Hazel Holt (1928–2015)
Auteur de Mrs. Malory Investigates
A propos de l'auteur
Notice de désambiguation :
(eng) A Very Private Eye is actually by Barbara Pym, edited by Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym Walton.
Crédit image: http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/h/hazel-holt/
Séries
Œuvres de Hazel Holt
Mystery Cats 1 exemplaire
Oeuvres associées
A Very Private Eye: An Autobiography in Diaries and Letters (1984) — Directeur de publication — 389 exemplaires
Malice Domestic 7: An Anthology of Original Traditional Mystery Stories (1998) — Contributeur — 44 exemplaires
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Nom canonique
- Holt, Hazel
- Date de naissance
- 1928-09-03
- Date de décès
- 2015-11-23
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- UK
- Lieu de naissance
- Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK
- Lieux de résidence
- Birmingham, Warwickshire, England, UK
London, England, UK
Exmoor, England, UK - Études
- King Edward VI High School for Girls, Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, UK
University of Cambridge (BA|1950 -- Newnham College) - Professions
- novelist
editor - Relations
- Holt, Tom (Son)
Pym, Barbara (friend) - Organisations
- International African Institute
- Courte biographie
- Hazel Holt originated from Birmingham, England, where she attended King Edward VI High School for Girls. She studied at Newnham College, Cambridge, and went on to work at the International African Institute in London, where she became acquainted with the novelist Barbara Pym, whose biography she later wrote.
Holt wrote her first novel in her sixties, and is a leading crime novelist. She is best known for her "Sheila Malory" series. Her son is the novelist Tom Holt. - Notice de désambigüisation
- A Very Private Eye is actually by Barbara Pym, edited by Hazel Holt and Hilary Pym Walton.
Membres
Critiques
Listes
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Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 24
- Aussi par
- 6
- Membres
- 2,190
- Popularité
- #11,713
- Évaluation
- 3.6
- Critiques
- 70
- ISBN
- 203
- Langues
- 1
- Favoris
- 8
A frustrating but nevertheless important biography.
First of all, if you haven't read Pym's 12 novels, go seek them out (preferably in order). Then read her collected unpublished works - [b:Civil to Strangers and Other Writings|178573|Civil to Strangers and Other Writings|Barbara Pym|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1442721152l/178573._SY75_.jpg|2819723] - and the posthumous "autobiography" compiled from Pym's letters and diaries, [b:A Very Private Eye: The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym|227003|A Very Private Eye The Diaries, Letters And Notebooks Of Barbara Pym|Barbara Pym|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1282285490l/227003._SY75_.jpg|868494]. If all of this does not satisfy you, read this volume too.
This 1990 biography, by Pym's close friend and literary executor Hazel Holt (with input from Pym's sister Hilary), came 10 years after the author's death, and was the conclusion of a decade in which a variety of unpublished and secondary works were released into the market. Brits and - especially - Americans - were fascinated by the legend of Miss Pym, a moderately successful spinster author, neglected for 16 years, and rediscovered in 1977, only to pass away three years later.
As with her novels, Pym's biography must be one of seemingly small details pointing to a much larger story. The desire to be a writer since childhood, fulfilled to underwhelming sales in the 1950s, and then neglected for almost two decades before sudden fame. The endless series of love affairs, in which Pym was either underwhelmed (she declined several proposals in her 20s) or overwhelmed (one young gay man, much her junior, essentially "ghosts" her after taking an extended trip overseas, to get away from her attentions). The sensible editorial assistant who can quote Milton or Keats, yet has an admirably silly side when it comes to creating stories about strange people on the bus or the lives of her cats. The passionate force restrained firmly in a tweed jacket.
This is an interesting volume, I note, and has a place of honour on my shelf alongside the matching covers of Pym's complete works. Yet much is missing. First, of course, is objectivity. True - Pym's life is not one beset by scandal! Nevertheless, the closeness of the author to her subject means we are seeing something approaching hagiography. (It does, however, allow Holt to add in her own memories of working with Pym for several years, and of Pym's psychological state during the "wilderness years" and in the final, grim months before her passing.)
Second, and most importantly, this biography is missing much detail. As Holt notes in her preface, this is a companion to A Very Private Eye. This is primarily to fill in the gaps of that first volume, and put some of the core moments of Barbara's life into a chronology. Which is great, but it leaves this book rather assuming a degree of knowledge in the reader.
Finally, and personally most affecting, is that I yearn for a biographer to chart Pym's writings - both analytically, and also in psychological relation to the author. Holt doesn't avoid this entirely. She discusses the transition from Pym's early novels (mostly unpublished except for her first sale, Some Tame Gazelle) to the more mature post-war novels starting with her second (Excellent Women) as well as noting the connections between real-life figures and their fictional counterparts. No book can be everything, but I would have enjoyed a greater understanding of, for instance, whether Pym's younger characters still spoke to her as she became older, how much she is reflected in her crueller characters, such as the deluded Leonora in The Sweet Dove Died or the frosty Wilmet in A Glass of Blessings, and just what it is about Pym's technique that has earned her much love but also some disdain. At the end of the day, Holt has written a biography of a woman who happened to be an author. This is very valuable, but I would now like to see the inverse.
Anyhow, that time will come. (Perhaps I should do it myself?) I find it hard to explain this review; I feel as if I have written something both entirely positive and entirely negative. So I must abandon this, simply encouraging you to read the novelist, and then appreciate this biography as an early insight - hopefully not the last we get.… (plus d'informations)