elizabeth taylor author mrs palfrey at the claremont

Novels such as Angel, The Wedding Group and Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont should propel her on to any list of English fiction such as this, but it’s notable how often she still gets ignored or overlooked. However, the depth of her genius is still only half-recognised.

Anne Tyler says she is a “soul sister” to Jane Austen and Elizabeth Bowen (No 7 and No 69 in this series), and Sarah Waters has praised her as a writer of “great subtlety, great compassion and great depth”. A note on the textĮlizabeth Taylor is a great English novelist who remains a surprisingly well-kept secret. That, possibly, was Elizabeth Taylor’s commentary on her own fate. She dies alone, unwanted and unremembered. Among the other residents of the Claremont, Lady Swayne and Mrs de Salis are comic monsters who could have easily enjoyed walk-on parts in Jane Austen.įinally, Mrs Palfrey rejects an offer of marriage, and has another fall. Much of the reader’s joy lies in the exquisite subtlety in Taylor’s depiction of all the relationships, the sharp brevity of her wit, and the apparently effortless way the plot unfolds. Ludo Myers is a struggling writer who rescues Mrs Palfrey and becomes, through a series of misunderstandings, her grandson “Desmond”.Īlthough this is, at times, a heartbreaking novel, striking many sombre chords, some of it teeters on the edge of sit- or romcom, as Mrs Palfrey strives to do the right thing and also to be true to herself. When she subjects the newest resident of the Claremont to that classic geriatric indignity, a fall, the upshot is not humiliation, but romance. But Taylor, though ruthlessly observant, also delights in exploring the trivial banalities of everyday life. The Claremont symbolises a class and a way of life heading for the dustbin of history.

It’s the 1960s, and a new society is taking shape.

The hotel becomes a genteel antechamber to oblivion, its spectral inhabitants representative figures from postwar English life.

Elizabeth taylor author mrs palfrey at the claremont