Overview

Olivia Manning was a superb writer - extravagantly funny and deeply serious at the same time - but her talent was not fully recognised in her lifetime. This beautifully written biography puts the record straight. Born in 1908 in Portsmouth into a naval family, she seized independence at the first opportunity, making a penurious life for herself in London as a furniture painter at Peter Jones, before signing up as a wartime ambulance driver - although she had never learned to drive. Her personality was as idiosyncratic her novels. Her husband, Reggie Smith, was equally a 'character' - a BBC producer, self-proclaimed communist and life-long philanderer. Both indulged in affairs, but their unusual marriage was sustained by his lifelong support for his wife's gifts. After their adventurous war (Reggie was then in the British Council - and probably a spy) they became the centre of London literary life, numbering among their close friends Iris Murdoch, Muriel Spark, Stevie Smith, Ivy Compton-Burnett, Anthony Burgess and Laurence Durrell. Olivia Manning died in 1980 in their house on the Isle of Wight; a cat lover, she left most of her money to the Wood Green Animal sanctuary.

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Reviews

The first of Olivia Manning's 19 books was published in 1937 and the last in 1980. All earned great critical acclaim - and little money. Olivia was fated during her lifetime to become a household name only to literary critics and fellow writers, all of whom admired her immense wit and deep understanding of life. Since Olivia's death in 1980 she has posthumously gained the recognition she so desperately longed for in life. In fact her life reads like a novel in itself, as the late Neville and June Braybrooke show in this book (the last before their own deaths). Olivia was a master forger who married a wartime spy and broadcaster. They both enjoyed philandering while courting the monied set, and Olivia was noted for bending the truth when it suited her. She could also be waspish towards other women writers, such as Iris Murdoch, whom she counted among her friends but towards whom she harboured jealous feelings. A perceptive book about a remarkable woman. (Kirkus UK)

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Neville Braybrooke (man of letters) and June Braybrooke (who write novels under the name Isobel English) both died before this book about their friend was completed. It has been polished, edited and prepared for press by novelist and critic Francis King, with help from Neville's daughter and June's stepdaughter, Victoria Orr-Ewing.

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