Penelope Fitzgerald A Life

Hermione Lee Press Reviews

'Excellent... [Hermione] Lee is a perfect choice as Fitzgerald's biographer. She has done a superb job, capturing an elusive personality and a complex, sometimes rather harrowing story.'

- Philip Hensher Guardian

'Lee elucidates the depth of [Fitzgerald's] achievement, and ties it enthrallingly to a life and personality more complex and difficult than anyone imagined. In a perfect literary biography, Lee plumbs the creative mind beneath that persona, tracing the metamorphosis of messy experience into crystalline art.'

-Financial Times

'Brilliant and passionate...a haunting tale of blighted hope, personal tragedy and rare, late fulfilment. Thanks to this sympathetic biography, [Fitzgerald's] afterlife shows signs of becoming finally blessed with understanding, admiration and respect.'

- Robert McCrum Observer

'Admirable and perceptive... Hermione Lee non-judgmentally excavates this extraordinary life. Her biography is very good indeed.'

- Susan Hill The Times

'A worthy monument to one of the finest English novelists of the second half of the 20th century.'

- Jonathan Derbyshire Prospect

'Adroitly executed and meticulously researched... insightful... Ms Lee's shrewd examination makes this a riveting biography.'

-Economist

'Lee's absorbing biography is the story of a late starter... [She] is partisan in her project: she means to expose a truth she is certain of -- that Fitzgerald is a great English writer . Her feat is to have woven an involving narrative out of such a skeletal life...Excellent...'

- Nicholas Shakespeare Telegraph

'This book will hold insights and treats for any admirer of [Fitzgerald's] fiction, and recruit converts to this reticent, witty, ferocious champion of the utterly downtrodden.'

- Emma Townshend Independent

'Her book is in the very best tradition of critical literary biography. Phenomenally well researched and elegantly written, with a fine, dynamic fluency and lucid understanding, this is a very good biography indeed.'

-The Tablet

'This elegant, richly researched biography tells a tale of misfortunes borne with dignity, humour and courage, and finally of quiet triumphs.'

- Michele Roberts i

'The literary biography of the year.'

- Philip Hensher Spectator

'A perfect match of author and subject.

- Leo Robson New Statesman

'Lee's book has had more influence on my reading than anything else this year.'

- John Lanchester Guardian

'A compelling account of the life and work of Penelope Fitzgerald.'

- Mark Lawson Guardian

'A masterly discussion of the work of that fine novelist and an illuminating account of the life of a complex and elusive person.'

- Penelope Lively Guardian