Claire Tomalin

Claire Tomalin is an English journalist and biographer known for her biographies of Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Samuel Pepys, Jane Austen and Mary Wollstonecraft.

Early life

Tomalin was born Claire Delavenay on 20 June 1933 in London, the daughter of English composer Muriel Herbert and French academic Émile Delavenay.

Education

Tomalin was educated at Hitchin Girls' Grammar School, a former state grammar school in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, at Dartington Hall School, a former boarding-school in Devon, and at Newnham College, Cambridge.

Career

In 1974 she published her first book The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, which won the Whitbread Book Award.

Since then she has published:Shelley and His World Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life

The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens NCR Book Award, Hawthornden, James Tait Black Prize. Now a The [Invisible Woman (2013 film)|film] Mrs Jordan's Profession Jane Austen: A Life
Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self Whitbread biography and Book of the Year prizes, , Rose Mary Crawshay Prize. Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man, followed by a television film about Hardy, and published a collection of Hardy's poems. Charles Dickens: A Life The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the World
She also edited and introduced Mary Shelley's story for children, Maurice. A collection of her reviews, Several Strangers, appeared in 1999.

Tomalin organised two exhibitions about the Regency actress Mrs Jordan at Kenwood House in 1995, and about Mary Wollstonecraft and Mary Shelley in 1997. In 2004 she unveiled a blue plaque for Mary Wollstonecraft at 45 Dolben Street, Southwark, where Wollstonecraft lived from 1788. She has served on the Committee of the London Library, and as a Trustee of the National [Portrait Gallery, London|National Portrait Gallery] and the Wordsworth Trust. She is a Vice-President of the Royal Literary Fund, the Royal Society of Literature and of English PEN. She is also a member of the American Philosophical Society.

Personal life

Tomalin married her first husband, fellow Cambridge graduate Nicholas Tomalin, a journalist, in 1955, and they had three daughters and two sons. He was killed while reporting on the Arab-Israeli Yom Kippur War in 1973. She worked in publishing and journalism as literary editor of the New Statesman, then The Sunday Times, while bringing up her children. She married the novelist and playwright Michael Frayn in 1993. They live in Petersham, London.

Awards and honours

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
James Tait Black Memorial Prize, The Invisible Woman
Hawthornden Prize, The Invisible Woman
Whitbread Book Award, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
Rose Mary Crawshay Prize, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
of the Samuel Pepys Club, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlist, Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self
Honorary Member Magdalene College, Cambridge
Honorary Fellow Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, Newnham College; Cambridge
Honorary D.Litt: UEA ; Birmingham ; Greenwich ; Cambridge ; Goldsmith ; Open University ; Roehampton ; Portsmouth
Costa Book Awards, shortlist, Charles Dickens: A Life
Biographers International Organization Annual Award
Bodley Medal

Works

The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the World A Life of My Own . Autobiography.Charles Dickens: A Life .Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man .Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self .Jane Austen: A Life ; .Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life, 1998.Mrs. Jordan's Profession: The Story of a Great Actress and a William IV of [the United Kingdom|Future King], 1995.The Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens .Shelley and His World ; .The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, 1992.