Together they had five children, although two met tragic ends and one was born with a physical disability. I also enjoyed reading about her less than perfect marriage to prominent journalist Nicholas Tomalin, her first husband. Her memories of the neighborhood, its people and surroundings were quite enchanting passages to read, and I savored these. I loved reading about the house she and her husband purchased, which Claire lived in for forty years. My favorite parts of the book were the 'human' parts where she spoke of her romances, marriages, affairs and children. Claire graduated from Cambridge University with an English degree, and set about a literary career which was quite varied and fruitful.

She is the daughter of a French writer (father Emile) and a British composer (mother Muriel). She is now in her early eighties, but recounts quite thoroughly and beautifully a very full life from her parents' marital union up to the present. Tomalin are that of a very intelligent, talented, confident and fiercely strong woman. I knew nothing of her existence previously, but was frankly lured in by her cover photo and the title of the book. My love of biographies that take place in England led me to this autobiography by author Claire Tomalin. Thank you to Penguin Publishing Group who provided an advance reader copy via Edelweiss. Now married to playwright Michael Frayn, Claire reflects on an extraordinary life filled with love, loss, and literature. An affair with a younger writer brought fleeting joy the suicide of her daughter brought infinite pain. Personally, tragedy struck when her husband was killed while reporting in Israel professionally, Claire's career soared as she became literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times, working with Christopher Hitchens and Julian Barnes, before discovering her vocation as a biographer. In this intimate and insightful memoir, Claire remembers moments of national literary history as well as intense personal emotion: a turbulent childhood disturbed by her parents' custody battle her escape to Cambridge University, where she met her husband, the journalist Nick Tomalin life on Gloucester Crescent with neighbours Alan Bennett and Mary-Kay Wilmers.

Acclaimed biographer Claire Tomalin, the bestselling author of The Invisible Woman and Jane Austen, turns her critical eye to another fascinating literary life: her own.

Jane austen a life claire tomalin