The Biographers' Club The Biographers' Club
The Biographers' Club The Biographers' Club
  • 11
  • 12 813
Four’s a Crowd? The onward march of group biography
The Biographers’ Club and Hatchards present three writers who have recently published group biographies to discuss the opportunities and pitfalls of this genre.
What are the challenges of writing a group biography? What are the advantages? Does the theme of the biography threaten to eclipse the stories of individuals? How can you ensure balance when some subjects have a rich store of life material and others do not? How do you ensure that the group biography is an organic whole and not a collection of short biographical sketches?
To tease out these questions and many more we have Jad Adams, author of DECADENT WOMEN: YELLOW BOOK LIVES (Reaktion); Harriet Baker, author of RURAL LIVES (Penguin Allen Lane), and Leah Broad, author of QUARTET: HOW FOUR WOMEN CHANGED THE MUSICAL WORLD (Faber).
Переглядів: 119

Відео

An Evening with Anne de Courcy celebrating her award for Exceptional Contribution to Biography.
Переглядів 5038 місяців тому
Join Anne de Courcy in conversation as we celebrate her Award for Exceptional Contribution to Biography. In conversation with Jane Mays, Anne discusses her brilliant career as a biographer, encompassing lives as varied as Margot Asquith, Lord Snowden, Coco Chanel and, most recently, Nancy Cunard. Combining broad social context with psychological insight, these are books steeped in the spirit of...
Adam Sisman on his acclaimed John le Carré: The Biography - The Secret Life of John le Carré.
Переглядів 1,2 тис.11 місяців тому
Adam Sisman wrote his acclaimed John le Carré: The Biography (2015) with the co-operation of le Carré and of le Carré's family. Yet there were aspects of the life of the great spy writer that Sisman could not publish - in particular, le Carré's many affairs, which he conducted, in Sisman's words, "like espionage operations". Now, three years after le Carré's death and with the co-operation of h...
A.N. Wilson in conversation with Jane Ridley
Переглядів 84811 місяців тому
The Biographers’ Club Award for Exceptional Contribution to Biography 2022 has been given to A.N. Wilson, whose extraordinary range as a biographer includes the lives of Jesus, St Paul, Leo Tolstoy, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, C.S. Lewis and John Betjeman; he is also the author of an arresting recently published memoir, Confessions. He joins a distinguished roll call of those who have enhanc...
Exceptional Contribution to Biography: Matthew Parris in conversation with Evan Davies
Переглядів 3412 роки тому
We are delighted to announce that Matthew Parris - former MP, now columnist and author, and presenter of Radio 4’s Great Lives - is the winner of the Biographers’ Club’s Exceptional Contribution to Biography award. At this special event, he will be in conversation with Evan Davies, presenter of Radio 4’s PM.
Jane Ridley - King George V: Never a Dull Moment
Переглядів 1,2 тис.2 роки тому
Following Bertie: A Life of Edward VII, Biographers' Club chairman Jane Ridley has written a similarly definitive biography of Edward's successor George V - "nobody could do it better", writes Max Hastings in the Sunday Times. She has managed to write a gripping account of a man who "was not distinguished"; "He was neither glamorous nor charismatic and he was woefully badly educated." Jane Ridl...
Antonia Fraser talking about her new book 'The Case of the Married Woman'
Переглядів 3512 роки тому
The acclaimed historian and biographer's new book, The Case of the Married Woman, is about a 19th-century heroine who fought back after her husband, having unsuccessfully claimed in court that she had committed adultery with Lord Melbourne, claimed his then legal right to deny her access to their children. The book is "compulsively readable" (Evening Standard), "spirited" (Guardian), and "class...
Frances Wilson and AN Wilson in Conversation
Переглядів 2,3 тис.3 роки тому
Frances Wilson (author most recently of Burning Man: The Ascent of D H Lawrence) and AN Wilson (most recent biography: The Mystery of Charles Dickens) are in conversation
The Biographers' Club Event- STRANGER THAN FICTION: Robert Maxwell and Jeremy Thorpe
Переглядів 1,3 тис.3 роки тому
John Preston (author of 'A Very English Scandal', 'Fall' and 'The Dig') is in conversation with Rupert Christiansen about his work. About Author Journalist and writer John Preston has been much in the news recently for the success of both his riveting biography of Robert Maxwell, Fall, and as author of the novel The Dig, on which the recent film starring Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan was bas...
The Biographers' Club Event-Author Simon Heffer on Henry Chips Channon
Переглядів 4,1 тис.3 роки тому
The Biographers’ Club is delighted to welcome the historian and journalist Simon Heffer for a Zoom discussion about the most entertaining and revelatory political diaries of the 20th century. About the book Born in Chicago in 1897, ‘Chips’ Channon settled in England after the Great War, married into the immensely wealthy Guinness family, and served as Conservative MP for Southend-on-Sea from 19...
The Biographers' Club Event- Ann Wroe in conversation with Dan Franklin
Переглядів 5613 роки тому
Ann Wroe is the 2020 winner of the Biographers’ Club Exceptional Contribution to Biography award. The author of acclaimed and mould-breaking biographies of Pilate, Shelley and Perkin Warbeck, to name a few, Ann Wroe is one of our most innovative, original and inspirational biographers. As the obituaries editor at the Economist, she is renowned for writing brilliant biographies in miniature.

КОМЕНТАРІ

  • @58christiansful
    @58christiansful 9 днів тому

    Wonderful interview! Absolutely fascinating. Anne de Courcy is quite remarkable - very funny - 95 or 96 at the time of the interview!

  • @pereriksson2211
    @pereriksson2211 Місяць тому

    I loved the volumes, great reading and lots of thanks to Simon Heffer and Chip's relatives who approved of the publishing.

  • @Talentedtadpole
    @Talentedtadpole 4 місяці тому

    A charming sociopathic con man like his father. The gloss is off colonial boys . As time goes on we will take more seriously the harm done in coercing and manipulating women into fake relationships. This blights lives and kills. The work is one thing, but it's time to stop letting boys get away with murder.

  • @Peter-ov6xh
    @Peter-ov6xh 7 місяців тому

    Congratulations to Mrs de Courcy. Fascinating lady.

  • @KOMET2006
    @KOMET2006 11 місяців тому

    I'm reading it now, here in the States. It's really good, quite an eye-opener, to say the least!

  • @georgielancaster1356
    @georgielancaster1356 Рік тому

    I only read bits of Chips, knew he was in the centre of everything, but I only bought 2nd hand, mainly opshop finds, for the last 30 years, because I run an animal rescue - but I am mourning I am not likely to find them before my old life is over. The 20 years before that, I bought from antiquarian bookshops - and built up a nice history/biography section. But now I honestly have more books to read than years to read them. But I still keep adding, still keep making a new stack in front of the old stack of books that need to be read ASAP...

  • @michaelscanlon9747
    @michaelscanlon9747 Рік тому

    Excellent interview on Chips Channon's compelling diaries!

  • @johnmccann373
    @johnmccann373 Рік тому

    They are fascinating to read, but Chips is such a horrid Nazi-loving anti-Semite, democracy hating (he was born American), snobbish, trivial, closeted and has no redeeming personal qualities beyond his ability to write in compelling detail and he has no sense of self awareness, but has a sense of observation that makes them so interesting. But I always want to take a cold shower. I love Simon Heffer, who is such a brilliant historian, I am reading both of his long histories "High Minds" about the Victorian era, and "The Age of Decadence" about the Edwardian era, and his editing having seen original manuscripts. This is a wonderful interview!!!

  • @thedowagerd.2431
    @thedowagerd.2431 2 роки тому

    I started with the second volume as this era is most interesting to me. Channon doesn't hold back and one can understand why the first editions were heavily redacted.

  • @sroher1
    @sroher1 2 роки тому

    wonderful interview, thanks so much. So valuable to have a more fully-dimensional view of a figure so often portrayed without any complexity.

  • @JLevant1
    @JLevant1 2 роки тому

    I'm a huge fan of AN Wilson. Francis is wonderful. This is all new and so exciting. Thanks.

  • @Noutchka
    @Noutchka 2 роки тому

    25:00 abdication crisis

    • @georgielancaster1356
      @georgielancaster1356 Рік тому

      Thank you for the note. Yt has asked me if I want abdication crisis translated to English. Sums up yt, I guess. Chip's contumely for Americans holds up.

  • @SecretSquirrelFun
    @SecretSquirrelFun 2 роки тому

    Loved this, thanks.

  • @ninaanderson2987
    @ninaanderson2987 2 роки тому

    Professor Jane Ridley is amazing. Love her work and all her books and lectures.

  • @richardfairley9882
    @richardfairley9882 2 роки тому

    Excellent interview! I am thoroughly looking forward to this particular epic read - utterly fascinating! NB. Any tentative date for the publication of Volume 3 yet?

  • @MrChimneypot
    @MrChimneypot 3 роки тому

    Halfway through volume 2 at the moment. This is fascinating.

  • @OLIVCHEN77
    @OLIVCHEN77 3 роки тому

    Thank you so very much for the upload of this conversation. I finished the reading of the Diaries yesterday. Thank you so very, very much. glorious research by Mr. Heffer for this book!