Elizabeth Jane Howard
| Elizabeth Jane Howard | |
|---|---|
| Born |
26 March 1923 London, England, UK |
| Died |
2 January 2014 (aged 90) Bungay, Suffolk, England, UK |
| Occupation | Actress, model and novelist |
| Nationality | British |
| Genre | Fiction, non-fiction |
Elizabeth Jane Howard, CBE, FRSL (26 March 1923 – 2 January 2014), was an English novelist. She had previously been an actress and a model.[1]
Career
In 1951, she won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for her first novel, The Beautiful Visit (1950). Six further novels followed, before she embarked on her best known work, The Cazalet Chronicle, a family saga "about the ways in which English life changed during the war years, particularly for women."[2] The first four volumes, The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off, were published from 1990-1995 and the fifth, All Change, in 2013.
The first two works were serialised by Cinema Verity for BBC Television as The Cazalets in 2001. A BBC Radio 4 version in 45 episodes was also broadcast from 2012.[2]
Howard wrote the screenplay for the 1989 movie, Getting It Right, based on her 1982 novel of the same name and directed by Randal Kleiser.[3]
She also wrote a book of short stories, Mr. Wrong (1975), and edited two anthologies.
Personal life
Howard's parents were David Liddon Howard (1896–1958), a timber merchant, and Katharine Margaret ('Kit') Somervell (1895-1975), a dancer with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, daughter of the composer Sir Arthur Somervell.[4][5] One of her brothers, Colin, lived with her and her third husband, Sir Kingsley Amis, for seventeen years.[6] She was educated at Francis Holland School and studied domestic science and drama at Ebury Street, London.[7]
Howard married Peter Scott in 1942, at age 19, and they had a daughter, Nicola (born 1943). Howard left Scott in 1946, and they were divorced in 1951. At this time she was employed as part-time secretary to the pioneering canals conservation organization the Inland Waterways Association, where she met and collaborated with Robert Aickman on the story collection, We Are for the Dark (1951). She had an affair with Aickman, described in her autobiography Slipstream (2002).
Her second marriage, to Australian broadcaster James Douglas-Henry[8] in 1958, was brief. Her third marriage, to novelist Sir Kingsley Amis, whom she met while helping organise the Cheltenham Literary Festival,[2] lasted from 1965 to 1983; for part of that time, 1968–1976, they lived at Lemmons, a Georgian house in Barnet, where Howard wrote Something in Disguise (1969).[9] Her stepson, Martin Amis, has credited her with encouraging him to become a more serious reader and writer.[10]
Later years
She lived in Bungay, Suffolk, and was appointed CBE in 2000.[11] Her autobiography, Slipstream, was published in 2002.[12] She died, aged 90, at home on 2 January 2014.[1]
Works
- The Beautiful Visit. Jonathan Cape. 1950. ISBN 0-224-60977-7. Winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize
- We Are for the Dark: Six Ghost Stories. Jonathan Cape. 1951.(a collection containing three stories by Howard and three by Robert Aickman)
- The Long View. Jonathan Cape. 1956. ISBN 0-224-60318-3.
- The Sea Change. Jonathan Cape. 1959. ISBN 0-224-60319-1.
- After Julius. Jonathan Cape. 1965. ISBN 0-224-61037-6.
- Something in Disguise. Jonathan Cape. 1969. ISBN 0-224-61744-3.
- Odd Girl Out. Jonathan Cape. 1972. ISBN 0-224-00661-4.
- Mr. Wrong. Jonathan Cape. 1975.
- Getting It Right. Hamish Hamilton. 1982. ISBN 0-241-10805-5.
- The Light Years. Macmillan Publishers. 1990. ISBN 0-333-53875-7.
- Marking Time. Macmillan. 1991. ISBN 0-333-56596-7.
- Confusion. Macmillan. 1993. ISBN 0-333-57582-2.
- Casting Off. Macmillan. 1995. ISBN 0-333-60757-0.
- Falling. Macmillan. 1999. ISBN 0-333-73020-8.
- Slipstream. Macmillan. 2002. ISBN 0-333-90349-8.
- Three Miles Up and Other Strange Stories. ISBN 1-872621-75-9. (contains the three stories included in We Are for the Dark, plus Mr Wrong)
- Love All. Macmillan. 2008. ISBN 1-4050-4161-7.
- All Change. Macmillan. 2013. ISBN 0230743072.[13]
References
Notes
- 1 2 "Novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard dies". BBC.co.uk. 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2014-01-02.
- 1 2 3 Frances Wilson (30 December 2012). "Elizabeth Jane Howard: interview". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
- ↑ "IMDb profile of Getting It Right (film)".
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10548019/Elizabeth-Jane-Howard-obituary.html
- ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/elizabeth-jane-howard-writer-9038103.html
- ↑ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1565696/Family-defends-racist-Sir-Kingsley-Amis.html
- ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/elizabeth-jane-howard-writer-9038103.html
- ↑ http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/elizabeth-jane-howard-writer-9038103.html
- ↑ Leader, Zachary. The Life of Kingsley Amis, Jonathan Cape, 2006, p. 633.
- ↑ Hubbard, Kim (23 April 1990). "Novelist Martin Amis Carries on a Family Tradition". People. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ Clare Colvin (9 November 2002). "Elizabeth Jane Howard: 'All your life you are changing'". The Independent. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
- ↑ Anthony Thwaite (9 November 2002). "When will Miss Howard take off all her clothes?". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
- ↑ Clark, Alex (14 November 2013). "Review: All Change by Elizabeth Jane Howard". The Guardian.
Further reading
- Elizabeth Jane Howard: Overview, Orlando (website), Cambridge University Press, accessed 1 November 2010, archived by WebCite on 31 October 2010.
- "Elizabeth Jane Howard", BBC Radio 4, 29 October 2002, accessed 1 November 2010.
- Brown, Andrew. "Loves and letters", The Guardian, 9 November 2002, accessed 1 November 2010.
- Millard, Rosie. "The beauty and the psycho", The Times, 12 October 2008, accessed 1 November 2010.