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A Life of My Own: A Memoir Paperback – August 20, 2019

by Claire Tomalin (Author)

4.2 1,008 ratings

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Esteemed biographer and legendary literary editor Claire Tomalin's stunning memoir of a life in literature

“[An] intelligent and humane book…There is genuine appeal in watching this indomitable woman continue to chase the next draft of herself." —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

In A Life of My Own, the renowned biographer of Charles Dickens, Samuel Pepys, and Thomas Hardy, and former literary editor for the Sunday Times reflects on a remarkable life surrounded by writers and books. From discovering books as a form of escapism during her parents' difficult divorce, to pursuing poetry at Cambridge, where she meets and marries Nicholas Tomalin, the ambitious and striving journalist, Tomalin always steered herself towards a passionate involvement with art. She relives the glittering London literary scene of the 1960s, during which Tomalin endured her husband's constant philandering and numerous affairs, and revisits the satisfaction of being commissioned to write her first book, a biography of the early feminist Mary Wollstonecraft. In biography, she found her vocation. However, when Nick is killed in 1973 while reporting in Israel, the mother of four put aside her writing to assume the position of literary editor of the New Statesman. Her career soared when she later moved to the Sunday Times, and she tells with dazzling candor of this time in her life spent working alongside the literary lights of 1970s London. But, the pain of her young daughter's suicide and the challenges of caring for her disabled son as a single mother test Claire's strength and persistence. It is not until later in life that she is able to return to what gave her such purpose decades ago, writing biographies, and finds enduring love with her now-husband, playwright Michael Frayn.

Marked by honesty, humility, and grace, rendered in the most elegant of prose, A Life of My Own is a portrait of a life, replete with joy and heartbreak. With quiet insight and unsparing clarity, Tomalin writes autobiography at its most luminous, delivering an astonishing and emotionally-taut masterpiece.

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“[An] intelligent and humane book…There is genuine appeal in watching this indomitable woman continue to chase the next draft of herself. After a while, the pages turn themselves. Tomalin has a biographer’s gift for carefully husbanding her resources, of consistently playing out just enough string. When she needs to, she pulls that string tight.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“Tomalin brings to her memoir a pro’s practiced ability at threading the personal, the professional and the contextual with details that sing… [She offers] a wonderful evocation of London’s vibrant literary culture of the 1960s and ’70s…An elegant profile in courage and fortitude.” —Washington Post

“[A LIFE OF MY OWN] navigates artfully between tantalizing revelations and unobtrusive elisions. I read the memoir twice in an effort to deconstruct how Ms. Tomalin does it, leading us into her nooks and crannies and then firmly closing the curtain at some point, but literary ingenuity of this caliber is always hard to pin down…The pleasures of reading this book are many…I hesitate to call this book enchanting because Ms. Tomalin’s life is strewn with tragedy…but it is certainly an exceptional account, daunting and inspiring at the same time, written with no end of poignancy, humor and perspective.” —Wall Street Journal

“In this memoir as in her acclaimed biographies, Tomalin lets the telling of a story reveal its own truth, unmarked by the moralizing of the soapbox. And what a story it is.” —Christian Science Monitor

“[Tomalin] is a master craftswoman, and it’s a thrill to see her prose and capacity for moving storytelling turned on her own life… If it leads you to read some of her biographies (Jane Austen is a favorite), you’ll be better off.”—Vogue.com

“An arresting look at a professional life inextricably entwined with the lifelong personal concerns of a woman who is also a wife, daughter, and mother…A quiet book, beautifully told with both restraint and generosity of spirit.” —BookPage

“An extraordinarily candid autobiography…This is an elegant, significant book.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] captivating and thorough memoir. Tomalin sets out to describe her “experience of the world”…a gracious, inspiring look at her family, colleagues, and friends.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

About the Author

Claire Tomalin is the author of eight highly acclaimed biographies, including Thomas Hardy and Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self, which won the 2002 Whitbread Book of the Year Award. She has previously won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for Biography, the Whitbread First Novel Award, the Hawthornden Prize, the NCR Book Award for Non-Fiction, and the Whitbread Biography Award. Educated at Cambridge University, she served as literary editor of the New Statesman and the Sunday Times (London). Claire Tomalin lives in London and is married to the playwright Michael Frayn.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Penguin Books; Reprint edition (August 20, 2019)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0399562931
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0399562938
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.05 x 0.61 x 7.69 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,716,595 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #8,936 in Author Biographies
- #18,257 in Women's Biographies
- #49,729 in Memoirs (Books)

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4.2 1,008 ratings

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4.2 out of 5

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lynn nadjarian

Life is not a picnic

Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2019

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I loved tge book, the writing draws you on! Quite a story, a literary star! The ages she has lived through from s womens point of view, she made her way, despite all the barriers in her way n family problems. I am in awe of her determination.

One person found this helpful

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hibernicus707

Hearing an interview of Tomalin shifted my impression of this book

Reviewed in the United States on January 3, 2019

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I found this book quite fine but, like a few other commentators, I found Ms. Tomalin's tone a bit diffident and even opaque. Specifically, I wondered how such a woman managed to survive a rocky childhood, an early and difficult marriage ending in early widowhood, raising several children, the loss of two children and the serious disability of a third-- all the while staying near the top of a highly competitive profession. Then I heard Ms. Tomalin being interviewed on NPR's Fresh Air. Her obvious strength and (at age 85) energy told a more complete story. While the pictures in the book show Ms. Tomalin as a less than imposing figure, her commanding voice is as poshy and adamantine as any royal's. (It could have been Princess Anne's voice.)

A closer reading of the book partially debunks the notion that Ms. Tomalin managed to "have it all"-- marriage, children, career. Eventually she had all of those things at different times, but not all at the same time for long. When she was a married mother of small children, her career was far less prominent. When she was a widowed mother who needed to make a living, she had a career and children, but no marriage. The "secrets" of her success have been health into old age and incredible energy (which you're born with, or not), an ever-vigilant eye for opportunity, and an ability to endure very long stretches of hard times (and, presumably, loneliness) bravely and cheerfully.

25 people found this helpful

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Ulysses D'Aquila

An exceptional writer and human being.

Reviewed in the United States on April 8, 2024

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Claire Tomalin is without a doubt one of our finest authors of biographies. Her work on Samuel Pepys, particularly, will likely never be surpassed. In deciding to write about her own life, she has taken a rather different tact. Accustomed to hours of research into archives, here she simply consults her own memory and her journals to encapsulate a life full of, yes, literary triumphs, but also a full share of human tragedy and suffering. Without ever painting herself as a saint -- she's far too honest for that -- she nonetheless comes across in this memoir as a great survivor. Her achievements as writer (and friend of writers) are remarkable, but equally so is her personal accomplishment of a life well-lived.

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My Cup of Tea

Fascinating and wearying

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2018

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Claire Tomalin's writing about her childhood and education are wonderfully evocative. Her portrait of her marriage and motherhood are finely wrought. I also liked her writing about her career, but there is entirely too much name dropping and not enough development of the fascinating people she has known.

5 people found this helpful

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Kate Parrick

Owning all of it

Reviewed in the United States on March 18, 2018

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I wept with joy in the closing pages of the memoir of one of the best biographers of my adult life. What a tour de force. What a contribution. This is a great, fascinating read; it is profoundly important that young women see what their earlier sisters did to establish the right to and capacity of women for meaningful work. I have loved Tomalin’s biographies for years and now I know the writer behind them is at least as wonderful and fascinating as any of her subjects. Thank you, Claire.

32 people found this helpful

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Spontaneous one

Some busy life ! !

Reviewed in the United States on December 7, 2017

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A great read of an interestingly rough and tumble life. Her book on Samuel Pepys is superb .

5 people found this helpful

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Max Martini

Beautifully written and absorbing

Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2019

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Beautifully written. Saw her book on a wall Street Journal list of best books of 2018 and decided to give it a try even though I have never heard of her. So glad I did. She exudes humanity and personal warmth, and I found myself totally captivated. I’m now reading her biography of Samuel Pepys, which is also excellent.

One person found this helpful

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fantundo

high recommendation

Reviewed in the United States on February 26, 2019

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She is a superb writer, and her memoir is very matter of fact, despite a lot of tragedy. She's not looking for revenge or sympathy. Her relationships with other leading British authors of her time are fascinating. If you love British literature, you will love this book.

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Netta

A Memoir for all Times

Reviewed in Canada on February 25, 2018

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This book is an invaluable memoir for other women who grew up between 1960 and 1980 in Britain and who wanted both a public intellectual life and emotional fulfillment.It is a model of female autobiography ,full of passion,fairness,restraint and unsentimentality.She recounts her story ,providing a clear-eyed view of her family,her relationship with her husband and her lovers and her indefatigable and necessary pursuit of an paid,intellectual career.Countless women of that time will identify with her frank view of the courage needed to counter the powerful "nay-sayers",both men and women , whom she encountered.Claire Tomalin shows the fortitude,respect and compassion needed by women to journey through life, to survive and thrive.
Her understated account of her family life and her literary and professonal experience is also invaluable for young women in 2018.While the times may have seemed to change,women still need self-knowledge and courage to fit their desires into the conflicting roles they are expected to fulfill.Claire Tomalin is their mentor.

One person found this helpful

RAFAEL LÓPEZ MONTES

Demasiados nombres desconocidos.

Reviewed in Spain on August 4, 2019

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He leído casi todas las biografias de Claire Tomalin y me esperaba algo más íntimo y personal. Hay páginas memorables, sobre todo cuando habla del suicidio de su hija o la invalidez de su hijo, pero por lo demás chismorreo de casa editorial.

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Phillips Lindsay

A double life

Reviewed in Italy on January 13, 2018

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Claire Tomalin had two lives: a working life as a journalist and writer,and another as a mother. She managed both of them well with success. She cared for a handicapped son who, with her, built himself an independent life and she has given us some fascinating and well-researched biographies, of literary figures like Thomas Hardy and Mary Wollenstonecraft, that she has drawn with great sensitivity and insight. This brilliant autobiography reveals the hard work that went into her work and her parallel life dealing with every day problems, at the same time describing the intellectual world she moved in.

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Jude

Not a great read.

Reviewed in Canada on September 29, 2019

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Perhaps good if you are British. For a Canadian simply a name dropper for unknown people. Not a personal novel.

grazia

A Life of My Own

Reviewed in Italy on February 1, 2019

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Claire Tomalin è una vecchia conoscenza ( vedi il suo libro su Jane Austen di qualche anno fa), scrive in un ottimo inglese. Non posso esprimere un giudizio sul contenuto perché inizierò la lettura tra poco. La spedizione di Worldofbooksit è stata puntuale e corrispondente alle aspettative.

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