Facts and Fiction: A Book of Storytelling

Description

A captivating collection of pieces about the art of narration by Britain's finest biographer, Michael Holroyd In this collection of pieces, Michael Holroyd reflects on the eccentricities of the art of writing about others. With characteristic playfulness and guilefulness, he considers the ways in which lives can be written about (and painted), with all the subtle differences of design and intention that this entails. From Kipling to forgetfulness, Princess Diana's butler Paul Burrell to fellow biographers like Richard Holmes and the fathers of British biography, Boswell and Johnson, Holroyd tackles a rich and vibrant array of topics. He discusses his life at the mercy of subjects who have led him all over the world - and often into other people's families uninvited. With wit, warmth and humour, he reflects on the unlikely ways he arrives at his subjects, and how the process of building their narratives is often a disturbing experience: so consuming that, when completed, he feels as if he has had a holiday from himself. Featuring writing originally published in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the Telegraph and elsewhere, Facts and Fiction provides unique insight into the mind of a master.

Michael Holroyd is one of our leading biographers. He has written the lives of Lytton Strachey, Bernard Shaw and Augustus John, as well as a group biography of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their families. He was awarded a knighthood in 2007 for services to literature. He lives in London.

Masterly, full of new insight -- Praise for 'Lytton Strachey: The New Biography' * Sunday Express * Holroyd has a wonderful eye for detail ... an entirely captivating biography ... one of the glories of the form -- Praise for 'A Strange Eventful History' * Guardian *