Claire Tomalin (born 20 June 1933) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
biographer and
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
. She studied at
Newnham College, CambridgeNewnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College.-History:...
.
She was literary editor of the
New StatesmanThe New Statesman is a British left-wing political magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
and of the
Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, and has written several noted biographies. Her work has been recognised with the award of the 1990
James Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded 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
The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. Her biography of
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
won the Whitbread Book Award in 2002, the
Rose Mary Crawshay PrizeThe Rose Mary Crawshay Prize is a literary prize for female scholars. It was inaugurated in 1888 and is stated by the British Academy to be the only UK literary prize for female scholars...
in 2003, and was shortlisted for the
Samuel Johnson PrizeThe Samuel Johnson Prize 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....
in 2003.
Tomalin's first husband
Nicholas TomalinNicholas Osborne Tomalin was an English journalist and writer.Tomalin was the son of Miles Tomalin, a Communist poet and veteran of the Spanish Civil War. He studied English literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. As a student he was President of the Cambridge Union and editor of the prestigious...
, a prominent journalist, was killed in the Arab-Israeli
Yom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of...
in 1973; she is now married to the novelist and playwright
Michael FraynMichael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
.
She made a number of tongue-in-cheek criticisms against the
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
WikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia...
article in
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
on 24 October 2005, awarding the page a score of 6/10.
Discussion
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Claire Tomalin (born 20 June 1933) is an
EnglishEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the North Sea to the east, with the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
biographer and
journalistA journalist is a person who practises journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that are not biased.Reporters are one type of journalist...
. She studied at
Newnham College, CambridgeNewnham College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1871 by Henry Sidgwick, and was the second Cambridge college to admit women after Girton College.-History:...
.
She was literary editor of the
New StatesmanThe New Statesman is a British left-wing political magazine published weekly in London. Founded in 1913, and connected with leading members of the Fabian Society, the magazine reached a circulation peak in the late 1960s....
and of the
Sunday TimesThe Sunday Times is a Sunday broadsheet newspaper, distributed in the United Kingdom. The Sunday Times is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of News International, which is in turn owned by News Corporation. Times Newspapers also owns The Times, but the two papers were founded...
, and has written several noted biographies. Her work has been recognised with the award of the 1990
James Tait Black Memorial PrizeFounded 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
The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens. Her biography of
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
won the Whitbread Book Award in 2002, the
Rose Mary Crawshay PrizeThe Rose Mary Crawshay Prize is a literary prize for female scholars. It was inaugurated in 1888 and is stated by the British Academy to be the only UK literary prize for female scholars...
in 2003, and was shortlisted for the
Samuel Johnson PrizeThe Samuel Johnson Prize 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....
in 2003.
Tomalin's first husband
Nicholas TomalinNicholas Osborne Tomalin was an English journalist and writer.Tomalin was the son of Miles Tomalin, a Communist poet and veteran of the Spanish Civil War. He studied English literature at Trinity Hall, Cambridge. As a student he was President of the Cambridge Union and editor of the prestigious...
, a prominent journalist, was killed in the Arab-Israeli
Yom Kippur WarThe Yom Kippur War, Ramadan War or October War , also known as the 1973 Arab-Israeli War and the Fourth Arab-Israeli War, was fought from October 6 to October 26, 1973, between Israel and a coalition of...
in 1973; she is now married to the novelist and playwright
Michael FraynMichael J. Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy...
.
She made a number of tongue-in-cheek criticisms against the
Samuel PepysSamuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
WikipediaWikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its name is a portmanteau of the words wiki and encyclopedia...
article in
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
on 24 October 2005, awarding the page a score of 6/10. On the 4th April 2009, Tomalin wrote in to The Guardian and expressed facts on
Thomas HardyThomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels...
's life. The letter was titled "A Poet to the End".
Selected works
- Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet of the naturalist movement, although in several poems he displays elements of the previous romantic and enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural. He regarded himself primarily as a poet and composed novels...
: The Time-Torn Man, 2007, ISBN 978-1594201189
- Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys, FRS was an English naval administrator and Member of Parliament, who is now most famous for his diary. Although Pepys had no maritime experience, he rose by patronage, hard work and his talent for administration, to be the Chief Secretary to the Admiralty under both King Charles II...
: The Unequalled Self, 2002, ISBN 0-670-88568-1 or ISBN 0-14-028234-3
- Jane Austen
Jane Austen was an English novelist, whose realism, biting social commentary and use of free indirect speech, have earned her a place as one of the most widely read and most beloved writers in English literature....
: A Life, 2000, ISBN 0-14-029690-5
- Katherine Mansfield
Kathleen Mansfield Murry was a prominent modernist writer of short fiction from New Zealand who wrote under the pen name of Katherine Mansfield.-Biography:-Early life:...
: A Secret Life, 1998, ISBN 0-14-011715-6
- Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a Future King, 1995, ISBN 0-14-015923-1
- The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and feminist. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
, 1992, ISBN 0-14-016761-7
- Shelley
-Surname:* Alexander Shelley, a British conductor* Alex Shelley, stage name of professional wrestler Patrick Martin* George Ernest Shelley, an ornithologist* Harry Rowe Shelley, an American composer* Howard Shelley, a British pianist* John Shelley, U.S...
and His World, 1992, ISBN 978-0140171525
- The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
, 1991, ISBN 0-14-012136-6