Bookshelf
study guides books reading lists e-books
home sign in my orders my e-books my trolley my account contact
| can't find it |

| browse books |
books
 

books

| book details |

Stevie Smith: A Biography

By (author) Frances Spalding





This book is currently unavailable. Enquire to check if we can source a used copy

| book description |

‘Confident and very readable . . . one of Frances Spalding’s achievements in this book is to display Stevie Smith’s frailties without destroying her dignity’ – Victoria Glendinning, Literary Review ‘A careful, informative and worthwhile book’ – Hermione Lee, The Observer ‘It is a biography of inner life. It is also a hymn to tenebrous suburbia, a book full of English oddness, and a lovely loamish read.’ – The Times Stevie Smith had a unique literary voice: her idiosyncratic, wonderfully funny and poignant poems established her as one of the most individual of English modern poets. She claimed her own life was ‘precious dull’, but Frances Spalding’s acclaimed biography reveals a far from conventional woman. While she lived in suburbia with her beloved ‘Lion Aunt’, Stevie Smith was from the early 1930s a vibrant figure on London’s intellectual and literary scene, mixing with artists and writers, among them Olivia Manning, Rosamond Lehmann and George Orwell. She was noted for her wit – often maliciously directed at friends – and occasional public tantrums. Her use of real people in her writing angered many of her friends and brought the threat of libel. Always feeling herself out of step with the world, she was haunted by her father’s absence during her childhood and her mother’s early death; she longed for love yet was sexually ambivalent. In exploring the intimate relationship between Stevie Smith’s life and work, Frances Spalding gives a new insight into a writer who always saw death as a friend, yet was also one of the great celebrators of life, whether commonplace or extraordinary.

| product details |



Normally shipped | Enquiries only
Publisher | The History Press Ltd
Published date | 13 Mar 2025
Language |
Format | Digital (delivered electronically)
Pages | 412
Dimensions | 0 x 0 x 0mm (L x W x H)
Weight | 0g
ISBN | 978-1-8039-9943-2
Readership Age |
BISAC | biography & autobiography / literary

| other options |

| back |
| your trolley |
To view the items in your trolley please sign in.
| sign in |

| specials |

Helgoland: The Strange and Beautiful Story of Quantum Physics

Carlo Rovelli
Paperback / softback
208 pages
was: R 295.95
now: R 265.95
Available from overseas. Usually dispatched in 3 to 6 weeks

The Order of Time

Carlo Rovelli
Paperback / softback
224 pages
was: R 295.95
now: R 265.95
Available from overseas. Usually dispatched in 3 to 6 weeks
Originally published in Italian: L'ordine del tempo (Milan: Adelphi Edizioni, 2017).

The Coming Wave: AI, Power and Our Future

Mustafa Suleyman
Paperback / softback
352 pages
was: R 295.95
now: R 265.95
Stock is usually dispatched in 6-12 days from date of order
 
Copyright 2025 |  terms and conditions