Claire Tomalin

Shock ending: how the Costa book awards changed reading – and pitted husband against wife

After 50 years, the prize has been scrapped. How did it change Britain’s literary landscape? And what happened at the awards when Margaret Drabble was seated next to Theresa May?

Claire Armitstead

23, Jun, 2022 @5:00 AM

The Young HG Wells review – the shape of things to come

Claire Tomalin’s restrained biography of the prolific writer and philanderer’s early years lets readers reach their own verdict on his life and deeds

Anthony Cummins

02, Nov, 2021 @7:00 AM

Thomas Keneally: ‘Does anyone write a good book at 83? Well, I think I have’’

The Australian novelist on crying over a Dickens biography, laughing at Kathy Lette and the classic he is ashamed not to have read

Thomas Keneally

06, Dec, 2019 @10:00 AM

Charles Dickens was a ruthless Victorian husband. Like my great-grandfather | Ian Jack

My ancestor wanted to have his wife declared mad and locked up. Unlike the great writer, he succeeded

Ian Jack

23, Feb, 2019 @6:00 AM

In brief: Turning the Tide on Plastic; A Long Island Story; A Life of My Own – reviews

Lucy Siegle tackles our plastic habit, a McCarthy-era novel lacks pace, while biographer Claire Tomalin tells her own engrossing story

Hannah Beckerman

22, Jul, 2018 @10:00 AM

Tim Adams’s best biographies of 2017

From rock’n’roll to Anthony Powell via a crop of memoirs, there’s something for everyone in the year’s life studies

Tim Adams

03, Dec, 2017 @2:00 PM

A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin review – this time, it’s personal

One of the greatest biographers of our age finally shines the spotlight on herself in this moving and beautifully written memoir

Kate Kellaway

10, Sep, 2017 @5:30 AM

A Life of My Own by Claire Tomalin – tragedy and sex in literary London

The biographer writes memorably about a difficult marriage and deaths in her family, but is maddeningly discreet about most of her affairs

Anthony Quinn

06, Sep, 2017 @1:00 PM

Should biographers be on first-name terms with their subjects?

Robert Crawford’s use of ‘Tom’ in his new biography of TS Eliot has raised eyebrows – but he is not the first author to get so familiar. Here are 10 distinguished precedents. By John Dugdale

John Dugdale

20, Feb, 2015 @1:46 PM

On my radar: Claire Tomalin's cultural highlights

The award-winning biographer talks to Leah Harper about Zadie Smith, the superior pleasures of radio, and a treat to come at the National

Leah Harper

09, Feb, 2014 @12:05 AM

The Invisible Woman – review | Mark Kermode

Felicity Jones mesmerises as a young actor whose affair with Charles Dickens is depicted in Ralph Fiennes's adaptation of Claire Tomalin's book, writes Mark Kermode

Mark Kermode

09, Feb, 2014 @12:04 AM

The Invisible Woman – review

Ralph Fiennes shows his directorial skills with this adaptation of Claire Tomalin's biography of Charles Dickens' secret lover, writes Peter Bradshaw

Peter Bradshaw

06, Feb, 2014 @9:00 PM