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Miranda Seymour

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Miranda Seymour
Born (1948-08-08) 8 August 1948 (age 76)
OccupationWriter, historian, biographer
Period1975–present
SubjectWomen writers, 20th century history
Notable worksIn My Father's House, I Used to Live Here Once, Chaplin's Girl, The Bugatti Queen
Notable awardsPen Ackerley Award
Website
www.mirandaseymour.com

Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer of Robert Graves, Mary Shelley and Jean Rhys among others. Seymour is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.[1] She elected to resign from the Royal Society of Literature in December 2023.[2] She was formerly married to Andrew Sinclair, and Anthony Gottlieb and is now married to Ted Lynch.[3]

Early life and education

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Miranda Seymour was two years old when her parents moved into Thrumpton Hall,[4] the family ancestral home. She detailed her unconventional upbringing in her 2008 memoir In My Father's House: Elegy for an Obsessive Love (Simon & Schuster, UK[5]),[6] which appeared in the US as Thrumpton Hall (HarperCollins)[7] and won the 2008 Pen Ackerley Prize for Memoir of the Year.[8]

She studied at Bedford College, London, now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, earning a BA in English in 1981.[9]

Career

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Seymour began her literary career in 1975 with an historical novel, The Stones of Maggiare.[10] This was followed by six others concerned with Italy and Greece, including Daughter of Darkness, about Lucrezia Borgia,[11] and Medea (1982).[12]

In 1982, Seymour turned to biography, beginning with a group portrait of Henry James in his later years, entitled A Ring of Conspirators.[13] This was followed by biographies of Lady Ottoline Morrell,[14] Mary Shelley[15] and Robert Graves,[16] upon whom she also based a novel, The Telling,[17] and a radio play, Sea Music.

In 2001, she came across material on Hellé Nice, a forgotten French Grand Prix racing driver of the 1930s. After extensive research, Seymour published an acclaimed[18] book, The Bugatti Queen,[19] in 2004 about Nice's ultimately tragic life. This was followed by another life of an unconventional woman, that of 1930s film star, Virginia Cherrill. This was also based on a substantial archive in private ownership, and published as Chaplin's Girl: The Lives and Loves of Virginia Cherrill in 2009.[20]

In 2002, Seymour published a book about herbs: A Brief History of Thyme.[21] Noble Endeavours: Stories from England; Stories from Germany appeared in September 2013 from Simon & Schuster and was described as being a work of 'unfazed optimism'.[22][23]

Seymour returned to biography with In Byron's Wake[24] (2018) which covered the lives of Lord Byron's wife and daughter, Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace.[25][26] I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys was published by Harper Collins in 2022.[27][28]

Seymour reviews and writes articles for newspapers and literary journals, including The Economist, The Times, the Times Literary Supplement, Spectator, and the New York Review of Books.

Formerly a Visiting Professor of English Studies at the University of Nottingham Trent,[29] Seymour is currently the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King's College London.[30]

Bibliography

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Fiction

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  • The Stones of Maggiare: a story of the Sforzas (1975)
  • Count Manfred: a Gothic tale (1976)
  • Daughter of Darkness: Lucrezia Borgia (1977)
  • The Goddess: Helen of Troy (1979)
  • Madonna of the Island: stories from a village in Corfu (1980)
  • Medea (1981)
  • Carrying On (1984)
  • The Reluctant Devil (1990)
  • The Summer of '39 (1998), published in the UK (1997) as The Telling

Juvenile fiction

  • Mumtaz the Magical Cat (1984)
  • Caspar and the Secret Kingdom (1986)
  • The Vampire of Verdonia (1986)
  • Pierre and the Pamplemousse (1989)

Non-fiction

  • A Ring of Conspirators: Henry James and his literary circle, 1895–1915 (1988)
  • Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale (1993)
  • Robert Graves: Life on the Edge (1995)
  • Mary Shelley (2001)
  • A Brief History of Thyme (2002)
  • The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor-Racing Legend (2004)
  • In My Father's House (2007); Thrumpton Hall in the US (2008)
  • Chaplin's Girl: The Life and Loves of Virginia Cherrill (2009)
  • Noble Endeavours – The Life of Two Countries, England and Germany, in Many Stories (2013)
  • In Byron's Wake: The Turbulent Lives of Lord Byron's Wife and Daughter: Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace (2018)
  • I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys (2022)

References

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  1. ^ Faber author biography Retrieved 26 April 2012.
  2. ^ Thorpe, Vanessa; Arts, Vanessa Thorpe; Correspondent, Media (27 January 2024). "'Radical moves' at Royal Society of Literature prompt rebellion". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 31 March 2024. {{cite news}}: |last3= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ Administrator (1 November 2020). "Literary Locations #80: Thrumpton Hall". Nottingham City of Literature. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
  4. ^ Quinn, Anthony (11 February 2007). "Daddy, you tyrant". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
  5. ^ Seymour, Miranda (2008). In My Father's House. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781471149696.
  6. ^ Fergusson, James. "In My Father's House: Elegy for an obsessive love, by Miranda Seymour". The Independent.
  7. ^ Mcgrath, Charles (27 July 2008). "House Proud". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
  8. ^ "Miranda Seymour Wins Ackerley Prze". English Pen. Org. 12 June 2008.
  9. ^ "Royal Holloway, London website", Notable alumni, Royal Holloway, University of London, retrieved 31 May 2013
  10. ^ Seymour, Miranda (1975). The Bride of Sforza. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-20290-6.
  11. ^ Seymour, Miranda (1977). Daughter of Shadows. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. ISBN 978-0-698-10784-7.
  12. ^ Seymour, Miranda (1982). Medea. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-52530-9.
  13. ^ Seymour, Miranda (1989). A Ring of Conspirators: Henry James and His Literary Circle, 1895-1915. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-51173-2.
  14. ^ Seymour, Miranda (2024). Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 9780008650353.
  15. ^ Seymour, Miranda (22 February 2018). Mary Shelley. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 978-1-4711-7416-2.
  16. ^ Seymour, Miranda (2003). Robert Graves: Life on the Edge. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-7432-3219-7.
  17. ^ Seymour, Miranda (18 August 2011). The Telling. Faber & Faber, Limited. ISBN 978-0-571-28152-7.
  18. ^ "The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor Racing Legend by Miranda". The Independent. 24 February 2004. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  19. ^ Seymour, Miranda (9 April 2015). The Bugatti Queen. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 978-1-4711-4970-2.
  20. ^ Seymour, Miranda (5 May 2009). Chaplin's Girl: The Life and Loves of Virginia Cherrill. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-84737-737-1.
  21. ^ Seymour, Miranda (2002). A Brief History of Thyme and Other Herbs. John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6327-0.
  22. ^ Seymour, Miranda (29 August 2013). Noble Endeavours: The life of two countries, England and Germany, in many stories. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-84737-826-2.
  23. ^ Davenport-Hines, Richard (26 August 2013). "Noble Endeavours by Miranda Seymour – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
  24. ^ Seymour, Miranda (22 March 2018). In Byron's Wake. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 978-1-4711-3859-1.
  25. ^ Hughes, Kathryn (28 April 2018). "In Byron's Wake and Ada Lovelace reviews – computing reputations". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  26. ^ Cooke, Rachel (18 March 2018). "In Byron's Wake by Miranda Seymour – the Lord's ladies". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
  27. ^ Seymour, Miranda (12 May 2022). I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-835560-9.
  28. ^ Cooke, Rachel (16 May 2022). "I Used to Live Here Once by Miranda Seymour review – the troubled life of Jean Rhys". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  29. ^ "Miranda Seymour". David Higham Associates. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
  30. ^ "Introducing our new Royal Literary Fund Fellows for 2023-24 – Centre for Doctoral Studies". blogs.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
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