Charlotte Mew: and Her Friends

Description

Charlotte Mew (1869-1928) was a poet with a formidable reputation. In her private life, to all appearances, she was a dutiful daughter living at home with a monster of an old mother. The proprieties had to be observed and no one must know that the Mews had no money, that two siblings were insane and that Charlotte was a secret lesbian, living a life of self-inflicted frustration. Despite literary success and a passionate, enchanting personality, eventually the conflicts within her drove her to despair, and she killed herself by swallowing household disinfectant.

Penelope Fitzgerald was one of the most elegant and distinctive voices in British fiction. The author of nine novels, she won the Booker Prize in 1979 for Offshore, and was shortlisted on three other occasions.

'The heartbreaking story, beautifully told, of a hitherto underestimated poet. Tantalizing but touching, an entire life's emotional history in a short space.' Victoria Glendinning, Sunday Times 'A subtle, succinct, generous biography' Hilary Spurling, Evening Standard 'An admirable book, absorbing, full of insight and sympathy and mellow humour' Observer