Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer of Robert Graves, Mary Shelley and Jean Rhys among others. Seymour is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. ^[1] She elected to resign from the Royal Society of Literature in December 2023. ^[2] She was formerly married to Anthony Gottlieb.

Early life and education

Miranda Seymour was two years old when her parents moved into Thrumpton Hall, ^[3]the family ancestral home. She detailed her unconventional upbringing in her 2008 memoir In My Father's House: Elegy for an Obsessive Love ( Simon & Schuster, UK ^[4]), ^[5] which appeared in the US as Thrumpton Hall ( HarperCollins) ^[6] and won the 2008 Pen Ackerley Prize for Memoir of the Year. ^[7]

She studied at Bedford College, London, now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, earning a BA in English in 1981. ^[8]

Career

Seymour began her literary career in 1975 with an historical novel, The Stones of Maggiare. ^[9]. This was followed by six others concerned with Italy and Greece, including Daughter of Darkness, about Lucrezia Borgia, ^[10] and Medea (1982) ^[11].

In 1982, Seymour turned to biography, beginning with a group portrait of Henry James in his later years, entitled A Ring of Conspirators ^[12]. This was followed by biographies of Lady Ottoline Morrell, ^[13] Mary Shelley ^[14] and Robert Graves ^[15], about whom she also wrote a novel, The Telling ^[16] and a radio play, Sea Music.

In 2001, she came across material on Hellé Nice, a forgotten French Grand Prix racing driver of the 1930s. After extensive research, Seymour published an acclaimed ^[17] book, The Bugatti Queen ^[18], in 2004 about Nice's ultimately tragic life. This was followed by another life of an unconventional woman, that of 1930s film star, Virginia Cherrill. This was also based on a substantial archive in private ownership, and published as Chaplin's Girl: The Lives and Loves of Virginia Cherrill in 2009. ^[19]

In 2002 Seymour published a book about herbs: A Brief History of Thyme. ^[20] Noble Endeavours: Stories from England; Stories from Germany appeared in September 2013 from Simon & Schuster and was described as being a work of 'unphased optimism' ^[21].

Seymour returned to biography with In Byron's Wake ^[22] (2018) which covered the lives of Lord Byron's wife and daughter, Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace. ^{[23] [24]} I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys was published by Harper Collins in 2022. ^{[25] [26]}

Seymour reviews and articles for newspapers and literary journals, including The Economist, The Times, the Times Literary Supplement, Spectator, and the New York Review of Books.

Formerly a Visiting Professor of English Studies at the University of Nottingham Trent ^[27], Seymour is currently the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Kings College London ^[28].

Bibliography

Fiction

References

External links

• Official homepage
• Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval, The Book Show, ABC Radio National 1 April 2007
• House Proud Book review of Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father's House by Charles McGrath New York Times 27 July 2008
• 'The Knife by the Handle at Last' Tim Parks review of Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father's House from The New York Review of Books - Subscription based