When actress Elizabeth Taylor was appearing in "National Velvet", novelist Elizabeth Taylor (nee Coles) was publishing her first novel, At Mrs Lippincote's. It seems like everybody knows about Elizabeth Taylor the actress; Nicola Beauman's biography considers The Other Elizabeth Taylor. The biographer opens her work by explaining that she is
Beverly Cleary's Dear Mr. Henshaw (1983) (And my Holman-Harmon Handbook to Literature) I hadn't given this book a thought for my series on Letters for this autumn, but I happened upon a copy of it at a booksale a couple of weeks ago, and I did love my Ramona re-reads (and
Richard B. Wright's Mr. Shakespeare's Bastard Phyllis Bruce - Harper Collins, 2010 I was so annoyed with myself as a reader for not properly appreciating Richard Wright's October; I knew it was very well-done and it was simply my preternatural attachment to his earlier novel, Clara Callan, that interfered with
Nicola Beauman's A Very Great Profession: The Woman's Novel 1914-39 (1983) Virago, 1984. Persephone No. 78, 2008. I'm certain that I've said this before, but this is one of my favourite kinds of books about books. Nicola Beauman's A Very Great Profession is obviously written out of a passion for
Noelle Boughton's Margaret Laurence A Gift of Grace: A Spiritual Biography Women's Press, 2006 Margaret Laurence is one of my favourite writers and I keep half a reading eye on new biographical or critical work, so I knew that I was missing out on Donez Xiques' Margaret Laurence: The Making
