Claire Tomalin
Tomalin, 2013
Tomalin, 2013
BornClaire Delavenay
(1933-06-20) 20 June 1933
London, England
OccupationAuthor, journalist
EducationHitchin Girls' School; Dartington Hall School
Alma materNewnham College, Cambridge
Notable worksThe Invisible Woman: The story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens (1990): Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self (2002)
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1955; died 1973)​
    ​
    (m. 1993)​
    Children5

    Claire Tomalin (née Delavenay; born 20 June 1933) 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.[1][2]

    Education

    Tomalin was educated at Hitchin Girls' Grammar School,[3] a former state grammar school in Hitchin in Hertfordshire, at Dartington Hall School,[3] a former boarding-school in Devon, and at Newnham College at the University of Cambridge.[3][1]

    Career

    Since then she has published:

    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.[4] She has served on the Committee of the London Library, and as a Trustee of the 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.[5]

    Personal life

    Tomalin married her first husband, fellow Cambridge graduate Nicholas Tomalin, a journalist, in 1955,[6] and they had three daughters and two sons.[7] 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.[1] She married the novelist and playwright Michael Frayn in 1993.[8] They live in Petersham, London.[9]

    Awards and honours

    Works

    • The Young H. G. Wells: Changing the World (New York, Penguin Books, 2021) (ISBN 978-1-984-87902-8)
    • A Life of My Own (London, Penguin Books, 2017) (ISBN 978-0-241-23995-7). Autobiography.
    • Charles Dickens: A Life (New York, Penguin Books, 2011) (ISBN 0-14-103693-1).
    • Thomas Hardy: The Time-Torn Man (New York, Penguin Press, 2007) (ISBN 978-1-594-20118-9).
    • Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self (New York, Alfred A. Knopf, 2002) (ISBN 0-670-88568-1 or 0-14-028234-3).
    • Jane Austen: A Life (Vintage eBooks, 2000) (ISBN 0-14-029690-5)
    • Several Strangers; writing from three decades (London, Viking Books, 1999) (ISBN 0-670-88567-3); (New York, Penguin, 2000) (ISBN 0-14-190950-1).
    • Katherine Mansfield: A Secret Life (London, Viking, 1987), 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 Invisible Woman: The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens (London, Viking, 1990) (New York, Knopf, 1991) (ISBN 0-14-012136-6).
    • Shelley and His World (London, Thames and Hudson, 1980) (ISBN 0-500-13068-X); (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1980) (ISBN 0-68-416620-8).
    • The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1974), 1992 (ISBN 0-14-016761-7).

    References

    1. 1 2 3 Cooke, Rachel (24 September 2011). "Claire Tomalin: 'Writing induces melancholy...'". The Guardian. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
    2. 1 2 3 4 "Tomalin, Claire, (born 20 June 1933), writer", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 1 December 2007, doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u37831, ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4, retrieved 6 December 2019
    3. 1 2 3 "The Fitzwilliam Museum - Biography - Claire Tomalin FRSL (b. 1933)". Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. 2008. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
    4. ↑ London SE1 website team (4 July 2004). "Mary Wollstonecraft blue plaque unveiled". London SE1. Retrieved 6 May 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
    5. ↑ "APS Member History". search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 29 March 2021.
    6. ↑ http://www.freebmd.org.uk search on Tomalin marriages post 1953
    7. ↑ http://www.freebmd.org.uk search on Tomalin/Delavenay births post 1955
    8. ↑ "Claire Tomalin: A life in words". BBC News. 2 July 2018. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
    9. ↑ Adams, Tim (16 August 2009). "The interview: Michael Frayn". The Observer. Retrieved 13 December 2022.

    Further reading

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