Jenny Uglow
Encyclopedia
Jennifer Sheila Uglow OBE (née Crowther) is a British biographer, critic
and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus
, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell
, William Hogarth
, Thomas Bewick
and the Lunar Society
, among others, and has also compiled a women's biographical dictionary.
She won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize
for The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future 1730–1810, and her works have twice been shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize
.
and later Dorset
. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College
(1958–64) and St Anne's College, University of Oxford
. After gaining a first in English, she took a B.Litt. In 1971, she married Steve Uglow, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent
; the couple have three sons and a daughter. As of 2008, Uglow lives at Canterbury
in Kent
.
Uglow has worked in publishing
since leaving university; as of 2008, she is the editorial director of the publishing company Chatto & Windus
, an imprint of Random House
.
She is an honorary visiting professor at the University of Warwick
, vice-president of the Gaskell Society and a trustee of the Wordsworth Trust
. She was formerly a member of the British Library
's Advisory Group for the Humanities.
of prominent women, first published in 1982; the work is currently in its fourth edition and contains over 2,000 biographies, though later versions have involved other editors. Uglow later wrote:
Her first full-length biographies, depicting the Victorian women writers George Eliot
(1987) and Elizabeth Gaskell
(1993), continue her interest in documenting women and reflect her literary background. Gaskell scholar Angus Easson describes Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories as "the best current biography" of the author, and The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell refers to it as "authoritative".
Subsequent works have moved further into the past, with subjects including 18th century author Henry Fielding
(1995), and artists William Hogarth
(1997) and Thomas Bewick
(2006). The scientists and engineers of the Lunar Society
, including Erasmus Darwin
, Matthew Boulton
, James Watt
, Joseph Priestley
and Josiah Wedgwood
, are the subject of her prize-winning work The Lunar Men (2003).
Uglow's biographies have been particularly praised for their vivid, detailed recreation of the time and place in which their subjects lived. "No one gives us the feel of past life as she does" writes A. S. Byatt
of Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick, and a review of The Lunar Men in The Observer
claims "never has the eighteenth century come so much to life." Reviewing Hogarth: A Life and a World, Peter Ackroyd
wrote, "She depicts the city at first hand, almost as if she herself had been wandering through Hogarth’s engravings." Frances Spalding
considers Nature's Engraver to be "immeasurably enriched by Uglow's canny grasp of period detail." David Chandler
, however, complains that "Uglow tends to amass detail on quotable detail, when sometimes one would like a little more taut synthesis, more interrogation of those details."
Uglow's depiction of scientific thought has also been praised; A. S. Byatt, for example, describes The Lunar Men as "full of [...] the real sense that scientific curiosity is as exciting as any 'artistic' pursuit." Her discussion of art has gained a more mixed reception. The New York Times
art critic Michael Kimmelman
complains that Uglow overvalues Hogarth's paintings and neglects his artistic associates in favour of his literary ones. On the other hand, Helen Macdonald
, reviewing Nature's Engraver, considers that it is "in her descriptions of the physical process of artistic creation, and her musings on individual engravings, that Uglow is at her most energetic and fluid."
in 2004, which Uglow describes as a "labour of love". She is also a reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement
, The Sunday Times
, The Guardian
, The New York Review of Books
and The Independent on Sunday
.
Uglow has edited collections of writings by Walter Pater
(1973) and Angela Carter
(1997), as well as co-editing a set of essays about Charles Babbage
(1997). She has also written introductions to several works by Elizabeth Gaskell
.
programme on William Blake
, part of a series marking the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth; the programme emphasised Blake's radicalism. She has also twice appeared on the Radio 4 discussion programme, In Our Time
. She acted as a historical consultant on several period dramas for the BBC
, including Wives and Daughters
(1999), Daniel Deronda
(2002), He Knew He Was Right
(2004), North and South
(2004), Bleak House (2005) and Cranford (2007), as well as for the films Pride and Prejudice
(2005) and Miss Potter (2006).
for biography (2002), and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize
for history of the International PEN
(2003). Her biographies Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories and Hogarth: A Life and a World were both shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize
for biography, and three of her books have reached the longlist of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction
. According to the charity Booktrust
, Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick was the nonfiction work most often selected as "book of the year" by critics in 2006.
Uglow is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
. She has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Birmingham
, University of Kent
, Staffordshire University
and Birmingham City University
. In 2008, she was awarded the OBE
for services to literature and publishing. In 2010, she succeeded Aeronwy Thomas
as President of the Alliance of Literary Societies
.
Critic
A critic is anyone who expresses a value judgement. Informally, criticism is a common aspect of all human expression and need not necessarily imply skilled or accurate expressions of judgement. Critical judgements, good or bad, may be positive , negative , or balanced...
and publisher. The editorial director of Chatto & Windus
Chatto and Windus
Chatto & Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, publishers. It was originally an important publisher of books in London, founded in the Victorian era....
, she has written critically acclaimed biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
, William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
, Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick was an English wood engraver and ornithologist.- Early life and apprenticeship :Bewick was born at Cherryburn House in the village of Mickley, in the parish of Ovingham, Northumberland, England, near Newcastle upon Tyne on 12 August 1753...
and the Lunar Society
Lunar Society
The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle,...
, among others, and has also compiled a women's biographical dictionary.
She won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize
James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize
Hessell-Tiltman Prize
The Hessell-Tiltman History Prize is awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content covering a period up to and including WWII, and published in the year of the award. The books are to be of high literary merit but not primarily academic. The prize is organized by the United...
for The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future 1730–1810, and her works have twice been shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize
Costa Book Awards
The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....
.
Personal life
Uglow was brought up in CumbriaCumbria
Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
and later Dorset
Dorset
Dorset , is a county in South West England on the English Channel coast. The county town is Dorchester which is situated in the south. The Hampshire towns of Bournemouth and Christchurch joined the county with the reorganisation of local government in 1974...
. She attended Cheltenham Ladies' College
Cheltenham Ladies' College
The Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England.-History:The school was founded in 1853...
(1958–64) and St Anne's College, University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
. After gaining a first in English, she took a B.Litt. In 1971, she married Steve Uglow, a professor of criminal justice at the University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
; the couple have three sons and a daughter. As of 2008, Uglow lives at Canterbury
Canterbury
Canterbury is a historic English cathedral city, which lies at the heart of the City of Canterbury, a district of Kent in South East England. It lies on the River Stour....
in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
.
Career
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
since leaving university; as of 2008, she is the editorial director of the publishing company Chatto & Windus
Chatto and Windus
Chatto & Windus has been, since 1987, an imprint of Random House, publishers. It was originally an important publisher of books in London, founded in the Victorian era....
, an imprint of Random House
Random House
Random House, Inc. is the largest general-interest trade book publisher in the world. It has been owned since 1998 by the German private media corporation Bertelsmann and has become the umbrella brand for Bertelsmann book publishing. Random House also has a movie production arm, Random House Films,...
.
She is an honorary visiting professor at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
, vice-president of the Gaskell Society and a trustee of the Wordsworth Trust
Wordsworth Trust
The Wordsworth Trust is a living memorial set up to celebrate the works of the poet William Wordsworth and his contemporaries. Wordsworth, conscious of the need for poetry to renew itself within a tradition speaks of writing for 'youthful poets' who 'will be my second self when I am gone.'An...
. She was formerly a member of the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
's Advisory Group for the Humanities.
Biographies
Uglow compiled an encyclopedia of biographiesBiography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of prominent women, first published in 1982; the work is currently in its fourth edition and contains over 2,000 biographies, though later versions have involved other editors. Uglow later wrote:
Her first full-length biographies, depicting the Victorian women writers George Eliot
George Eliot
Mary Anne Evans , better known by her pen name George Eliot, was an English novelist, journalist and translator, and one of the leading writers of the Victorian era...
(1987) and Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
(1993), continue her interest in documenting women and reflect her literary background. Gaskell scholar Angus Easson describes Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories as "the best current biography" of the author, and The Cambridge Companion to Elizabeth Gaskell refers to it as "authoritative".
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
(1995), and artists William Hogarth
William Hogarth
William Hogarth was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art. His work ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures called "modern moral subjects"...
(1997) and Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick
Thomas Bewick was an English wood engraver and ornithologist.- Early life and apprenticeship :Bewick was born at Cherryburn House in the village of Mickley, in the parish of Ovingham, Northumberland, England, near Newcastle upon Tyne on 12 August 1753...
(2006). The scientists and engineers of the Lunar Society
Lunar Society
The Lunar Society of Birmingham was a dinner club and informal learned society of prominent figures in the Midlands Enlightenment, including industrialists, natural philosophers and intellectuals, who met regularly between 1765 and 1813 in Birmingham, England. At first called the Lunar Circle,...
, including Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin
Erasmus Darwin was an English physician who turned down George III's invitation to be a physician to the King. One of the key thinkers of the Midlands Enlightenment, he was also a natural philosopher, physiologist, slave trade abolitionist,inventor and poet...
, Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton
Matthew Boulton, FRS was an English manufacturer and business partner of Scottish engineer James Watt. In the final quarter of the 18th century the partnership installed hundreds of Boulton & Watt steam engines, which were a great advance on the state of the art, making possible the...
, James Watt
James Watt
James Watt, FRS, FRSE was a Scottish inventor and mechanical engineer whose improvements to the Newcomen steam engine were fundamental to the changes brought by the Industrial Revolution in both his native Great Britain and the rest of the world.While working as an instrument maker at the...
, Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley
Joseph Priestley, FRS was an 18th-century English theologian, Dissenting clergyman, natural philosopher, chemist, educator, and political theorist who published over 150 works...
and Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood
Josiah Wedgwood was an English potter, founder of the Wedgwood company, credited with the industrialization of the manufacture of pottery. A prominent abolitionist, Wedgwood is remembered for his "Am I Not A Man And A Brother?" anti-slavery medallion. He was a member of the Darwin–Wedgwood family...
, are the subject of her prize-winning work The Lunar Men (2003).
Uglow's biographies have been particularly praised for their vivid, detailed recreation of the time and place in which their subjects lived. "No one gives us the feel of past life as she does" writes A. S. Byatt
A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy, DBE is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner...
of Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick, and a review of The Lunar Men in The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
claims "never has the eighteenth century come so much to life." Reviewing Hogarth: A Life and a World, Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd
Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More he won the Somerset Maugham Award...
wrote, "She depicts the city at first hand, almost as if she herself had been wandering through Hogarth’s engravings." Frances Spalding
Frances Spalding
Frances Spalding CBE, FRSL is a British art historian and writer.She studied at Nottingham University and gained her PhD for a study of Roger Fry. She taught art history at Sheffield City Polytechnic before becoming a freelance writer and curator...
considers Nature's Engraver to be "immeasurably enriched by Uglow's canny grasp of period detail." David Chandler
David Chandler
David Chandler may refer to:* David Chandler , American physical chemist* David G. Chandler, British historian specializing in Napoleonic history* David P. Chandler, American historian specializing in Cambodian history...
, however, complains that "Uglow tends to amass detail on quotable detail, when sometimes one would like a little more taut synthesis, more interrogation of those details."
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
art critic Michael Kimmelman
Michael Kimmelman
Michael Kimmelman is an author, critic, columnist and pianist. He is the chief architecture critic for The New York Times and written on issues of public housing, community development and social responsibility. He was the paper's longtime chief art critic and, in 2007, created the Abroad column,...
complains that Uglow overvalues Hogarth's paintings and neglects his artistic associates in favour of his literary ones. On the other hand, Helen Macdonald
Helen MacDonald
Helen MacDonald may refer to:* Helen MacDonald , member of the Prince Edward Island Legislative Assembly from 2000 to 2007* Helen MacDonald , Canadian politician, former leader of the New Democrats...
, reviewing Nature's Engraver, considers that it is "in her descriptions of the physical process of artistic creation, and her musings on individual engravings, that Uglow is at her most energetic and fluid."
Other writing and editing
Uglow's non-biographical writing includes a history of gardening in Britain, written for the bicentenary of the Royal Horticultural SocietyRoyal Horticultural Society
The Royal Horticultural Society was founded in 1804 in London, England as the Horticultural Society of London, and gained its present name in a Royal Charter granted in 1861 by Prince Albert...
in 2004, which Uglow describes as a "labour of love". She is also a reviewer for The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement
The Times Literary Supplement is a weekly literary review published in London by News International, a subsidiary of News Corporation.-History:...
, The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times
The Sunday Times is a British Sunday newspaper.The Sunday Times may also refer to:*The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times *The Sunday Times...
, The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
, The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books
The New York Review of Books is a fortnightly magazine with articles on literature, culture and current affairs. Published in New York City, it takes as its point of departure that the discussion of important books is itself an indispensable literary activity...
and The Independent on Sunday
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
.
Uglow has edited collections of writings by Walter Pater
Walter Pater
Walter Horatio Pater was an English essayist, critic of art and literature, and writer of fiction.-Early life:...
(1973) and Angela Carter
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
(1997), as well as co-editing a set of essays about Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage
Charles Babbage, FRS was an English mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer who originated the concept of a programmable computer...
(1997). She has also written introductions to several works by Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Gaskell
Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell, née Stevenson , often referred to simply as Mrs Gaskell, was a British novelist and short story writer during the Victorian era...
.
Radio, television and film
Uglow presented The Poet of Albion, a BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4
BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
programme on William Blake
William Blake
William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...
, part of a series marking the 250th anniversary of the poet's birth; the programme emphasised Blake's radicalism. She has also twice appeared on the Radio 4 discussion programme, In Our Time
In Our Time (BBC Radio 4)
In Our Time is a live BBC radio discussion series exploring the history of ideas, presented by Melvyn Bragg since 15 October 1998.. It is one of BBC radio's most successful discussion programmes, acknowledged to have "transformed the landscape for serious ideas at peak listening time"...
. She acted as a historical consultant on several period dramas for the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, including Wives and Daughters
Wives and Daughters
Wives and Daughters is a novel by Elizabeth Gaskell, first published in the Cornhill Magazine as a serial from August 1864 to January 1866...
(1999), Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda
Daniel Deronda is a novel by George Eliot, first published in 1876. It was the last novel she completed and the only one set in the contemporary Victorian society of her day...
(2002), He Knew He Was Right
He Knew He Was Right (TV serial)
He Knew He Was Right was a 2004 BBC TV adaptation of the novel of the same name by Anthony Trollope. It was directed by Tom Vaughan.*Jenny Uglow consultant*Nigel Stafford-Clark producer-Cast:*Oliver Dimsdale - Louis Trevelyan...
(2004), North and South
North and South (2004 TV serial)
North & South is a British television drama serial, produced by the BBC and originally broadcast in four episodes on BBC One between November and December 2004. It follows the story of Margaret Hale , a young woman from southern England who has to move to the North after her father decides to leave...
(2004), Bleak House (2005) and Cranford (2007), as well as for the films Pride and Prejudice
Pride & Prejudice (2005 film)
Pride & Prejudice is a 2005 British romance film directed by Joe Wright. It is a film adaptation of the 1813 novel of the same name by Jane Austen and the second adaption produced by Working Title Films. It was released on September 16, 2005, in the UK and on November 11, 2005, in the...
(2005) and Miss Potter (2006).
Awards and honours
The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future 1730–1810 won the James Tait Black Memorial PrizeJames Tait Black Memorial Prize
Founded in 1919, the James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are among the oldest and most prestigious book prizes awarded for literature written in the English language and are Britain's oldest literary awards...
for biography (2002), and the Hessell-Tiltman Prize
Hessell-Tiltman Prize
The Hessell-Tiltman History Prize is awarded to the best work of non-fiction of historical content covering a period up to and including WWII, and published in the year of the award. The books are to be of high literary merit but not primarily academic. The prize is organized by the United...
for history of the International PEN
International PEN
PEN International , the worldwide association of writers, was founded in London in 1921 to promote friendship and intellectual co-operation among writers everywhere....
(2003). Her biographies Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories and Hogarth: A Life and a World were both shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize
Costa Book Awards
The Costa Book Awards are a series of literary awards given to books by authors based in Great Britain and Ireland. They were known as the Whitbread Book Awards until 2005, after which Costa Coffee, a subsidiary of Whitbread, took over sponsorship....
for biography, and three of her books have reached the longlist of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction
Samuel Johnson Prize
The Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction is one of the most prestigious prizes for non-fiction writing. It was founded in 1999 following the demise of the NCR Book Award and based on an anonymous donation. The prize is named after Samuel Johnson...
. According to the charity Booktrust
Booktrust
Booktrust is an independent British charity dedicated to encouraging people of all ages and cultures to engage with books. Established in 1992, it has received UK government funding since 2004, and inspired similar schemes in over 20 countries. In December 2010 it was announced that the government...
, Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick was the nonfiction work most often selected as "book of the year" by critics in 2006.
Uglow is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
Royal Society of Literature
The Royal Society of Literature is the "senior literary organisation in Britain". It was founded in 1820 by George IV, in order to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". The Society's first president was Thomas Burgess, who later became the Bishop of Salisbury...
. She has been awarded honorary degrees by the University of Birmingham
University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...
, University of Kent
University of Kent
The University of Kent, previously the University of Kent at Canterbury, is a public research university based in Kent, United Kingdom...
, Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University is a university with its main campus based in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and with other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield and Shrewsbury.- History :...
and Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University
Birmingham City University is a British university in the city of Birmingham, England. It is the second largest of three universities in the city, the other two being the Aston University and University of Birmingham...
. In 2008, she was awarded the OBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
for services to literature and publishing. In 2010, she succeeded Aeronwy Thomas
Aeronwy Thomas
Aeronwy Bryn Thomas-Ellis translator of Italian poetry, was the second child and only daughter of the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his wife, Caitlin Macnamara.-Early life:...
as President of the Alliance of Literary Societies
Alliance of Literary Societies
The Alliance of Literary Societies, or A. L. S., is an umbrella organisation for literary societies mainly based in the United Kingdom.The Alliance of Literary Societies was founded in 1973, as a result of a campaign to preserve a property associated with Charles Dickens, and has over 120 member...
.
Biographies and studies
- George Eliot (1987)
- Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories (1993)
- Henry Fielding (1995)
- Hogarth: A Life and a World (1997)
- Dr Johnson, His Club and Other Friends (1998)
- The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future 1730–1810 (2003)
- Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women's Biography (later editions with Maggy Hendry; 4th edn; 2005)
- Nature's Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick (2006)
- Words and Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition (2008)
- A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration (2009)
As editor
- Walter Pater: Essays on Literature and Art (1973)
- Shaking a Leg: Collected Writings (1997) (by Angela CarterAngela CarterAngela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
) - The Vintage Book of Ghosts (1997)
- Cultural Babbage: Technology, Time and Invention (with Francis SpuffordFrancis Spufford-Early life:He studied English Literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, gaining a BA in 1985.-Career:He was Chief Publisher's Reader from 1987-90 for Chatto & Windus....
; 1997)