When I saw the title, immediately thought of Parallel Lives - and there it was. I loved it. Id recommend Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light in a similar vein, as it's a kind of group biography. It looks at Virginia Woolf's relationship with the women who worked for her, and so explores domestic power, class, and the changing role and expectations of women.
Thank you! Glad you're a fan of Parallel Lives too. I'd love to write a top ten of group biographies too (my favourite kind) so it sounds as if Alison Light's book would be a great addition. I know and love Common People, and she's a wonderful writer.
Ah, I love a good book list! As someone who secretly wishes that biographies in general kind of skipped the childhood stuff and got straight to the good bits, I love a short biography. My addition to the list is Living Well is the Best Revenge, by Calvin Tomkins, about the jazz-age couple Sara and Gerald Murphy.
That sounds fascinating as a double biography, Jodi - it's going on my list. I love your suggestion that biographers should speed through the childhood stuff, that's pretty much what Clare Carlisle does in her excellent new book, George Eliot's Double Life. It works very well!
I would love to do a deep dive into the Mitfords, June, and both books are very much on my list. I know from Substack what a brilliant writer Laura is! I did enjoy Paula Byrne's Barbara Pym, slightly worried about her Jane Austen biography as I do love the Tomalin one so much, and much of Austen's life is by now very familiar - but should give it a chance. Very interested by what you say about Wifedom too.
Thank you so much Ann, greatly appreciated. As always! My own suggestion is Meredith Daneman's biog of Margot Fonteyn. Doesn't qualify as short (!) so not really within your remit but it's one of the best lives I've ever read. Sublime match of writer and subject.
I agree, Louise. It was used as a 'set text' on the biography Master's course I studied. One of the first group biographies, Faber says on their website, and it is still such a classic that they reissued it in 2022.
I tend to veer towards reading memoirs/autobiographies moreso. And also the new genre of fictionalized biographies, one good example being Colm Toibin's 'The Magician' (about Thomas Mann). But one biography that stands out for me, and it is not a short book, is David Remnick's 'King of the World' about Muhammad Ali. It opened up the life of the man, not just the famous sportsman.
Memoirs (slightly older ones, usually) appeal to me greatly, & I have just finished RC Sherriff's charming No Leading Lady written in 1968. I haven't read The Magician yet but enjoyed 'The Master'. Your description of David Remnick's biography makes me want to read that too.
A wonderful and inspiring list, Ann, thank you. When I opened your post, the first writer I thought of was Lytton Strachey. Thank you for the Substack recommendations too. Plenty to explore!
Two biographies that have stayed with me (but which aren't necessarily short!) are Jenny Uglow's "Hogarth" and Rosamund Bartlett's "Tolstoy: A Russian Life".
"Stuart: A Life Backwards" is indeed great... but such a hard read!
Ah, thank you Ollie - I haven't read either of those, so they're going straight on my list. Agreed about 'Stuart', so sad I couldn't bear to re-read it (but still recommend it, with a warning).
Shelley and His World has been on my list for ages! I needed the reminder.
Now, if you're looking for hyper-brevity, I love These Possible Lives by Fleur Jaeggy. In it, there are 3 essays on Keats, Thomas De Quincey, and Marcel Schwob in almost...prose poetry. Nothing quite like them!
These sound great - and I hadn't heard of Jaeggy's book. I do have a soft spot for prose poetry, having always enjoyed (and taught!) Baudelaire's Le Spleen de Paris. Many thanks.
A fantastic list. My GOAT is Tomalin’s Invisible Woman. Recently I loved Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Camille Laurens, though that maybe shades over into a category I’d love to write about - the hybrid biography.
Many thanks Susanna! I was going to include Invisible Woman - definitely one of my favourites - before deciding to go with the shorter Shelley, which I have a soft spot for. Gosh, I hadn't heard of that one by Camille Laurens, I will try to get hold of a copy. Do write about it!
Thanks for this list. Have not read much biog lately, but from your list, I'd be most interested in reading two of them: the one about Sylvia Plath as I've heard pieces here and there about her troubled life but have never read enough in one place and, of course, the one about Lady Di.
I love a good biography! They can get quite weighty at times though. I am currently reading through the biographies of all the U.S. Presidents at the rate of 3 or 4 per year. Reading them in chronological order is an amazing experience of learning, not only about the lives of the individuals, but the broader scope of American history. I also read three Steinbeck biographies this year. Thanks for the recommendations for some shorter options! And thanks for the mention as well, truly appreciated.
Thanks for your comment Matthew, and I am very impressed by your breadth and depth of reading. Three Steinbeck biographies is already impressive, not to mention the Presidents! I would be interested if the author's style of writing makes a difference in how enjoyable you find a biography, or is it more whether the book seems well researched and accurate?
The author's style is a major factor for sure. Some biographies can be really dry. I do want them to well researched and accurate but I also want it to be readable. Great biographers can get all the important facts in there but still make it read like good story.
Thanks Ann for a great bio selection! I'm not normally a fan of the genre but 'Les Annés' by Annie Ernaux (available in English from Fitzcarraldo Editions - 'The Years', translated by A. L. Strayer) is one of the books I enjoyed most this year. It weaves together the life of the nameless protagonist (the author, of course) with those of the people close to her, and the main historical events that occurred during her lifetime (from the 1940s to the early 2000s). More a 'collective' than an individual biography, it's a fascinating story written in a highly original yet eminently readable style.
That's a great suggestion Nic, thank you! I do read French, but mainly about 19th-century poets, so I really should get up to speed with Arnaux. The Years sounds great, and very approachable in this translation. Fitzcarraldo Editions are wonderful, I think.
Thank you Claire! I'm a huge fan of both Frances Wilson and Lyndall Gordon, whose group biography Outsiders I love (and want to write about another time). So I am very keen to read Lives Like Loaded Guns and hear more about the feuds over her biographical legacy. Thank you for recommending it.
That's a great list of suggestions, Ann! I am particulalry keen to read Tomalin (I'm also a fan) on Shelley. I'll have to skip one of your recommendations, though, as reading about the Windsor family provokes a horrible allergic rash.
I'd add Johnson's life of Pope (or any of his lives of the poets series) to this.
And finally finally, thank you for the kind mention!
Haha, thanks Jeffrey and I understand your reluctance to dabble in any of the Windsor nonsense. Craig Brown writes for Private Eye, so his take is very satirical - but I take your point. I will read Johnson's Lives of the poets to refresh my spirits.
A great list! Lots of favorites here. I’d add from the U.S. side Jenn Shapland’s My Autobiography of Carson McCullers. It’s not a full bio but rather a hybrid memoir/bio of her own life and McCullers’s as she researched the life and work, even trying on her clothes and living in her house. Highly recommended.
Ah, thank you Victoria, I like the sound of that very much. Very interested in books that don't hide the author's research and shaping of the narrative, but use it to throw light on their subject, as Alexander Masters does in his Stuart. Will add this to my list!
When I saw the title, immediately thought of Parallel Lives - and there it was. I loved it. Id recommend Mrs Woolf and the Servants by Alison Light in a similar vein, as it's a kind of group biography. It looks at Virginia Woolf's relationship with the women who worked for her, and so explores domestic power, class, and the changing role and expectations of women.
Thank you! Glad you're a fan of Parallel Lives too. I'd love to write a top ten of group biographies too (my favourite kind) so it sounds as if Alison Light's book would be a great addition. I know and love Common People, and she's a wonderful writer.
I’d also recommend her latest, very personal, A Radical Romance, about her marriage to Raphael Samuel.
"Mrs Woolf and the Servants" sounds great. I'm going to check it out!
Do, Ollie! Alison Light is such a good writer.
Ah, I love a good book list! As someone who secretly wishes that biographies in general kind of skipped the childhood stuff and got straight to the good bits, I love a short biography. My addition to the list is Living Well is the Best Revenge, by Calvin Tomkins, about the jazz-age couple Sara and Gerald Murphy.
That sounds fascinating as a double biography, Jodi - it's going on my list. I love your suggestion that biographers should speed through the childhood stuff, that's pretty much what Clare Carlisle does in her excellent new book, George Eliot's Double Life. It works very well!
Selina Hastings' biog of Nancy Mitford is a favourite, as is Laura Thompson's Life in a Cold Climate. Both brilliant.
I recently read Anna Funder's Wifedom about George Orwell's wife and was....disappointed.
Paula Byrne did a great job on Jane Austen and more recently, the sainted Barbara Pym.
I would love to do a deep dive into the Mitfords, June, and both books are very much on my list. I know from Substack what a brilliant writer Laura is! I did enjoy Paula Byrne's Barbara Pym, slightly worried about her Jane Austen biography as I do love the Tomalin one so much, and much of Austen's life is by now very familiar - but should give it a chance. Very interested by what you say about Wifedom too.
I know someone who is involved in the Orwell Prize....and they are livid about Wifedom...its not on my list...
Thank you so much Ann, greatly appreciated. As always! My own suggestion is Meredith Daneman's biog of Margot Fonteyn. Doesn't qualify as short (!) so not really within your remit but it's one of the best lives I've ever read. Sublime match of writer and subject.
Very glad to have your recommendation, Laura. I wasn't familiar with that book, which sounds brilliant.
Honestly Ann it is so good, Meredith was a dancer and the EMPATHY with Fonteyn suffuses the book
Do you know her early novel A Chance to Sit Down? A powerful (and must be autobiographical) novel that’s stayed with me for decades.
Thanks Alison - I don’t know it but it looks wonderful.
June!!! Just seen this - thank you!
Completely agree about Selina's book, her Evelyn Waugh is also tremendous.
And Paula B's Barbara Pym is just superb. Full of compassion and those BIG surprises.
Have read " A Sultry Month",and it was a revelation. Drops you straight into the heat of that early Victorian summer.. Such a good read.
I agree, Louise. It was used as a 'set text' on the biography Master's course I studied. One of the first group biographies, Faber says on their website, and it is still such a classic that they reissued it in 2022.
I tend to veer towards reading memoirs/autobiographies moreso. And also the new genre of fictionalized biographies, one good example being Colm Toibin's 'The Magician' (about Thomas Mann). But one biography that stands out for me, and it is not a short book, is David Remnick's 'King of the World' about Muhammad Ali. It opened up the life of the man, not just the famous sportsman.
Memoirs (slightly older ones, usually) appeal to me greatly, & I have just finished RC Sherriff's charming No Leading Lady written in 1968. I haven't read The Magician yet but enjoyed 'The Master'. Your description of David Remnick's biography makes me want to read that too.
I thought The Magician was extremely good and Colm had obviously undertaken a lot of research.
A wonderful and inspiring list, Ann, thank you. When I opened your post, the first writer I thought of was Lytton Strachey. Thank you for the Substack recommendations too. Plenty to explore!
Two biographies that have stayed with me (but which aren't necessarily short!) are Jenny Uglow's "Hogarth" and Rosamund Bartlett's "Tolstoy: A Russian Life".
"Stuart: A Life Backwards" is indeed great... but such a hard read!
Ah, thank you Ollie - I haven't read either of those, so they're going straight on my list. Agreed about 'Stuart', so sad I couldn't bear to re-read it (but still recommend it, with a warning).
Shelley and His World has been on my list for ages! I needed the reminder.
Now, if you're looking for hyper-brevity, I love These Possible Lives by Fleur Jaeggy. In it, there are 3 essays on Keats, Thomas De Quincey, and Marcel Schwob in almost...prose poetry. Nothing quite like them!
These sound great - and I hadn't heard of Jaeggy's book. I do have a soft spot for prose poetry, having always enjoyed (and taught!) Baudelaire's Le Spleen de Paris. Many thanks.
A fantastic list. My GOAT is Tomalin’s Invisible Woman. Recently I loved Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Camille Laurens, though that maybe shades over into a category I’d love to write about - the hybrid biography.
Many thanks Susanna! I was going to include Invisible Woman - definitely one of my favourites - before deciding to go with the shorter Shelley, which I have a soft spot for. Gosh, I hadn't heard of that one by Camille Laurens, I will try to get hold of a copy. Do write about it!
Thanks for this list. Have not read much biog lately, but from your list, I'd be most interested in reading two of them: the one about Sylvia Plath as I've heard pieces here and there about her troubled life but have never read enough in one place and, of course, the one about Lady Di.
Thank you very much Michelle. I'll be very interested to hear how you get on.
Thank you for this!
Very glad you enjoyed it Judy - thanks for your kind comment.
I love a good biography! They can get quite weighty at times though. I am currently reading through the biographies of all the U.S. Presidents at the rate of 3 or 4 per year. Reading them in chronological order is an amazing experience of learning, not only about the lives of the individuals, but the broader scope of American history. I also read three Steinbeck biographies this year. Thanks for the recommendations for some shorter options! And thanks for the mention as well, truly appreciated.
Thanks for your comment Matthew, and I am very impressed by your breadth and depth of reading. Three Steinbeck biographies is already impressive, not to mention the Presidents! I would be interested if the author's style of writing makes a difference in how enjoyable you find a biography, or is it more whether the book seems well researched and accurate?
The author's style is a major factor for sure. Some biographies can be really dry. I do want them to well researched and accurate but I also want it to be readable. Great biographers can get all the important facts in there but still make it read like good story.
I agree. It's something to do with getting the subject's humanity in there, as well as the skills in building a narrative.
Thanks Ann for a great bio selection! I'm not normally a fan of the genre but 'Les Annés' by Annie Ernaux (available in English from Fitzcarraldo Editions - 'The Years', translated by A. L. Strayer) is one of the books I enjoyed most this year. It weaves together the life of the nameless protagonist (the author, of course) with those of the people close to her, and the main historical events that occurred during her lifetime (from the 1940s to the early 2000s). More a 'collective' than an individual biography, it's a fascinating story written in a highly original yet eminently readable style.
That's a great suggestion Nic, thank you! I do read French, but mainly about 19th-century poets, so I really should get up to speed with Arnaux. The Years sounds great, and very approachable in this translation. Fitzcarraldo Editions are wonderful, I think.
Thank you for reminding me of the brilliant Frances Wilson, I feel a re-read coming on.
I'd recommend Lives Like Loaded Guns, Emily Dickinson and Her Family's Feuds by Lyndall Gordon. I was fascinated by it all.
Thank you Claire! I'm a huge fan of both Frances Wilson and Lyndall Gordon, whose group biography Outsiders I love (and want to write about another time). So I am very keen to read Lives Like Loaded Guns and hear more about the feuds over her biographical legacy. Thank you for recommending it.
That's a great list of suggestions, Ann! I am particulalry keen to read Tomalin (I'm also a fan) on Shelley. I'll have to skip one of your recommendations, though, as reading about the Windsor family provokes a horrible allergic rash.
I'd add Johnson's life of Pope (or any of his lives of the poets series) to this.
And finally finally, thank you for the kind mention!
Haha, thanks Jeffrey and I understand your reluctance to dabble in any of the Windsor nonsense. Craig Brown writes for Private Eye, so his take is very satirical - but I take your point. I will read Johnson's Lives of the poets to refresh my spirits.
A great list! Lots of favorites here. I’d add from the U.S. side Jenn Shapland’s My Autobiography of Carson McCullers. It’s not a full bio but rather a hybrid memoir/bio of her own life and McCullers’s as she researched the life and work, even trying on her clothes and living in her house. Highly recommended.
Ah, thank you Victoria, I like the sound of that very much. Very interested in books that don't hide the author's research and shaping of the narrative, but use it to throw light on their subject, as Alexander Masters does in his Stuart. Will add this to my list!