Elisabeth Russell Taylor (née Lewsen; 14 May 1930–1 September 2020) was an English writer of novels, short stories, nonfiction and children's books. Critics acclaimed her "brilliant, dark and unsettling" work, describing it as "mingling the elegant with the grotesque."
Personal life
She was born in London to parents Sidney Lewsen and Peggy Davidson. As a girl she studied at the
Francis Holland School
Francis Holland School is the name of three separate private day schools for girls in central London, England, governed by the Francis Holland (Church of England) Schools Trust. The schools are located at Clarence Gate (near Regent's Park ...
and the Garden School in
West Wycombe
West Wycombe is a small village and civil parish in Buckinghamshire, England, famed for its manor houses and its hills. It is west of High Wycombe.
The historic village is largely a National Trust property and receives a large annual influx ...
.
Her first marriage, to Freddie Silberman, was brief. It produced her only child, Jonathan. Her second marriage, to Russell Taylor, began in 1957. In 1962 she left him for artist Tom Fairs, whom she eventually married in 1987. It was during her marriage to Fairs, in her middle age, that she began to write.
She lived in
Belsize Park
Belsize Park is a residential area of Hampstead in the London Borough of Camden, in the Inner London, inner North West London, north-west of London, England.
The residential streets are lined with Georgian and Victorian villas and mews houses. ...
.
Partial bibliography
Nonfiction:
* ''Wish You Were Here'' (1976)
* ''London Lifelines'' (1977)
* ''The Potted Garden'' (1980)
* ''Marcel Proust and His Contexts: A Critical Biography of English-Language Scholarship'' (1981) (One review said, "Obviously fascinated by Proust and his contexts, Taylor seems to have embarked on an extensive reading expedition; the result shows the peripeties of an itinerary not exactly prescribed by academic guidelines—rather an individualistic tour which led to a wealth of personal discoveries.")
* ''The Diabetic Cookbook'' (1981)
Novels:
* ''Swann Song'' (1988)
* ''Divide and Rule'' (1989)
* ''Tomorrow'' (1991) (The ''
Publishers Weekly
''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...
'' review said, "Taylor's terse, clear prose is always readable, but she is so parsimonious in doling out information about her characters that the tear-jerking climax doesn't have the devastating effect she seems to have intended.")
* ''Pillion Riders'' (1993)
* ''I is Another'' (1995)
* ''Present Fears'' (1997)
Short story collections:
* ''Present Fears'' (1997)
* ''Will Dolores Come to Tea?'' (2000, shortlisted for the
Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Prize
The Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize is an annual British literary prize inaugurated in 1977. It is named after the host ''Jewish Quarterly'' and the prize's founder Harold Hyam Wingate. The award recognises Jewish and non-Jewish writers ...
)
* ''Belated and Other Stories'' (2014)
Children's books:
* ''The Gifts of the Tarns'' (1977)
* ''Tales from Barleyhill'' (1978)
* ''The Loadstone'' (1978)
* ''Turkey in the Middle'' (1983)
Notes
References
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External links
Elisabeth Russell Taylor
{{DEFAULTSORT:Russell Taylor, Elisabeth
1930 births
2020 deaths
English women novelists
20th-century English women writers
20th-century English novelists
Writers from the London Borough of Camden
People from Belsize Park