Writing Lives: Literary Biography.

Jay, Mary

Writing Lives: Literary Biography

(Cambridge Contexts in Literature)

Midge Gillies

Cambridge University Press 2009

ISBN 978 05217 32314

Paperback 8.50 [pounds sterling]

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Writing Lives is one of the new Cambridge Contexts in Literature Series which aims to offer A level students 'critical introductions to a range of literary topics and genres'. There are at present 20 titles in the series covering topics such as The Victorian Novel, The Gothic Tradition and The Modern Short Story. This particular book is a timely publication when most A level English specifications offer creative non-fiction writing as a coursework option and the craft of the biographer is likely to be unfamiliar to most A level English students.

Although the subtitle of the book is 'Literary Biography' it actually deals almost as much with autobiography and includes some exploration of fictional biography and historical novels. This mixed focus could be confusing and a clearer distinction could have been made between these different genres.

The 'Contexts in Literature' series provides a chronological overview of the topic and explores the relevant genre within its cultural, social and literary contexts. It involves the student reader by providing opportunities to explore and evaluate different interpretations of texts (and may therefore be particularly useful for Literature students) and there are a variety of activities, questions and assignments plus suggestions for further reading.

The book is divided into five main sections, with a sixth devoted to resources. The sections on how biographers research and the value of primary texts should be especially valuable to student writers who are contemplating producing a biographical text for coursework. The section on 'The Influence of Early Biographers', which features writers such as Plutarch, Aubrey, Boswell and Johnson, could be an unexciting start for some students and some readers may be lost at this stage--a pity as what follows is informative, interesting and designed to encourage individual critical thinking and evaluation.

A wealth of extracts are included as examples, illustration and as the basis for activities. Although the extracts cover a wide historical spectrum, some authors are featured several times, e.g. Woolf and Ackroyd. A stronger focus on well written contemporary biography could have added a livelier element, e.g. it is disappointing that the Costa Book Award for biography is referred to and explained but the bibliography does not contain a list of award winners in this category. The emphasis is purely on biographies/autobiographies of literary figures; yet another dimension could have been added with the inclusion of biographies of politicians, artists, historical figures etc.

The activities break up the text effectively and do encourage readers to consider the craft of the biographer and how to approach it. Although this is not the intention of the book, this text could have reached a wider audience if there had been some focus on how students could tackle the task of biographical writing themselves.

In general this text is a useful source of material and does delve deeply into the variety of ways in which authors write about people's lives.