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A Life of My Own Hardcover – International Edition, October 24, 2017

by Claire Tomalin (Author)

4.2 1,006 ratings

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A Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller As one of the best biographers of her generation, Claire Tomalin has written about great novelists and poets to huge success: now, she turns to look at her own life. This enthralling memoir follows her through triumph and tragedy in about equal measure, from the disastrous marriage of her parents and the often difficult wartime childhood that followed, to her own marriage to the brilliant young journalist Nicholas Tomalin. When he was killed on assignment as a war correspondent she was left to bring up their four children - and at the same time make her own career. She writes of the intense joys of a fascinating progression as she became one of the most successful literary editors in London before discovering her true vocation as a biographer, alongside overwhelming grief at the loss of a child. Writing with the élan and insight which characterize her biographies, Claire Tomalin sets her own life in a wider cultural and political context, vividly and frankly portraying the social pressures on a woman in the Fifties and Sixties, and showing 'how it was for a European girl growing up in mid-twentieth-century England ... carried along by conflicting desires to have children and a worthwhile working life.'

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About the Author

Claire Tomalin was literary editor of the New Statesman then the Sunday Times before leaving to become a full-time writer. Her first book, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, won the Whitbread First Book Award, and she has since written a number of highly acclaimed and bestselling biographies. They include Jane Austen: A Life, The Invisible Woman, a definitive account of Dickens' relationship with the actress Ellen Ternan, which won three major literary awards, and Samuel Pepys: The Unequalled Self was Whitbread Book of the Year in 2002. In the highly acclaimed Charles Dickens: A Life, she presents a full-scale biography of our greatest novelist. She is married to the writer Michael Frayn.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Viking (October 24, 2017)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 352 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0241239958
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0241239957
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.09 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.6 x 1 x 8.7 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #4,650,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #124,261 in Memoirs (Books)

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4.2 1,006 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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Beverley

A great biographer writes of her own life

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2023

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very interesting book by a great biographer writes of her own life

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.

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