I was trying to recall the first biography that I read and what came to mind was Jeanette Winterson’s ‘Oranges are Not the Only Fruit (1985) although it was billed as a novel it was immediately evident that it was a highly autobiographical novel, and it was controversial. Later I read ‘Bad Blood’ by Lorna Sage, described as ‘ A small masterpiece’ by Blake Morrison, and ‘…encapsulates the experience of a generation.’ By Kathryn Huges. And in 2002 ‘Slipstream - A Memoir’ by Elizabeth Jane Howard, by this time an author of numerous novels including the ‘Cazalet Chronicles’, also stepmother to Martin Amis, who credited her as ‘ …a profound influence.’ What I noticed was that aspects of my own childhood and adult life were sometimes mirrored in the incidents described. I ignored the Christmas fodder of mainly ghost written ‘celebrity’ tomes and those that began with ‘I was born in …’
It is interesting to consider why one would write something revealing and perhaps painful. In the preface to ‘Slipstream’ Howard states; ‘I write to find things out, as much as, and sometimes more than, to tell them to other people. In a way, an autobiography seems to me like a household book of accounts – what has been acquired, to what purpose has it been put, was too much paid for it and did it teach you anything?...'
I think another strong motivation for chronicling the past is that one has lived through ‘interesting’ times. This certainly applies to my life which differed markedly from my mother’s and my many aunts and older cousins. The other prompt is that I have always written journals written from leaving home at sixteen – a sudden switch from Covent School to Art School. In what was a markedly fluid era, I mixed with a smorgasbord of people. Previously one was expected to mix and marry one’s own ‘sort’ for which read class and race. There was a freedom new to young people, in clothes, culture, food and sex - everything had altered.
Biography/memoir has recently transformed. Slim volumes of life changing incidents that do not run on chronologically from birth and contain incidents that shock, frighten, sadden and elate. These are not misery memoirs; they are an exploration of a life by pointing a camera lens and inviting the reader to look closely and see patterns that have built this person, through these key incidents.
If you are interested in my 21st October 2024 Memoir workshop please find the details on booking on the Home page of this website.
It is interesting to consider why one would write something revealing and perhaps painful. In the preface to ‘Slipstream’ Howard states; ‘I write to find things out, as much as, and sometimes more than, to tell them to other people. In a way, an autobiography seems to me like a household book of accounts – what has been acquired, to what purpose has it been put, was too much paid for it and did it teach you anything?...'
I think another strong motivation for chronicling the past is that one has lived through ‘interesting’ times. This certainly applies to my life which differed markedly from my mother’s and my many aunts and older cousins. The other prompt is that I have always written journals written from leaving home at sixteen – a sudden switch from Covent School to Art School. In what was a markedly fluid era, I mixed with a smorgasbord of people. Previously one was expected to mix and marry one’s own ‘sort’ for which read class and race. There was a freedom new to young people, in clothes, culture, food and sex - everything had altered.
Biography/memoir has recently transformed. Slim volumes of life changing incidents that do not run on chronologically from birth and contain incidents that shock, frighten, sadden and elate. These are not misery memoirs; they are an exploration of a life by pointing a camera lens and inviting the reader to look closely and see patterns that have built this person, through these key incidents.
If you are interested in my 21st October 2024 Memoir workshop please find the details on booking on the Home page of this website.
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