Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence

by Artemis Cooper

Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923-2014) wrote brilliant novels about what love can do to people, but in her own life the lasting relationship she sought so ardently always eluded her. She grew up yearning to be an actress; but when that ambition was thwarted by marriage and the war, she turned to fiction. Her first novel, The Beautiful Visit, won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize - she went on to write fourteen more, of which the best-loved were the five volumes of The Cazalet Chronicle. Following her divorce from her first husband, the celebrated naturalist Peter Scott, Jane embarked on a string of high-profile affairs with Cecil Day-Lewis, Arthur Koestler and Laurie Lee, which turned her into a literary femme fatale. Yet the image of a sophisticated woman hid a romantic innocence which clouded her emotional judgement. She was nearing the end of a disastrous second marriage when she met Kingsley Amis, and for a few years they were a brilliant and glamorous couple - until that marriage too disintegrated. She settled in Suffolk where she wrote and entertained friends, but her turbulent love life was not over yet. In her early seventies Jane fell for a conman. His unmasking was the final disillusion, and inspired one of her most powerful novels, Falling.Artemis Cooper interviewed Jane several times in Suffolk. She also talked extensively to her family, friends and contemporaries, and had access to all her papers. Her biography explores a woman trying to make sense of her life through her writing, as well as illuminating the literary world in which she lived.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, British Literature, Literary Fiction, London, Biography Memoir

551 pages, Kindle Edition

Published September 22, 2016

About the author

She is the only daughter of the second Viscount Norwich and his first wife, Anne (née Clifford), and a granddaughter of Lady Diana Cooper. She has a brother, the Hon. Jason Charles Duff Bede Cooper, and a half-sister, Allegra Huston, the only child of Lord Norwich and Enrica Soma Huston, the estranged wife of American film director John Huston. She attended the French Lycee, the Convent of the Sacred Heart in Woldingham and Camden School for Girls. She then went to St Hugh's College, Oxford and obtained a degree in English language and literature. In July 2015, she was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of York.

She spent time in Alexandria, Egypt, with Voluntary Service Overseas teaching English at the University of Alexandria. She has also lived in America, mostly in New Mexico.

In 1986, Artemis Cooper married fellow writer and historian Antony Beevor. The couple have two children, Nella and Adam.

Reviews

[Beth Bonini · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are two kinds of biography: the exhaustive kind, full of detail (sometimes quite tedious; no stone left unturned and all that), and the broad sweep. This is the broad sweep kind. If you have read EJH's novels, particularly the Cazalet Chronicles which she is best known for, much of the material of her early family life and first marriage to Peter Scott will seem familiar. If you have read Slipstream, EJH's own memoir, you will recognise the fascinating (to some) - and just prurient to others - parade of her rather extraordinary love life. (Her third husband was writer Kingsley Amis, and her lovers included Poet Laureate Cecil Day-Lewis, Laurie Lee, Arthur Koestler, Kenneth Tynan and many others - including her own brother-in-law.) What Cooper brings 'new' or fresh to the biographical record is a more detailed analysis of the writer's work - and some attempted insight into the many contradictory aspects of EJH's character. I haven't read Slipstream in quite few a years, but although she does attempt self-analysis, she is also quite hard on herself. That I do recall. After her divorce to Amis, EJH spent a lot of time and energy having therapy and being involved with the kind of women's consciousness raising groups which were very popular during the 1970s. Cooper gives more detail about this therapeutic work, and how it helped EJH - or didn't help her, in the end. I do remember that EJH commented, ruefully, that she was the sort of person who had to make the same mistake over and over again before she could learn anything from it. Despite a long and complicated history with men who disappointed her, her personal assistant in later years claims that she "couldn't shake off her romantic nature; never gave up hope that she might yet find Mr Darcy."

One of the most interesting insights in the biography comes from American therapist Jenner Roth who worked with EJH for many years. She says that "to receive love, you have to have something to put it in," and she then goes into some detail about a metaphor of a bowl. Because of EJH's childhood, and the rejection and coldness she felt from her mother, Jenner believed that EJH was like a cracked bowl - and that no amount of praise, warmth or kindness could fill it up, because it all just leaked away. Throughout the book, friends, family and colleagues refer to her formidable personality, and her tremendous work ethic, and her belief in her rightness, but then this contradictory emotional neediness which caused her to behave really quite abjectly with men. Another insight that I found very useful came from Martin Amis, her stepson. He noted that EJH had a tremendous 'imaginative sympathy' and 'penetrating sanity' when it came to the characters in her novels, but that she wasn't all that 'clever' about people in real life.

I was reading The Beautiful Visit, EJH's first novel, as I read this biography - and what really struck me were the parallels between the protagonist in the novel and EJH herself. And yet the unnamed narrator in the novel, who drifts aimlessly and unhappily through much of the novel, is very much unlike EJH - who really fought for herself, demanding that she be allowed to be an actress in the early war years, despite much family opposition. Until very recently, a middle-class girl in England was raised to have no ambition for herself beyond making a good marriage. Despite everything in her life and social background - including feeling that she needed a man to complete her - EJH had this tremendous ambition to do and be something. She never seemed to make much of her own work ethic and talents, but that is what shines through - so clearly - between the cracks of her messy and storied personal life. There are many areas in which Cooper could have gone into much more detail - particularly in EJH's early life and the strained relationship she had with her only daughter Nicola - but I do think she gives a sensitive and insightful look into the psyche and literary accomplishments of this underrated 20th century writer.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

From BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week:
Elizabeth Jane Howard wrote brilliant novels about what love can do to people, but in her own life the lasting relationship she sought so ardently always eluded her. She grew up yearning to be an actress; but when that ambition was thwarted by marriage and the war, she turned to fiction. Her first novel, The Beautiful Visit, won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize - she went on to write fourteen more, of which the best-loved were the five volumes of The Cazalet Chronicle.

Following her divorce from her first husband, the celebrated naturalist Peter Scott, Jane embarked on a string of high-profile affairs. Yet the image of a sophisticated woman hid a romantic innocence which clouded her emotional judgement. She was nearing the end of a disastrous second marriage when she met Kingsley Amis, and for a few years they were a brilliant and glamorous couple - until that marriage too disintegrated. She settled in Suffolk where she wrote and entertained friends, but her turbulent love life was not over yet. In her early seventies Jane fell for a conman. His unmasking was the final disillusion, and inspired one of her most powerful novels, Falling.

Artemis Cooper interviewed Jane several times in Suffolk. She also talked extensively to her family, friends and contemporaries, and had access to all her papers. Her biography explores a woman trying to make sense of her life through her writing, as well as illuminating the literary world in which she lived.

Author: Artemis Cooper
Reader: Greta Scacchi
Abridger: Sara Davies
Producer: Simon Richardson and Elizabeth Allard.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vkqz4

[Bettie · Rating 2 out of 5]

BOTW

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07vkqz4

Description: Elizabeth Jane Howard wrote brilliant novels about what love can do to people, but in her own life the lasting relationship she sought so ardently always eluded her. She grew up yearning to be an actress; but when that ambition was thwarted by marriage and the war, she turned to fiction. Her first novel, The Beautiful Visit, won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize - she went on to write fourteen more, of which the best-loved were the five volumes of The Cazalet Chronicle.

Following her divorce from her first husband, the celebrated naturalist Peter Scott, Jane embarked on a string of high-profile affairs. Yet the image of a sophisticated woman hid a romantic innocence which clouded her emotional judgement. She was nearing the end of a disastrous second marriage when she met Kingsley Amis, and for a few years they were a brilliant and glamorous couple - until that marriage too disintegrated. She settled in Suffolk where she wrote and entertained friends, but her turbulent love life was not over yet. In her early seventies Jane fell for a conman. His unmasking was the final disillusion, and inspired one of her most powerful novels, Falling.

Artemis Cooper interviewed Jane several times in Suffolk. She also talked extensively to her family, friends and contemporaries, and had access to all her papers. Her biography explores a woman trying to make sense of her life through her writing, as well as illuminating the literary world in which she lived.

[Anne Kiely · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to confess that I didn't actually finish this book! I became rather bored with all of the details of her affairs and the details were spooling the memories of the EJH novels I had read.

[Rowizyx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Molto, molto bella.

Appena mi metto al pc un commento più esaustivo (sono ancora sotto al piumone col tablet :D)

[Veronica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I find EJH endlessly fascinating. I haven't read all of her novels, but all the ones I have read involve her mercilessly examining herself and her own life, especially in The Cazalet Chronicles. I've read her autobiography, Slipstream, too, so reading this biography might seem redundant. But Cooper is an excellent biographer: sympathetic to Jane, but seeing her faults too, and she discusses the work more than EJH does in Slipstream. She does well in exposing Jane's "bottomless pit of neediness", as one of her therapists describes it (Cooper goes into more detail about the therapy than EJH did in Slipstream too). It does explain how a beautiful and intelligent woman could go so badly wrong in her submission to a series of utterly unsuitable men, culminating in a psychopathic conman (no, I'm not referring to Kingsley Amis).

It never seemed to occur to Jane that she could choose to say no to an attractive man -- even when she embarked on an affair with Cecil Day-Lewis, husband of Jill Balcon, one of her closest friends. She could also be very kind and nurturing though, explaining how she managed to retain many long-term friends (even if Jill Balcon never entirely forgave her). She was a good parent to the teenage Martin Amis, even though in general she seemed rather antipathetic to children (paradoxically she is brilliant at writing from a child's point of view).

Cooper gives further evidence of what a misogynistic piece of shit Amis was. He never really respected Jane as a writer or a person. He even muscled in on her publisher and agent early in their relationship, and since he was more successful than Jane they quickly neglected her to focus on him. He wouldn't lift a finger to do practical tasks, so Jane more or less abandoned writing while cooking, keeping house, doing all the administration, and ferrying him around, for zero thanks on his part. To be fair, Cooper points out that Jane brought some of the work on herself, making much of it, notably cooking, more complicated than it needed to be, and inviting crowds of people every weekend.

When Jane finally can't take it any more and leaves, Kingsley whinges to his friend Philip Larkin: "She did it partly to punish me for stopping wanting to fuck her and partly because she realised I didn't like her much. Well, I liked her as much as you could like anyone totally wrapped up in themselves and unable to tolerate the slightest competition or anything a raving lunatic could see as opposition and having to have their own way in everything all the time [bit of self-projection here -- Ed.] ... but not having her around and trying to take in the fact that she will never be around is immeasurably more crappy than having her around. I've had a wife for 32 years."

Not to worry, Kingsley -- your first wife will graciously move into your house with her new husband and look after you till you drink yourself to death. Meanwhile, released from domestic slavery and constant gaslighting, Jane lives in reduced circumstances and writes the Cazalet chronicles.

[Bill Kupersmith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though twentieth-century British fiction is my passion and principal amusement, I’ve never read much of Elizabeth Jane Howard. Family sagas like the Cazalet saga rarely attract me. I enjoyed her Getting it Right, especially when Gavin’s mum is thrilled rather than scandalised by finding Minerva in the house, mistakenly imagining she is an aristocrat. But Howard’s personal life involved some of my very favourite people. Most importantly she was the second wife of Kingsley Amis, the funniest writer in the English language. She was also the first Mrs. Peter Scott, whom I recall fondly as the stiff-upper-lipped skipper of the unfortunate America’s Cup challenger Sovereign in 1964. (I know it’s judgemental, but Jane’s feeling neglected as a war-time spouse because Peter was more interested in Oerlikon guns and fitting out the destroyer he commanded than in her strikes me as awfully selfish. Hadn’t she seen In Which We Serve?) Her lovers after Scott and before Amis seem to have included much of literary London, including Laurie Lee (Emma Smith was smarter to resist him), Arthur Koestler, and C. Day-Lewis. Amis was a semi-alcoholic (I write “semi” because if an “alcoholic” is someone who cannot give up drinking, Amis was one of those – I knew a number of them in my ocean racing days – to whom it never crossed their minds to try). He also seems to have been a total slob and a spoiled child who left all the household tasks to Jane. But his absolute devotion to the discipline and craft of writing hilarious stories redeems him, at least for me as a reader.

Artemis Cooper, along with her spouse and sometime collaborator Sir Anthony Beevor, is surely one of England’s best contemporary nonfiction writers, and this biography is fascinating.

[Lesley Glaister · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fascinating to read this lucid and detailed biography in connection with Howard's novels. I was startled to realise that most of the story of the Cazalets - a series I adored - is true! It's also eye-opening if not eye-watering to learn about how ruthlessly sexy Howard was, never a qualm about having a go with other people's - even close friends' - husbands! I moved from sympathy with her to a sort of loathing and then back to sympathy as I read.

[Jane Gregg · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable - yes. But goes over pretty well tread territory without adding very much really. For EJH aficionados, this will be an essential but not entirely enlightening exercise.

[_nuovocapitolo_ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi sono innamorata di Elizabeth Jane Howard subito. E’ stato un colpo di fulmine. Ho scoperto per caso Gli anni della Leggerezza in libreria quando ancora nessuno sapeva cosa fosse “La saga dei Cazalet”. Inutile dire che ho divorato quel libro e nell’attesa dei volumi successivi che cosa avrei potuto fare? Ovviamente cercare altri romanzi con il suo nome.

Ero alla Mondadori di Milano, un lontano sabato sera del 2015, quando ho fatto letteralmente impazzire una commessa per trovare Il lungo sguardo. Alla fine ce l’ha fatta e sono tornata a casa, contenta. Questa lunga premessa per dire che appena è uscita “Elizabeth Jane Howard. Un’innocenza pericolosa” di Artemis Cooper mi sono fiondata in libreria. Volevo sapere di più su questa autrice che è stata definita “La Jane Austen del Novecento”.

Non so se siete amanti delle biografie ma, questo è un libro scritto molto bene, scorrevole e davvero rivelatore. Ha ragione il Financial Times che l’ha definito:
Un tesoro inaspettato. Emozionante e unitario come un romanzo, riesce nell’arduo compito di esporre una densa e impegnativa storia personale. […] Questo libro fa onore alla letterarietà della biografia e, una volta terminata, anche i più affezionati lettori di Howard si fionderanno sui suoi libri per riscoprirli.

Leggendo la storia di Howard si possono trovare esperienze, tratti e atteggiamenti che ha riversato in Louise e in altri personaggi Cazalet. Anzi.. la biografia si apre proprio come se fossimo ancora alle prese con i protagonisti della famiglia.
C’è infatti Kit, ballerina inglese costretta a lasciare la danza per il matrimonio con David Howard… vi ricorda qualcuno? Nei Cazalet sono presenti anche i nonni della scrittrice, a capo di un’azienda di legname. Jane è la primogenita con una passione per la lettura ma soprattutto per il teatro. Ma la vita di Jane, proprio come quella di Louise, non è una vita facile. Entrambe si sposano troppo giovani ed entrambe soffrono per amore.

Sotto l’aspetto emotivo rimase per tanti versi immatura e insicura, vedendosi sempre come una vittima, perché sua madre non l’aveva amata e apprezzata.
Jane non era una mangiatrice di uomini, ma una donna desiderosa di essere amata e tutto, come spesso accade, parte dall’infanzia. Le attenzioni scabrose del padre, proprio come quelle che riceve Louise, e quelle inesistenti della madre condizioneranno tutta la sua tormentata esistenza.

Il suo sogno di sfondare come attrice si infrange con lo scoppio della guerra, Jane allora coltiverà la sua passione per la scrittura. Questa costante farà da sfondo ai tre matrimoni: l’ultimo dei quali sarà disastroso.

Viene particolarmente approfondita la vita privata nei primi capitoli e il ritratto che ne fa Artemis Cooper è bellissimo. E’ quello di una donna piena di insicurezze e di paure. Una persona che si sente continuamente a disagio, sola, in società e nel matrimonio. Nella seconda parte emerge con più forza il ruolo di scrittrice… come si fa a non amarla? Un vulcano di idee, una romanziera relegata “al genere per donne”, che aveva e che ha, tuttora molto da dire.

Un’innocenza pericolosa è…
Un libro che chi ha amato i Cazalet deve leggere assolutamente. E’ come immergersi nella trama di un romanzo e ritrovare i personaggi che ci hanno fatto compagnia ed offre anche una chiave di lettura, del tutto nuova, per capire meglio i protagonisti di questa numerosa famiglia.
La vita di Jane è stata molto simile a quella di un romanzo, e spero che abbia trovato anche a lei il suo lieto fine.

[Linda Mellor]

Fascinating portrait of a an author I love - from a very different world and time but who writes so well of people and their complicated lives. A really good read.

[H.J. Moat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I first heard of Elizabeth Jane Howard when I read somewhere that she had managed to hook a completely disinterested teenage Martin Amis (- her stepson, she was married to his father Kingsley) on books by having him read Pride and Prejudice. I was impressed. And having read stuff by both Martin and Kingsley Amis I decided it was only fair to give her novels a go too. I read the Cazalet Chronicles as they were all I could really find, but I burned through them - which is to say, I enjoyed them a great deal. They were so very different to Kingsley Amis's work that the idea of these two writers being married to each other became fascinating to me, I wondered if it might be a similar vibe to Harold Pinter and Antonia Fraser (who I am obsessed with as a couple). Spoiler - it wasn't.
I only found that out from reading this book. I knew that Howard and Amis didn't stay together but all I really knew about Jane (she is always Jane and never Elizabeth) was that she was considered impossibly beautiful and glamorous in her youth, especially for a writer. But that was enough for me to put this book on my want list as soon as it came out.
When I first started reading this I became immediately unnerved by its familiarity. Her family history, her early life - the handsome, dashing father and ex-ballerina mother. The holidays to the big family home in the country with her grandparents...it was literally The Light Years (first volume of Cazalet Chronicles). Jane's life up until the age of about 30 perfectly mirrors that of Louise Cazalet, and though it was interesting to find out about the real life counterparts of characters I had enjoyed, it took me a little while to keep the two (the novels and the biography) separate in my head (and they each totally deserve their own bit of space in there!). Where it really got super interesting for me was when Jane's writing career took flight - as a writer, I loved learning about how she went about putting her novels together, and how she got the ideas - how much of herself she put into the books. The life of a gorgeous female novelist in mid-20th century London was just so much more interesting than anything you read about now. Jane's colourful love life adds a lot to her biography - I'm sure the poor woman would have been a lot happier if she had found the true and sustaining love she so desperately craved but honestly, reading about a long stable marriage would probably have been a lot less interesting than finding out about her escapades with a succession of (sometimes famous) Mr Wrongs.
I'd say the tone of the prose has a sort of affectionate detachment - if that makes any sense - in which you could tell that the writer, Artemis Cooper, clearly admired Jane a great deal, but didn't shy away from highlighting the bad stuff - the affairs, the betrayals, the less palatable parts of her personality (she could be needy, demanding and affected). I was not surprised to find out towards the end, that Cooper knew Jane a little through her family, but wasn't part of her inner circle.
Mostly though, this book paints a picture of a kind and generous and wildly talented woman who just wanted everything to be perfect for everyone around her. All I kept thinking as I read it, from start to finish, was 'what a life she led.'

[La Stamberga dei Lettori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Leggendo la saga dei Cazalet mi sono spesso interrogata sulla visione critica e, per la maggior parte, negativa offerta da Elizabeth Jane Howard sul matrimonio.
Ora che ho letto il coinvolgente riassunto che Artemis Cooper offre della vita della romanziera molto di quanto narrato nel Cazalet acquista un nuovo e sconvolgente significato.
Se avete letto la saga allora già conoscete i punti salienti della vita di EJH, almeno fino alla sua prima giovinezza.
Discendente da una famiglia di commercianti di legnami appartenente all'alta borghesia, Jane - come è stata chiamata per tutta la sua vita - aveva una straordinaria somiglianza con il personaggio di Louise, la bellissima primogenita del più grande dei fratelli Cazalet.
Tutta la famiglia Cazalet, a dire il vero, è modellata sugli Howard, dal capostipite noto come il Generale ai quattro fratelli, tre maschi impiegati nell'azienda di legname di famniglia una femmina che porterà una avanti una relazione omosessuale clandestina per tutta la vita.
La coppia Edward e Villy Cazalet, in particolare, rispecchia purtroppo i genitori che Jane ha realmente conosciuto. Dico purtroppo perché, come per la povera Louise, anche per Jane le relazioni con madre e padre si sono rivelate presto piuttosto difficili: la prima sembrava sempre insoddisfatta della figlia e le ha trasmesso un'insicurezza che condizionerà l'intera vita da adulta, il secondo, inguaribile donnaiolo, la renderà oggetto di traumatizzanti abusi.

La Cooper compie il suo lavoro di biografa in modo eccellente, evitando la pedanteria dei dettagli inutili ma al tempo stesso fornendo al lettore i particolari essenziali per comprendere la scrittrice inglese, tracciando attente analisi di ogni suo romanzo nella quali con perspicacia illustra i parallelismi con la biografia di Jane oltre che i punti di forza delle sue abilità come narratrice.


Continua su:
http://www.lastambergadeilettori.com/...

[beesp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Un ritratto di Elisabeth Jane Howard che non si sottrae dal raccontare gli aspetti meno lusinghieri della personalità dell’autrice. Interessante sotto molti aspetti: dal punto di vista dell’ispirazione della vita reale bei romanzi di Jane Howard, dal punto di vista della sua vita attiva e avventurosa, sia in amore che in esperienze di vario genere. Elizabeth Jane Howard è stata una scrittrice che ha vissuto un’esistenza piena di forti gioie e grandi soddisfazioni, ma costellata di cocenti e continue delusioni, dovute soprattutto alle enormi aspettative che Elizabeth Jane Howard creava e immaginava. E questo - come dice Artemis Cooper - è forse ciò che l’ha resa un’autrice così attenta e capace a raccontare le motivazioni degli esseri umani, il suo forte trasporto emotivo, la sua intuitività che non le precludeva le enormi fantasie e le grosse aspettative. Biografia interessante, ma ne sconsiglio la lettura se si è sensibili agli spoiler (soprattutto per quanto riguarda la saga dei Cazalet).

[Annie Booker · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd never read any of Elizabeth Jane Howard's book but I knew a little about her interesting life, or at least about the men she'd been involved with eg Kingsley Amis. But the cover photo of her intrigued me and I love reading biographies of writers so I decided to give it a go and I'm very glad I did. A really well written and in depth biography of a woman who managed to make a life and a career for herself at a time when many women struggled to do so.

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Review to come

[Gresi e i suoi Sogni d'inchiostro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fu in questo periodo, nel momento esatto in cui la Fazi editore mise su tutto il suo catalogo il 25% di sconto, che non potei rinunciare al desiderio di portare a casa un piccolo ma consistente numero di romanzi, che hanno aumentato il mio interesse nei riguardi di una scrittrice di cui qualche mese fa conobbi mediante la saga che la rese celeberrima. Non potei così prendere sul serio l'insana idea di avere tutti i suoi volumi. Ogni cosa scritta da lei, doveva immancabilmente essere fra gli scaffali della mia libreria. Avevo combattuto a tal punto che vinsi, quattro volumi in una volta, uno di questi praticamente fu la mia ultima lettura, il tutto disputato un weekend estremamente grigio e ventilato. Non sono avvezza a leggere biografie ne amo cibarmi di opere che non sono fatti individuali personalmente riportati su carta, bensì osservazioni sul campo di autori che fecero della letteratura massima di vita. Per redigere tali opere vi è dietro un lungo processo di ricerche, di cui certamente la Cooper risalì anche mediante interviste indirizzate direttamente all'autrice o ai suoi famigliari e conoscenti. Il risultato è un volume corposo, ricchissimo dai primi istanti di vita in cui l'autrice fu messa al mondo, primi vagiti in una realtà inconsistente e frastagliata, che mostrano un atteggiamento particolare, diverso da quello che ci si aspetta da una semplice biografia. Non che di semplice non possieda niente. Ma da lettrice attenta e curiosa ci misi un certo impegno, una certa cura per recepire il suo messaggio. Nell'insieme si tratta di incontri, avvenimenti, dejavu che rivelano parecchio della Howard, e in particolare, retroscena di ognuno di quei ritratti intimistici che in un certo senso provano il suo potenziale nell'averli realizzati. Ogni capitolo è un chiaro riferimento al passato, che non hanno un messaggio particolare se non che celano meccanismi di azione o pensiero per cui quel romanzo, quell'opera fu caldamente accolta. Percorrendo la corsia della vita, dell'esistenza affinché qualcosa o qualcuno andasse al suo posto, sventolando sotto il naso innumerevoli opportunità che mescolano sogni e realtà. 

La decisione di accogliere nel mio cantuccio personale un romanzo straordinario come questo, come ormai quasi tutte le decisioni di leggere o conoscere autori sconosciuti, si basó esclusivamente sulle mie attitudini. Sul cocente desiderio di cibarmi dell'intero reticolo letterario dell'autrice, che non poté non vedermi coinvolta, per non parlare di interpretare la vita, grazie a lei. Il suo atteggiamento, le sue insicurezze, il suo sentirsi impaurita, vulnerabile, equilibrata ma convenzionale, combinato con l'intesità dei suoi abbandoni sessuali ( il tutto corredato da un'incandescenza fisica, una radiosità da fanciulla americana, che nella sua forza riversó un certo potere per la vita). Ed ecco come la Howard raggiunse una certa sorprendente supremazia sopra una volontà inesorabilmente indipendente come quella di tanti altri romanzieri prima di lei: non soltanto aveva troncato i suoi legami con la famiglia, divenuta una donna per nulla portata per la casa o la famiglia e con la combattiva e suprema spavalderia incapsulata nella libertà di azione o di pensiero la liberò da qualunque desiderio di ritirarsi. 

Eppure non nascondo che il suo sentirsi perennemente guasta, insoddisfatta, infelice, egregiamente riversato nelle acerrime eroine della famiglia Cazalet, aveva fatto sembrare ogni cosa peggiore di quel che sembrava: aveva fatto sembrare lei stessa peggiore di quella che era. E se poi si fosse immaginata una Jane diversa da ciò come lei si ritraeva, non conoscendo l'amore, l'affetto, il desiderio, la comprensione e la compassione, sarebbe rimasta intrappolata nella noiosa rispettabilità che lei stessa era fin troppo contenta di lasciarsi alle spalle. Più raffinata di quel che credeva, versatile, appassionata, straordinaria nella sua magnifica bellezza capace di mettere a tacere qualcosa dentro di lei, che nessuno aveva mai fatto prima. 

Quello che chiaramente è interessante fra queste pagine è certamente la sua personalità, la donna più stupefacente, che, quando parlava, ammaliava chiunque. E questo non fu poco. Lei che non sapeva nemmeno chi fosse e per quale motivo si trovasse al mondo, lei che aveva cercato nella letteratura quel magnifico conforto che egregiamente conferiscono le pagine bianche di un romanzo. Ed è da qui che si può definire la sua rinascita. O, meglio, la sua nascita. Il suo stare nel mondo, giorno dopo giorno così soffocante, insopportabile. 

Artemis Cooper fece di queste pagine caratteristiche tipiche di un romanzo d'appendice, coinvolgente ma non troppo diverso da ciò che ci circonda o ci interessa. Parlando continuamente di quanto accaduto, scrutando quella parte nascosta dell'animo dell'autrice, quasi priva di sogni, irrealtà che in un momento imprecisato della sua vita si accorse di aver riempito uno spazio vuoto che adesso ha la forma di una persona. 


La discesa è inevitabile; eppure l'amore può continuare e continua dopo la fine dell'estasi e dell'amarezza. 

[Desirae · Rating 3 out of 5]

I grabbed this book by accident when looking for a biography of Elizabeth David at the library, but, familiar with EJH's name, I decided to read it anyway. It's written very breezily and gives a superficial, gossipy overview of EJH's drama-filled life. Entertaining enough, but left me feeling very little for EJH, who comes across as the creator of her many miseries. It was an odd biography in that the author inserts herself into the story and offers some pseudo-psychiatric evaluations of EJH's behaviour; her need for attention, love, and affairs with a succession of famous married men was thoroughly addressed and apparently the literary stars of mid-20th century Britain committed rampant adultery with great enthusiasm. Such affairs were as commonplace as the excessive drinking and smoking. Ah, different times. But if you are interested in those times, the larger than life Kingsley Amis and his ilk, -and the women who loved them while trying to forge their own careers-this is a quick, generally enjoyable read.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good broad sweep biography, not particularly detailed (there don't seem to be a lot of letters and diaries, or mentions in other people's - yet, at least!), but covers the whole ninety years pretty much, "warts and all". I first read her early books long before coming across the later and perhaps more popular Cazalet chronicles, which are really a family saga based on her own family (making some of the early parts of the biography quite familiar to anyone who has read those!) I think her earlier work has been a bit in the shade since the Cazalet series, so it was good to read about some of the background to those too. She seems to have been both lonely and needy and yet at the same time extremely sociable, a strange mix: the descriptions of her entertaining housefuls of guests sound energetic and exhausting but not lonely, but perhaps there is loneliness in crowds. If she has been seen in terms of being wife/mistress to more famous men, this biography helps to redress the balance a little.

[Jane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this biography. I love Elizabeth Jane Howard, in spite of her flaws and for her ability to translate the fecklessness and foolishness of real life into compelling fiction: All the characters of her life (herself included) are there, transformed to greater or lesser degree. I have a lot of sympathy for EJH. She saw having a man as an essential to a woman's life--and this is a commonplace of many women's lives, even into my generation. In spite of this she was a successful and prolific writer. Her novels are still worth reading. Because of this dependence she married an assortment of dullards, drunks, and petty tyrants--with whom she was generally able to hold her own. Kingsley Amis (husband 3) may be a better known name, but I bet her novels hold up better than his. He was an ass.

[Giulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Avevo iniziato questa biografia l'anno in cui Fazi la pubblicò, ma mi resi immediatamente conto che il pericolo spoiler sulla saga dei Cazalet era altissimo. L'ho dunque messa da parte in libreria e dopo aver terminato Perdersi qualche giorno fa ho proprio sentito il bisogno di capire meglio questa donna e i suoi demoni interiori, cosa l'avesse spinta a scrivere un libro come Perdersi e quale fosse stato l'evento così traumatico della sua vita che lo ha ispirato.

Sono contenta di aver trovato le risposte che cercavo, questa biografia racconta molto bene la vita privata di Howard e le sue opere, riuscendo a metterle in relazione in maniera abbastanza esaustiva e particolareggiata.

Secondo me é un testo imprescindibile per chi, come me, apprezza questa scrittrice e spera in una sua rivalutazione non solo come la moglie di Amis.

[Cecilia]

La saga dei Cazalet è forse la mia saga familiare preferita e volevo saperne di più sulla sua autrice sin da quando l'ho letta, pur non avendone apprezzato allo stesso modo gli altri romanzi.
Artemis Cooper traccia un ritratto interessante della vita di EJH ma non del tutto convincente; ho trovato infatti fastidiosissimi gli spiegoni con tanto di trama di tutte le opere che, se non avessi letto già da prima, mi sarei interamente spoilerata e l'intera narrazione troppo incentrata sulle relazioni sentimentali della Howard, appunto. Leggerò anche "Slipstream", il suo memoir autobiografico, proprio perché questa biografia non mi ha soddisfatta del tutto.

[Anne Fenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh dear I sometimes wish I didn't know about the lives of my favourite authors. I've been a fan of the novels of EJH for many years, starting with her middlebrow books of the 1950s, The Beautiful Visit, finishing with her novels about the war years, the Cazelet Chronicles. I've read her autobiography Slipstream but her biography naturally tells a different story. Author's personal lives shouldn't alter your appreciation of their work but I'm going to leave rereading her novels for a few years.

[Chrissy Frost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just a third of the way through this satisfyingly gossipy biography I was already losing track of how many married men this literary femme fatale had snatched away from their wives! Elizabeth Jane Howard was, ahem, a bit of a ‘goer’ to put it mildly. Her remarkable and messy life was full of high achievements in writing and catastrophic disappointments in love. Her list of luminary lovers includes Arthur Koestler, Cecil Day-Lewis, Laurie Lee and Kingsley Amis. Fascinating biography of a complex woman who wrote beautifully but made inexplicably poor decisions in her personal life.

[Peter Burton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good but obviously only for those who know some of her books.I’d just finished the 5 books in the Cazalet Chronicles and wanted to see if there was any link to her own life;and there was.This biography was comprehensive and well written discussing her life and loves,her books and relationships and was especially interesting on her marriage to Kingsley Amis.It’s full of stories about famous writers so it was a bit like lifting the curtain on the Rich and Famous.So enjoyable if you know her work with its insight into London literary life just after WW II.

[Fiona · Rating 4 out of 5]

I could not wait to read this biography and although I enjoyed it ,as good as reading a gripping novel,there was not much in the way of new content.
I love reading biographies of those creatives living,loving and working with other groups and their influences. EJH was without a doubt quite a girl/woman and her talent was sometimes sidelined for love and sometimes her life dictated her work
Well worth the read

[Anne Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well researched and insightful. A fascinating glimpse into the life of a gifted and prolific writer, in her time unjustly dismissed often as a writer of "women's" books, or compared unflatteringly to the literary talent of her husband of many years, Kingsley Amis. A vivid picture of not only Howard's career as a writer, but of her personal and family life.

[Karon Buxton · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars Well research fascinating autobiography of EJh and great reading for all fans but ! The big but not sure why it was written when Ejh’s own memoir slipstream is so highly rated amongst fellow novelists and readers alike, parts of the autobiography were “clunky” but it was a bargain find for me from book barn second hand book shop , so now onto slipstream and Ejh’s whole back Catalogue.

[Claire Milne · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not the read I was expecting. Much of the focus was on the affairs Elizabeth Jane Howard had and I felt it didn't portray her as a particularly nice person. Can't say it made me want to read her books either as from what was said about them, they appear to be reflections of her own life.

[Sue Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting biography of Elizabeth Jane Howard; it has encouraged me to try the Cazalet Chronicles.