Revived Writers
Fairly often a well-deserving writer is rediscovered by readers, publishers, or reviewers/critics. The neglected books are brought back into print, retrospective appreciations are written (Dawn Powell) or a sudden rush of affection overwhelms the writer late in life (Barbara Pym). Sometimes the writer’s works are whacked with the magic wand of Hollywood, and the writer becomes much more famous and widely read than in his or her mortality (Philip K. Dick).
Recently I was struck by the handsome editions that a British publisher, Hodder Books, brought out for Pamela Hansford Johnson’s novels. Johnson (1912-1981, CBE, FRSL) was a prolific and multi-talented writer who was the guest of many universities in the US and celebrated in her day. Her second husband, C.P. Snow, had an even higher profile as a writer bridging the sciences and the humanities and wrote successfully and abundantly, including an epic 11-volume series, Strangers and Brothers. Johnson is now back in print. Snow is out of print entirely in the US. Publishers — and booksellers — are mysterious in their giving and taking away. It pays to stay alert to what is revived.
On this page, beginning in the pandemic days of Spring 2020, we will hunt around for revived fiction and its writers. We begin with Johnson. I look forward to listing other authors I carry: Nancy Mitford, Georgette Heyer, Eugenia Price, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and others. (Why are all the names I am thinking of women writers? No idea.)
Enjoy! Experiment! And come back to check on new listings.
An Impossible Marriage
An Impossible Marriage
Described by the New York Times upon her death as 'one of Britain's best-known novelists', plunge yourself into the wry world of Pamela Hansford Johnson in this coming-of-marriageable-age story, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Jane Howard and Barbara Pym.
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It's between the wars, and Christine - Christie, to her friends - is tired of London, her job in a travel agency, her friends, and the young men she's being set up with.
So when, by chance, she meets the older Ned Skelton, who seems sophisticated and experienced, she quickly becomes besotted. Before Christie knows it, they are engaged.
But will marriage to a man she doesn't know well truly offer this young woman an escape? Or is she walking into another prison of her own making?
A classic coming-of-age story set in the 1930s, by one of Britain's best-loved and almost-forgotten novelists.
'A story so vivid it might be the memoir of a real person' Britannia and Eve
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Praise for Pamela Hansford Johnson:
'Witty, satirical and deftly malicious' Anthony Burgess
'A remarkable craftswoman' A.S. Byatt
'Hansford Johnson at her wittiest is Waugh mingled with Malcolm Bradbury Ruth Rendell
'A writer whose memory fully deserves to be kept alive' Jonathan Coe