Life of My Own

"Acclaimed biographer Claire Tomalin, the bestselling author of The Invisible Woman and Jane Austen, turns her critical eye to another fascinating literary life: her own. In this intimate and insightful memoir, Claire remembers moments of national literary history as well as intense personal emotion: a turbulent childhood disturbed by her parents' custody battle; her escape to Cambridge university, where she met her husband, the journalist Nick Tomalin; life on Gloucester Crescent with neighbours Alan Bennett and Mary-Kay Wilmers. Personally, tragedy struck when her husband was killed while reporting in Israel; professionally, Claire's career soared as she became literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times, working with Christopher Hitchens and Julian Barnes, before discovering her vocation as a biographer. An affair with a younger writer brought fleeting joy; the suicide of daughter brought infinite pain. Now married to playwright Michael Frayn, Claire reflects on an extraordinary life filled with love, loss and literature."--Publisher's description.