Elizabeth Jane Howard (26 March 1923 – 2 January 2014), was an English novelist. She wrote 12 novels including the best-selling series ''The'' ''Cazalet Chronicle''.

Early life

Howard's father was Major David Liddon Howard (1896–1958), a timber merchant who followed the work of his own father, Alexander Liddon Howard (1863-1946). Her mother was Katharine Margaret Somervell (1895–1975), a dancer with

Sergei Diaghilev Sergei Pavlovich Diaghilev ( ; rus, Серге́й Па́влович Дя́гилев, , sʲɪrˈɡʲej ˈpavləvʲɪdʑ ˈdʲæɡʲɪlʲɪf; 19 August 1929), also known as Serge Diaghilev, was a Russian art critic, patron, ballet impresario an ...

Ballets Russes The Ballets Russes () was an itinerant ballet company begun in Paris that performed between 1909 and 1929 throughout Europe and on tours to North and South America. The company never performed in Russia, where the Russian Revolution, Revolution ...

and daughter of composer Sir

Arthur Somervell Sir Arthur Somervell (5 June 18632 May 1937) was an English composer and educationalist. After Hubert Parry, he was one of the most successful and influential writers of art song in the English music renaissance of the 1890s–1900s. According t ...

. (Howard's brother, Colin, lived with her and her third husband, Kingsley Amis, for 17 years.) Mostly educated at home, Howard briefly attended

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 ...

before attending domestic-science college at Ebury Street and secretarial college in central London.

Career

Howard worked briefly as an actress in provincial repertory and occasionally as a model before her writing career, which began in 1947. ''The Beautiful Visit'' (1950), Howard's first novel, was described as "distinctive, self-assured and remarkably sensual". It won the

John Llewellyn Rhys Prize The John Llewellyn Rhys Prize was a literary prize awarded annually for the best work of literature (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or drama) by an author from the Commonwealth aged 35 or under, written in English and published in the United Kin ...

in 1951 for best novel by a writer under 30. She next collaborated with Robert Aickman, writing three of the six short stories in the collection ''We Are for the Dark'' (1951). Her second novel, ''The Long View'' (1956), describes a marriage in

reverse chronology Reverse chronology is a narrative structure and method of storytelling whereby the plot is revealed in reverse order. In a story employing this technique, the first scene shown is actually the conclusion to the plot. Once that scene ends, the ...

; Angela Lambert remarked, "Why ''The Long View'' isn't recognised as one of the great novels of the 20th century I will never know." Howard published five additional novels before she embarked on her best known work, the five-volume ''Cazalet Chronicle''. As Artemis Cooper describes it: “Jane had two ideas, and could not decide which to embark on; so she invited her stepson Martin misround for a drink to ask his advice. One idea was an updated version of ''Sense and Sensibility'' … the other was a three-volume family saga … Martin said immediately, “Do that one.” The ''Chronicle'' was a

family saga The family saga is a genre of literature which chronicles the lives and doings of a family or a number of related or interconnected families over a period of time. In novels (or sometimes sequences of novels) with a serious intent, this is often ...

"about the ways in which English life changed during the war years, particularly for women." It follows three generations of a middle-class English family and draws strongly from Howard's own life and memories. The first four volumes, ''The Light Years'', ''Marking Time'', ''Confusion'', and ''Casting Off,'' were published from 1990 to 1995. Howard wrote the fifth, ''All Change'' (2013), in one year; it was her final novel. Millions of copies of the ''Cazalet Chronicle'' have been sold worldwide, and the novels remain in print ten years after her death. ''The Light Years'' and ''Marking Time'' were serialised by

Cinema Verity Cinema Verity was a British independent television and film production company, founded in 1985 by Verity Lambert, the television producer, who named the company after herself and as a pun on the expression ' cinéma vérité'. The company's firs ...

for

BBC Television BBC Television is a service of the BBC. The corporation has operated a Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast television service in the United Kingdom, under the terms of a royal charter, since 1 January 1927. It p ...

as '' The Cazalets'' in 2001. A

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. The station replaced the BBC Home Service on 30 September 1967 and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasti ...

version in 45 episodes was also broadcast from 2012. Howard wrote the screenplay for the 1989 movie '' Getting It Right'', directed by

Randal Kleiser John Randal Kleiser (born July 20, 1946) is an American film and television director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He is best known for directing the films ''Grease (film), Grease'' (1978), ''The Blue Lagoon (1980 film), The Blue Lagoon'' (1 ...

, based on her 1982 novel of the same name. She also wrote TV scripts for the popular series '' Upstairs, Downstairs''. She wrote a book of short stories, ''Mr. Wrong'' (1975), and edited two anthologies, including ''The Lover's Companion'' (1978).

Autobiography and biographies

Howard's autobiography, ''Slipstream'', was published in 2002. A biography, entitled ''Elizabeth Jane Howard: A Dangerous Innocence'' by Artemis Cooper, was published by John Murray in 2017. A reviewer said it was "strongest in the case it makes for the virtues of Howard's fiction".

Personal life

Howard was age 19 when she married conservationist Sir Peter Scott, the only child of Antarctic explorer Captain Robert Falcon Scott, in 1942; they had a daughter. Howard left Scott in 1946 to become a writer, and they were divorced in 1951. In 1955, she fell in love with the writer

Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...

. Howard became pregnant while with Koestler and had an abortion. After Koestler, Howard had love affairs with the poets Laurie Lee and

Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...

, father of the actor

Daniel Day-Lewis Sir Daniel Michael Blake Day-Lewis (born 29 April 1957) is an English actor. Often described as one of the greatest actors in the history of cinema, he is the recipient of List of awards and nominations received by Daniel Day-Lewis, numerous a ...

. Howard was friends with both of the men's wives. At the time of her divorce she was employed as part-time secretary to the pioneering canals conservation organisation the Inland Waterways Association. There she met and collaborated with Robert Aickman. She described their affair in her autobiography ''Slipstream'' (2002). She also had affairs with the critics

Cyril Connolly Cyril Vernon Connolly CBE (10 September 1903 – 26 November 1974) was an English literary critic and writer. He was the editor of the influential literary magazine ''Horizon (British magazine), Horizon'' (1940–49) and wrote ''Enemies of Pro ...

and

Kenneth Tynan Kenneth Peacock Tynan (2 April 1927 – 26 July 1980) was an English theatre critic and writer. Initially making his mark as a critic at ''The Observer'', he praised John Osborne's ''Look Back in Anger'' (1956) and encouraged the emerging wave ...

. Her second marriage, to Australian broadcaster Jim Douglas-Henry in 1958, was brief and unhappy. In 1962, while organising the Cheltenham Literary Festival, Howard met the novelist

Kingsley Amis Sir Kingsley William Amis (16 April 1922 – 22 October 1995) was an English novelist, poet, critic and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, short stories, radio and television scripts, and works of social crit ...

. Both were married at the time. Amis became Howard's third husband in a marriage that lasted from 1965 to 1983. For part of that time, 1968–1976, they lived at Lemmons, a Georgian house in Barnet, where Howard wrote ''Something in Disguise'' (1969). Her stepson,

Martin Amis Sir Martin Louis Amis (25 August 1949 – 19 May 2023) was an English novelist, essayist, memoirist, screenwriter and critic. He is best known for his novels ''Money'' (1984) and '' London Fields'' (1989). He received the James Tait Black Mem ...

, credited her with encouraging him to become a more serious reader and writer. In later life, Howard lived in Bungay, Suffolk. She was appointed

CBE The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 2000. She died at home on 2 January 2014, aged 90.

Works

* Winner of the

* (a collection containing three stories by Howard and three by Robert Aickman) * * * * * * * * * * * * * * (Contains the three stories included in ''We Are for the Dark'', plus "Mr Wrong".) * * * *

References

External links

*
Elizabeth Jane Howard
on

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight audio recordin ...

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Elizabeth Jane 1923 births 2014 deaths Amis family Commanders of the Order of the British Empire English women novelists Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature John Llewellyn Rhys Prize winners Novelists from London People educated at Francis Holland School English autobiographers British waterways activists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers Elizabeth Jane