Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard FRSL | |
---|---|
Born | London, England, UK | 26 March 1923
Died | 2 January 2014 Bungay, Suffolk, England, UK | (aged 90)
Occupation | Writer |
Genre | Fiction, non-fiction |
Spouse | |
Children | 1 |
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Early life
Howard's father was Major David Liddon Howard MC (1896–1958), a timber merchant who followed the work of his own father, Alexander Liddon Howard (1863-1946).[citation needed] Her mother was Katharine Margaret ('Kit') Somervell (1895–1975), a dancer with Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes and daughter of composer Sir Arthur Somervell.[2][3] (Howard's brother, Colin, lived with her and her third husband, Kingsley Amis, for 17 years.)[4] Mostly educated at home, Howard briefly attended Francis Holland School before attending domestic-science college at Ebury Street and secretarial college in central London.[3]
Career
Howard worked briefly as an actress in provincial repertory and occasionally as a model before her writing career, which began in 1947.
The Beautiful Visit (1950), Howard's first novel, was described as "distinctive, self-assured and remarkably sensual". It won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1951 for best novel by a writer under 30.[5] She next collaborated with Robert Aickman, writing three of the six short stories in the collection We Are for the Dark (1951).
Her second novel, The Long View (1956), describes a marriage in reverse chronology; Angela Lambert remarked, "Why The Long View isn't recognised as one of the great novels of the 20th century I will never know."[5]
Howard published five additional novels before she embarked on her best known work, the five-volume Cazalet Chronicle. As Artemis Cooper describes it: “Jane had two ideas, and could not decide which to embark on; so she invited her stepson Martin [Amis] round for a drink to ask his advice. One idea was an updated version of Sense and Sensibility … the other was a three-volume family saga … Martin said immediately, “Do that one.”[6]
The Chronicle was a family saga "about the ways in which English life changed during the war years, particularly for women." It follows three generations of a middle-class English family and draws strongly from Howard's own life and memories.[7] The first four volumes, The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, and Casting Off, were published from 1990 to 1995. Howard wrote the fifth, All Change (2013), in one year; it was her final novel. Millions of copies of the Cazalet Chronicle have been sold worldwide, and the novels remain in print ten years after her death.[1]
The Light Years and Marking Time 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.[7]
Howard wrote the screenplay for the 1989 movie Getting It Right, directed by Randal Kleiser, based on her 1982 novel of the same name.[8] She also wrote TV scripts for the popular series Upstairs, Downstairs.[1]
She wrote a book of short stories, Mr. Wrong (1975), and edited two anthologies, including The Lover's Companion (1978).[1]
Autobiography and biographies
Howard's autobiography, Slipstream, was published in 2002.[9]
A biography, entitled Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence by Artemis Cooper, was published by John Murray in 2017. A reviewer said it was "strongest in the case it makes for the virtues of Howard's fiction".[10]
Personal life
Howard was age 19 when she married conservationist
Her second marriage, to Australian broadcaster
In later life, Howard lived in
Works
- The Beautiful Visit. Jonathan Cape. 1950. ISBN 978-0-224-60977-7. 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 978-0-224-60318-8.
- The Sea Change. Jonathan Cape. 1959. ISBN 978-0-224-60319-5.
- After Julius. Jonathan Cape. 1965. ISBN 978-0-224-61037-7.
- Something in Disguise. Jonathan Cape. 1969. ISBN 978-0-224-61744-4.
- Odd Girl Out. Jonathan Cape. 1972. ISBN 978-0-224-00661-3.
- Mr. Wrong. Jonathan Cape. 1975.
- Getting It Right. ISBN 978-0-241-10805-5.
- The Light Years. ISBN 978-0-333-53875-3.
- Marking Time. Macmillan. 1991. ISBN 978-0-333-56596-4.
- Confusion. Macmillan. 1993. ISBN 978-0-333-57582-6.
- Casting Off. Macmillan. 1995. ISBN 978-0-333-60757-2.
- ISBN 978-0-333-73020-1.
- Slipstream. Macmillan. 2002. ISBN 978-0-333-90349-0.
- Three Miles Up and Other Strange Stories. 2003. ISBN 978-1-872621-75-3. (Contains the three stories included in We Are for the Dark, plus "Mr Wrong".)
- Love All. Macmillan. 2008. ISBN 978-1-4050-4161-4.
- All Change. Macmillan. 2013. ISBN 978-0230743076.[16]
- The Amazing Adventures of Freddie Whitemouse. Pan Macmillan. 2015. ISBN 978-1447293453.
- Green Shades: An Anthology of Plants, Gardens and Gardeners. Pan Macmillan. 2021. ISBN 978-1529050738.
References
- ^ a b c d e "Novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard dies". BBC. 2 January 2014.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
- ^ a b c Beauman, Nicola (3 January 2014). "Elizabeth Jane Howard: Writer". The Independent. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
- ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
- ^ a b Brown, Andrew (9 November 2002). "Profile: Elizabeth Jane Howard". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 February 2018.
- ^ Cooper, Artemis ‘’Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence’’, London: John Murray (2016), p.260.
- ^ a b c Wilson, Frances (30 December 2012). "Elizabeth Jane Howard: interview". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 April 2014.
- ^ "IMDb profile of Getting It Right (film)". IMDb.
- ^ Anthony Thwaite (9 November 2002). "When will Miss Howard take off all her clothes?". The Guardian. Retrieved 1 November 2010.
- ^ Adams, Matthew (3–4 June 2017). "Talent and torment". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
- ^ Elizabeth Jane Howard: Writer by Nicola Beauman, The Independent, January 3, 2014, Retrieved Jan.14, 2024
- ^ Elizabeth Jane Howard obituary by Janet Watts, The Guardian, January 2, 2014, Retrieved Jan.14, 2024
- ^ Elizabeth Jane Howard, Novelist of Mid-Century British Life, Dies at 90 by Margalit Fox, The New York Times, January 8, 2014, Retrieved Jan.14, 2024
- ^ Leader, Zachary. The Life of Kingsley Amis, Jonathan Cape, 2006, p. 633.
- ^ Cooper, Jonathan (23 April 1990). "Novelist Martin Amis Carries on a Family Tradition: Scathing Wit and Supreme Self-Confidence". People. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ^ 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.
- Ciuraru, Carmela (2023). Lives of the Wives: Five Literary Marriages. ISBN 9780062356918.
- Millard, Rosie. "The beauty and the psycho", The Times, 12 October 2008, accessed 1 November 2010.
External links
- Elizabeth Jane Howard at IMDb
- Elizabeth Jane Howard on Desert Island Discs
- Elizabeth Jane Howard at Library of Congress, with 26 library catalogue records