Extraordinary biography

This is a really remarkable book that provides full immersion and thorough detail not unlike the subjects famous saga. What it also does is leave the reader with a comprehensive understanding of what made Elizabeth Jane Howard tick, in a beautiful, sympathetic but truthful way. I feel fully acquainted which is a gift.

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A fascinating life, researched thoroughly

Any lover of the Cazalet Chronicles will enjoy learning more about EJH’s life and how she wove her own experiences into her characters. Very sensitively read, although the reader had an issue with saliva, which was audible and grated on my nerves, becoming almost unbearable when using headphones!

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Revealing Memoir

This makes a satisfying accompaniment to the works of Elizabeth Jane Howard, especially the Cazalet Chronicle. It is sensitively read; I would just request - as with some other Audible recordings - a longer pause between sections, to allow the listener to absorb and appreciate what has just been recounted before being thrust into the next element.

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1 person found this helpful

Looking For Love

If you listened to The Cazalets, as I did ((several times, as it happens), then this biography of the author Elizabeth Jane Howard, is indispensable. Told with both sympathy and candour, we are taken through the life and times of this remarkable, supremely gifted woman. Today I think she would be classed as a screaming nymphomaniac, but this book succeeds in convincing us that, following a loveless childhood, she was both 'used and abused' by husbands and lovers, often neglecting a brilliant career because of their demands. This pathetic search for love led her into making many sacrifices, particularly during her marriage to Kingsley Amis.

I enjoyed this well-written, well-read account of an amazing life, and especially as it gives us the real-life backdrop to the many books she wrote.

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2 people found this helpful

An honest and insightful biography

Very well written and insightful with out bring "gossipy" . Elizabeth is incredibly honest about her life which makes it even more interesting. It is beautifully read by Eleanor Bron . All in all and excellent book and reading,I now want to read more by both Artemis Copper snd EJHoward.
OK

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Thoroughly gripping

I've read all EJH's books and have always found her intriguing. This biography is superb and so delightfully read by Eleanor Bron. I highly recommend it!

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3 people found this helpful

A life story well told and well narrated

I have read most of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s novels and found all of them well written, intricately put together, incredibly funny and enjoy the way in which Howard has the skill to describe the complexity of relationships. Artemis Cooper’s biography has led me to believe that Howard wrote Novels that were based almost identically on Howard's life experience. An incredibly sensitive, thoughtful and well researched biography that I would recommend to anyone to read. The book left me slightly disappointed in Howard herself as a person. I so wanted her to be a woman full of confidence in herself as a woman and a writer and she was not.

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2 people found this helpful

In depth, enormously enjoyable biography.

Artemis Cooper gives a delightful and generous insight into all aspects of Elizabeth Jane Howard's interesting life.

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Fascinating

An absolutely fascinating book. Eleanor Bron is a fine actress, but I found her narration difficult. It was as if the microphone was too close to her mouth, I could hear ever little sound from swallowing to lip licking etc. Found it really off-putting.

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7 people found this helpful

An admirable biography.

This is a thoughtful, insightful book about an extraordinary woman. Elizabeth Jane Howard wrote with such apparent ease and with great observational excellence, yet it was eye-opening to read what a tortured soul she was. She was evidently an indulged woman, very needy in every regard, but seemed to carry a burden of never feeling she was good enough, having failed to find the 'great love of her life'. Her charisma and beauty did not seem to give her the confidence one would expect but she used these to attract to her an enormous group of admirers, most of whom she regarded as friends and on whom she was constantly reliant. She was evidently a kind and generous woman but these traits were seemingly often repaid by an expected loyalty.
It is now apparent that she had an enormous work ethic....only partly for her writing, but in the efforts she made in entertaining lavishly, in fundraising, and in her many talents in gardening, sewing and all forms of creativity. One feels she would be rather exhausting company, albeit entertaining. However, whilst never making judgemental comment upon her subject Artemis Cooper leaves one aware that despite writing books which have enjoyed a constant large following, she had some real character flaws. As a mother, a mistress and as a wife she remained essentially a self-absorbed woman.who was never quite truly happy. Nonetheless, by the end of this biography one can only be in awe of such a force of nature as Elizabeth Jane Howard.
The clarity, simplicity and honesty of this biography are to be applauded. Great research has obviously been done to ensure its accuracy. Highly recommended.

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2 people found this helpful