Elizabeth Taylor (novelist)

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For other persons named Elizabeth Taylor, see Elizabeth Taylor (disambiguation).

Elizabeth Taylor (née Coles; July 3, 1912 – November 19, 1975) was a popular English novelist and short story writer.

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[edit] Biography

Elizabeth Coles was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1912. She was educated at The Abbey School, Reading, and worked as a governess, as a tutor and as a librarian.

In 1936, she married John Michael Taylor, a businessman. She lived in Penn, Buckinghamshire, for almost all her married life.

Her first novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in various magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a children's book.

Taylor's work is mainly concerned with the nuances of "everyday" life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters.

She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell.

Elizabeth Taylor died at age 63 of cancer.

Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- "soul sisters all," in Tyler's words . In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. French director Francois Ozon, has made "The Real Life of Angel Deverell" (2007). American director Dan Ireland's made a screen adaptation of Taylor's "Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont" (2006).

[edit] Works

[edit] Novels

  • At Mrs. Lippincote's (1945)
  • Palladian (1946)
  • A View of the Harbour (1947)
  • A Wreath of Roses (1949)
  • A Game of Hide and Seek (1951)
  • The Sleeping Beauty (1953)
  • The Real Life of Angel Deverell (novel) (published as Angel)1957)
  • In a Summer Season (1961)

( Generally considered to be Taylor's most sex-infused work, it tells the story of a rich woman who marries a man 10 years her junior. Her passion for him makes her ignore friends who think he's after her money, but she can't overlook his attraction to her neighbor's seductive young daughter.)

Elizabeth Taylor was also a close friend of Elizabeth Jane Howard, who was asked by Elizabeth Taylor's widower to write a biography following Elizabeth Taylor's untimely death. Elizabeth Jane Howard refused due to what she felt was a lack of incident in Elizabeth Taylor's life. See Slipstream, Elizabeth Jane Howard's memoir, for more details on their friendship.

[edit] Short story collections

  • Hester Lilly (1954)
  • The Blush and Other Stories (1958)
  • A Dedicated Man and Other Stories (1965)
  • The Devastating Boys (1972)

[edit] Children's books

  • Mossy Trotter (1967)

[edit] Short stories

  • "Fly Paper"

[edit] Quotations

  • 'The whole point is that writing has a pattern and life hasn't. Life is so untidy. Art is so short and life so long. It is not possible to have perfection in life but it is possible to have perfection in a novel.'