at home, moving on to short-lived careers as an actress and model, before writing her first acclaimed novel, "The Beautiful Visit", in 1950. She has written 12 highly regarded novels, most recently "Falling". Her Cazalet Chronicles have become established as modern classics and have been filmed by the BBC. She has been married three times - firstly to Peter Scott, the naturalist and son of Captain Scott, and most famously and tempestuously to Kingsley Amis. It was Amis' son by another marriage, Martin, to whom she introduced the works of Jane Austen and ensured that he received the education that would be the grounding of his own literary career. Her closest friends have included some of the greatest writers and thinkers of the day - Laurie Lee, Arthur Koestler and cecil Day-Lewis, among others. Honest and unflinching, this book illuminates the literary world of the latter half of the 20th century, as well as giving a personal insight into the life of Elizabeth Jane Howard.
I found the writing a little stilted at time - interesting for a professional writer ( but I suppose writing about your own life is different to writing novels, plays of film scripts). She was certainly linked with some significant people of the 20th Century - an interesting account of a time that was very different to the one we live in now.
A bookcrossing book:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7...
I found the writing a little stilted at time - interesting for a professional writer ( but I suppose writing about your own life is different to writing novels, plays of film scripts). She was certainly linked with some significant people of the 20th Century - an interesting account of a time that was very different to the one we live in now.
A bookcrossing book:
http://www.bookcrossing.com/journal/7...
September 20, 2018
This is a very honest account of her life and awful romantic choices. I was struck several times by the thought that if she had been less beautiful or more arrogant she would have been much happier, as either change would have deflected the attention of the self-absorbed, curiously infantile men she fell for (I'd have suffocated Kingsley Amis with a pillow, very slowly).
June 23, 2011
Unfortunately, I tried to read this, but thought it paled into nothing by comparison with the Cazalet Chronicles novels. I gave up quite quickly. The fiction was better!
May 21, 2011
I read Elizabeth Jane Howard's memoir directly after finishing her Cazalet Chronicles, and it was interesting to discover the many parallels between her own life and her "fictional" work. I was somewhat surprised to discover that Howard is actually Louise in the books. I had thought she was Clary -- the writer. It is perplexing, in a way, because Louise is the most opaque and unlikable of the three female leads in the Chronicles. And yet, Howard describes herself as someone with little self-knowledge or confidence; someone who had to make the same painful mistakes over and over again before she "learned" from them.
She had (still has) a fascinating life, and certainly knew some amazing people. Lots of famous lovers, including Kingsley Amis -- who seemed like great fun AND a selfish monster.
A renowned domestic goddess -- in addition to her literary gifts. A beauty.
BUT this is ultimately a very sad story.
She is almost brutally honest, but her hardness about herself creates a certain distance, too.
A good friend of mine said that she couldn't really like Howard after reading her memoir; I didn't feel that, really, but she is certainly a complex and prickly person. She has/had so many gifts, but her chronic insecurity tainted everything.
One last note: I've also read Falling, one of her most recent novels, and I was upset to realize how close to the truth this rather gruesome novel is. (In it, an elderly woman is taken in by a really awful con man.)
She had (still has) a fascinating life, and certainly knew some amazing people. Lots of famous lovers, including Kingsley Amis -- who seemed like great fun AND a selfish monster.
A renowned domestic goddess -- in addition to her literary gifts. A beauty.
BUT this is ultimately a very sad story.
She is almost brutally honest, but her hardness about herself creates a certain distance, too.
A good friend of mine said that she couldn't really like Howard after reading her memoir; I didn't feel that, really, but she is certainly a complex and prickly person. She has/had so many gifts, but her chronic insecurity tainted everything.
One last note: I've also read Falling, one of her most recent novels, and I was upset to realize how close to the truth this rather gruesome novel is. (In it, an elderly woman is taken in by a really awful con man.)
June 8, 2008
Elizabeth Jane Howard. Last year I read her four-volume set of novels about the Cazalet family, set during WWII England. This is a memoir by their author, and I liked it a lot. She was an actress for a while, married a much older man, divorced him, and wrote and edited books and did a lot of odd jobs while trying to figure out her life. She had three unhappy marriages; she felt she was never first in anyone’s life, and she had a daughter but regretted not being close to her because she was raised by a nanny. That was during the war when it was safer for the daughter to be elsewhere and she made the choice to stay in London and live alone and try to write. Later she was married to Kingsley Amis and tried to be a “good” wife and step-mother and didn’t get much writing done. They had a bitter divorce. Eventually therapy helped her get some insights into herself and make changes. She’s known a lot of fascinating people and tells her story with a lot of self knowledge that made me like it a lot.
June 16, 2015
I read this ages ago and what has always stood out for me is how hyper-critical EJH is of herself. As such, she paints herself as an unpleasant character, which from listening to her on the radio, I can judge that she is not. Now that I've read The Cazalet Chronicles, I'd like to re-read her memoirs as she poured a lot of her personal life and family into the trilogy. As far as characterizations go, EJH is Louise Cazalet. Reminiscent of Nancy Mitford in a way.
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January 29, 2014Thing is, if you've read the Cazalet Chronicles you've read her life story. So I ended up skim reading this trying to find any episode I didn't already know.
July 30, 2021
By far the best memoir Iv ever read but having an interest in the person of your chosen memoir helps . I became slightly obsessed with the cazalet chronicles last year in lockdown and a huge favourite of many other authors and celebrities and royal family (not that I care much for the privileged shallow royals ) anyhow I listened to a pod cast with the author Elizabeth Day where she raves about this memoir and also on the sky arts book show , a lot of Howard’s life is used as a base for the cazalet chronicles and the family is very much based on her own and life experiences. She truly had a colourful life and met with some remarkable people, I do find it rather sad that she past away in 2004 at the age of 90 without ever finding how she described “the one “ I think she longed all of her life for one true love but seemed to mostly end up being a mistress perhaps being attracted always to the ‘wrong type ‘ parts of her marriage to Kingsley Amis were happy and blissful , we all have fond memories of a past love and the moments it was idyllic, but being perhaps a realist myself or maybe a little pessimistic 😆that doesn’t last as real life gets in the way , In my life iv only ever met one couple who do truly seem to be soulmates and so pretty much everything together and are still extremely close after 25 years - that in my view is very very rare. One man or one person would never have been enough for such a person as Howard she needed many people in her life and I don’t mean that as a criticism just an observation. I did find it also very sad how hard Howard was on herself on the memoir I wonder If being so hard on herself stems from how her mother treated her in her childhood and formative years. I now plan to read all of her books I think she’s a wonderful writer and I’m just sad she didn’t write more , she states that she struggled with her writing and thinking everyone else was better , and the fact that I discovered this wonderful writer later In my life after her death so il never get to listen to her speak at any literature festive or look forward to a new release . For anyone who has read the cazalets I highly recommend this wonderful memoir .
January 6, 2014
On the 2nd January, Elizabeth Jane Howard died. 90 years old, and having brought out yet another novel in April last year, she was renowned for being vivacious, sexually liberated and approaching her craft with humility and bemusement.
Having won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her debut novel in 1953, she went on to write novels reminiscent of Austen in both their tone and incredible depiction of everyday female characters.
Slipstream - an autobiography that is full of heartwarming and heartwrenching moments - is best summed up in her own words:
I feel as though I have lived most of my life in the slipstream of experience. Often I have had to repeat the same disastrous situation several times before I got the message. That is still happening. I do not write this book as a wise, mature, finished person who has learned all the answers, but rather as someone who even at this late stage of seventy-nine years is still trying to change, find things out and do a bit better with them.
Happy New Year to you all, and may we all keep on trying to do that bit better.
http://exploitsofachicklitaficionado....
Having won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her debut novel in 1953, she went on to write novels reminiscent of Austen in both their tone and incredible depiction of everyday female characters.
Slipstream - an autobiography that is full of heartwarming and heartwrenching moments - is best summed up in her own words:
I feel as though I have lived most of my life in the slipstream of experience. Often I have had to repeat the same disastrous situation several times before I got the message. That is still happening. I do not write this book as a wise, mature, finished person who has learned all the answers, but rather as someone who even at this late stage of seventy-nine years is still trying to change, find things out and do a bit better with them.
Happy New Year to you all, and may we all keep on trying to do that bit better.
http://exploitsofachicklitaficionado....
March 2, 2016
This is an extraordinary memoir. The writing is gorgeous. The life is presented so honestly the reader feels she is living it along with the author. This is an inside look at the struggles and perseverance required to be a writer, especially when an active life of family and friends go along with it. Elizabeth Howard was prolific and ultimately very successful financially. However, nothing came to her easily and she suffered plenty. She was married and divorced three times along with, so it seemed, the rest of post-War England. Her numerous affairs and marriage to Kingsley Amis, the author and alcoholic, are chronicled without a hint of braggadocio. She was striving her whole life to be a good person and ultimately she succeeded in that too.
November 11, 2019
In the middle of this book I began to dislike it for I found Elizabeth Jane Howard's frequent and indiscriminate love affairs and name-dropping tedious. This reaction worried me as I had read and enjoyed all her novels, particularly the Cazalet Chronicles which I had reread prior to reading the autobiography. I realised that many situations in the chronicles featured in the autobiography. In fact, several characters had been used for Howard's own experiences!
I'm glad that I persevered to the end of the book as it became more interesting again after her marriage to Kingsley Amis which ended in divorce. I could also relate to her feelings about growing older as she becomes limited by illness and painful arthritis.
I'm glad that I persevered to the end of the book as it became more interesting again after her marriage to Kingsley Amis which ended in divorce. I could also relate to her feelings about growing older as she becomes limited by illness and painful arthritis.
June 30, 2008
I knew very little about Elizabeth Jane Howard before starting this book, but I enjoyed it very much. It's primarily the story of her life: her childhood, her relationships and marriages (including marriages to Peter Scott and Kinglsey Amis), and her struggle to gain sufficient independence, confidence and income to write. There's comparatively little about the process of writing her books, but it's hard not to like an author who is so candid about her failings, nor a book in which Daniel Day Lewis pops round to help clear out the garage.
April 4, 2016
I wanted to read this for ages to see what Elizabeth Jane Howard was like in real life . I'd read and much enjoyed the Cazalat books ,unfortunately this was really hard going as her personal life seemed to be such a struggle at times especially her relationship with her daughter her husbands and her many lovers on a more positive note she made many loyal friends and seem to be more relaxed with them ! It was quite lengthy too and quite boring at times ! I couldn't believe that in her daughters younger years Elizabeth didn't have much in put with her which I found terribly sad !
December 14, 2016
I am a big fan of Jane (the name she went by) Howard's Cazalet books, and it was interesting to see how much of her own life she put into her alter ego Louise, and that part of the Cazalet family. But Louise's part of the family always came off as unlikable, and while I could see WHY both Howard and Louise were the way they were, it didn't make me like either of them better. And it was especially disappointing that she mentions writing the Cazalet books, but doesn't discuss them, just mentions them in passing. A lot less than I was hoping for.
August 29, 2015
Fascinating. Elizabeth Howard made more than the usual amount of mistakes in her life. Most of those can be blamed on an unfit mother that did her best to not educate and emotionally cripple her daughter from an early age. Hard to comprehend why she took her mother in and cared for her, at the end. A case of Stockholm syndrome, perhaps.
It appears that the 'Cazalet Chronicles' are mostly autobiographical.
It appears that the 'Cazalet Chronicles' are mostly autobiographical.
November 13, 2016
The memoir stared off ok, her early life was quite interesting. Having read the Cazalet series, I could see where she had drawn inspiration from her own life. However, at times it dips into a lot of "name-dropping" with lots of names of British artists and authors, I've never heard of, so maybe a tad tedious in places towards the end.
May 28, 2015
After reading the engrossing and well-written Cazalet series, which is the saga of a family before, during, and after WWII, I wanted to know more about the author. I enjoyed reading about her own life, which she used as a model for the series.
May 16, 2007
Lovely!
June 25, 2007
Ms Howard has has a very interesting & varied life. A good read.
September 2, 2008
I had no idea she was married to Kingsley Amis! And from what it seems...that was no prize. Too bad. I really liked Lucky Jim.
September 22, 2025
Glad I read this, although it took me ages to do so.
March 18, 2022
She had an amazing life and is such a good writer.
June 18, 2021
if kingsley amis had done his own housework she would have been the more successful author #menaretrash
September 6, 2017
I got so bored with my book group Trollope that I had to have a break. I whizzed through this fat book in a few days. It's obviously of particular interest if you've read the Cazalet Chronicles, because so much of that series was based on Howard's own life -- to the extent that in places you get a bit of "seen it all before". The character closest to her is clearly Louise, but she gave aspects of her life to several other female characters as well. And the parents and grandparents are dead ringers for her own.
Howard's parents' dysfunctional marriage has a lot to answer for. Her mother favoured sons, and Howard never felt loved or appreciated by her. Her father certainly did love her, but in a definitely inappropriate way once she became a teenager. She escaped into an early and ill-judged marriage with the much older Peter Scott, promptly got pregnant, and had a daughter whom she abandoned to the care of others almost immediately (yes, nannies were common in her circles, but she didn't even live with her most of the time).
It's unfortunate that much of the book is a catalogue of the men she had affairs with; they seem to define her life more than her writing, as she desperately sought the love and affection she wasn't getting from her family. As a gullible and beautiful young woman, she was easy prey for a whole succession of men, mostly married and older than her. Her behaviour makes her seem selfish, especially when she has affairs with the husbands of friends. But she can't have been as evil as all that, because it's notable that in many cases she was able to recover the friendship. In the case of the Day-Lewises for example, she was godmother to their children and had them both to live in her house while Cecil was dying. So clearly her numerous friends appreciated her.
Unfortunate too that she ever got involved with Kingsley Amis, a joyful early relationship turning into something that poisoned her life for years, wrecking her self-esteem and filling her life with domestic duties that prevented her from writing. He had no respect for her as a person or a writer and behaved appallingly, but on the upside she ended up having therapy for years, and I think it's this that has enabled her to look back on her life and her friends and lovers with such clear understanding and generosity; even her father is forgiven and she manages to repair her relationship with her daughter.
It gets rather bitty towards the end, and it's a shame she doesn't discuss her work more. I'd say it's for EJH enthusiasts only. If you aren't yet one, you could become so by reading any of her early novels, or indeed the Cazalet novels, written after she left Amis.
And now, back to Trollope :(
Howard's parents' dysfunctional marriage has a lot to answer for. Her mother favoured sons, and Howard never felt loved or appreciated by her. Her father certainly did love her, but in a definitely inappropriate way once she became a teenager. She escaped into an early and ill-judged marriage with the much older Peter Scott, promptly got pregnant, and had a daughter whom she abandoned to the care of others almost immediately (yes, nannies were common in her circles, but she didn't even live with her most of the time).
It's unfortunate that much of the book is a catalogue of the men she had affairs with; they seem to define her life more than her writing, as she desperately sought the love and affection she wasn't getting from her family. As a gullible and beautiful young woman, she was easy prey for a whole succession of men, mostly married and older than her. Her behaviour makes her seem selfish, especially when she has affairs with the husbands of friends. But she can't have been as evil as all that, because it's notable that in many cases she was able to recover the friendship. In the case of the Day-Lewises for example, she was godmother to their children and had them both to live in her house while Cecil was dying. So clearly her numerous friends appreciated her.
Unfortunate too that she ever got involved with Kingsley Amis, a joyful early relationship turning into something that poisoned her life for years, wrecking her self-esteem and filling her life with domestic duties that prevented her from writing. He had no respect for her as a person or a writer and behaved appallingly, but on the upside she ended up having therapy for years, and I think it's this that has enabled her to look back on her life and her friends and lovers with such clear understanding and generosity; even her father is forgiven and she manages to repair her relationship with her daughter.
It gets rather bitty towards the end, and it's a shame she doesn't discuss her work more. I'd say it's for EJH enthusiasts only. If you aren't yet one, you could become so by reading any of her early novels, or indeed the Cazalet novels, written after she left Amis.
And now, back to Trollope :(
October 15, 2016
I have loved the books of Elizabeth Jane Howard and these memoirs are as interesting and beautifully written as the novels.
Elizabeth Jane Howard was born in 1923 and died in her sleep age 90 in 2013. She was born into a comfortable middle class family but with a cold unloving mother and a handsome glamorous father whose relationship with his only daughter became sexually abusive. The extent of this is kept vague. She remained loyal to him although she showed a confusion of sexual boundaries all her life.
Howard spent so much of her life looking for love in all the wrong places. She was beautiful and attracted many of her friends' husbands and broke many relationships and marriages. Then she would move on. Her marriage to Peter Scott produced her only child a daughter Nicola who was given to other people to raise. Such a lot of potential unhappiness! Her third and last marriage to Kingsley Amis seemed to be a love match and when he rejected her after eighteen years she was heartbroken. There is a lot of sadness in these memoirs.
The wonderful Cazalet books were written when she was alone and in her seventies and not always well. I was amazed when she left Amis that he was earning about £80,00 a year and she was earning £2,000 or £3,000 a year. I'm not sure that Amis is quite so marketable now.
We cringe when she describes all the mistakes she makes about people and love and thrill for her when she has happy times.
At the front of the book there is a list of people who appear in the memoirs. Many of them were close friends and remained loyal to her. It reads like an amazing who's who of people in the Arts in Britain in the middle of the 20thC.
There is an honesty in her account of her life and every page is a gripping read.
Elizabeth Jane Howard was born in 1923 and died in her sleep age 90 in 2013. She was born into a comfortable middle class family but with a cold unloving mother and a handsome glamorous father whose relationship with his only daughter became sexually abusive. The extent of this is kept vague. She remained loyal to him although she showed a confusion of sexual boundaries all her life.
Howard spent so much of her life looking for love in all the wrong places. She was beautiful and attracted many of her friends' husbands and broke many relationships and marriages. Then she would move on. Her marriage to Peter Scott produced her only child a daughter Nicola who was given to other people to raise. Such a lot of potential unhappiness! Her third and last marriage to Kingsley Amis seemed to be a love match and when he rejected her after eighteen years she was heartbroken. There is a lot of sadness in these memoirs.
The wonderful Cazalet books were written when she was alone and in her seventies and not always well. I was amazed when she left Amis that he was earning about £80,00 a year and she was earning £2,000 or £3,000 a year. I'm not sure that Amis is quite so marketable now.
We cringe when she describes all the mistakes she makes about people and love and thrill for her when she has happy times.
At the front of the book there is a list of people who appear in the memoirs. Many of them were close friends and remained loyal to her. It reads like an amazing who's who of people in the Arts in Britain in the middle of the 20thC.
There is an honesty in her account of her life and every page is a gripping read.
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