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Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer of Robert Graves, Mary Shelley and Jean Rhys among others. Seymour is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She elected to resign from the Royal Society of Literature in December 2023. She was formerly married to Andrew Sinclair, and Anthony Gottlieb and is now married to Ted Lynch.

Early life and education

Miranda Seymour was two years old when her parents moved into Thrumpton Hall, the family ancestral home. She detailed her unconventional upbringing in her 2008 memoir In My Father's House: Elegy for an Obsessive Love (Simon & Schuster, UK), which appeared in the US as Thrumpton Hall (HarperCollins) and won the 2008 Pen Ackerley Prize for Memoir of the Year.

She studied at Bedford College, London, now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, earning a BA in English in 1981.

Career

Seymour began her literary career in 1975 with an historical novel, The Stones of Maggiare. This was followed by six others concerned with Italy and Greece, including Daughter of Darkness, about Lucrezia Borgia, and Medea (1982).

In 1982, Seymour turned to biography, beginning with a group portrait of Henry James in his later years, entitled A Ring of Conspirators. This was followed by biographies of Lady Ottoline Morrell, Mary Shelley and Robert Graves, upon whom she also based a novel, The Telling, and a radio play, Sea Music.

In 2001, she came across material on Hellé Nice, a forgotten French Grand Prix racing driver of the 1930s. After extensive research, Seymour published an acclaimed book, The Bugatti Queen, in 2004 about Nice's ultimately tragic life. This was followed by another life of an unconventional woman, that of 1930s film star, Virginia Cherrill. This was also based on a substantial archive in private ownership, and published as Chaplin's Girl: The Lives and Loves of Virginia Cherrill in 2009.

In 2002, Seymour published a book about herbs: A Brief History of Thyme. Noble Endeavours: Stories from England; Stories from Germany appeared in September 2013 from Simon & Schuster and was described as being a work of 'unfazed optimism'.

Seymour returned to biography with In Byron's Wake (2018) which covered the lives of Lord Byron's wife and daughter, Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace. I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys was published by Harper Collins in 2022.

Seymour reviews and writes articles for newspapers and literary journals, including The Economist, The Times, the Times Literary Supplement, Spectator, and the New York Review of Books.

Formerly a Visiting Professor of English Studies at the University of Nottingham Trent, Seymour is currently the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King's College London.

Bibliography

Fiction

• The Stones of Maggiare: a story of the Sforzas (1975)
• Count Manfred: a Gothic tale (1976)
• Daughter of Darkness: Lucrezia Borgia (1977)
• The Goddess: Helen of Troy (1979)
• Madonna of the Island: stories from a village in Corfu (1980)
• Medea (1981)
• Carrying On (1984)
• The Reluctant Devil (1990)
• The Summer of '39 (1998), published in the UK (1997) as The Telling

Juvenile fiction

• Mumtaz the Magical Cat (1984)
• Caspar and the Secret Kingdom (1986)
• The Vampire of Verdonia (1986)
• Pierre and the Pamplemousse (1989)

Non-fiction

• A Ring of Conspirators: Henry James and his literary circle, 1895–1915 (1988)
• Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale (1993)
• Robert Graves: Life on the Edge (1995)
• Mary Shelley (2001)
• A Brief History of Thyme (2002)
• The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor-Racing Legend (2004)
• In My Father's House (2007); Thrumpton Hall in the US (2008)
• Chaplin's Girl: The Life and Loves of Virginia Cherrill (2009)
• Noble Endeavours – The Life of Two Countries, England and Germany, in Many Stories (2013)
• In Byron's Wake: The Turbulent Lives of Lord Byron's Wife and Daughter: Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace (2018)
• I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys (2022)

References

1. Faber author biography Retrieved 26 April 2012.
2. Thorpe, Vanessa; Arts, Vanessa Thorpe; Correspondent, Media (27 January 2024). "'Radical moves' at Royal Society of Literature prompt rebellion". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 31 March 2024. {{cite news}}: |last3= has generic name (help)
3. Administrator (1 November 2020). "Literary Locations #80: Thrumpton Hall". Nottingham City of Literature. Retrieved 18 May 2024.
4. Quinn, Anthony (11 February 2007). "Daddy, you tyrant". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 29 March 2024.
5. Seymour, Miranda (2008). In My Father's House. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781471149696.
6. Fergusson, James. "In My Father's House: Elegy for an obsessive love, by Miranda Seymour". The Independent.
7. Mcgrath, Charles (27 July 2008). "House Proud". The New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved 11 August 2011.
8. "Miranda Seymour Wins Ackerley Prze". English Pen. Org. 12 June 2008.
9. "Royal Holloway, London website", Notable alumni, Royal Holloway, University of London, retrieved 31 May 2013
10. Seymour, Miranda (1975). The Bride of Sforza. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-20290-6.
11. Seymour, Miranda (1977). Daughter of Shadows. Coward, McCann & Geoghegan. ISBN 978-0-698-10784-7.
12. Seymour, Miranda (1982). Medea. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-52530-9.
13. Seymour, Miranda (1989). A Ring of Conspirators: Henry James and His Literary Circle, 1895-1915. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-51173-2.
14. Seymour, Miranda (2024). Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 9780008650353.
15. Seymour, Miranda (22 February 2018). Mary Shelley. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 978-1-4711-7416-2.
16. Seymour, Miranda (2003). Robert Graves: Life on the Edge. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-7432-3219-7.
17. Seymour, Miranda (18 August 2011). The Telling. Faber & Faber, Limited. ISBN 978-0-571-28152-7.
18. "The Bugatti Queen: In Search of a Motor Racing Legend by Miranda". The Independent. 24 February 2004. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
19. Seymour, Miranda (9 April 2015). The Bugatti Queen. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 978-1-4711-4970-2.
20. Seymour, Miranda (5 May 2009). Chaplin's Girl: The Life and Loves of Virginia Cherrill. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-84737-737-1.
21. Seymour, Miranda (2002). A Brief History of Thyme and Other Herbs. John Murray. ISBN 978-0-7195-6327-0.
22. Seymour, Miranda (29 August 2013). Noble Endeavours: The life of two countries, England and Germany, in many stories. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-84737-826-2.
23. Davenport-Hines, Richard (26 August 2013). "Noble Endeavours by Miranda Seymour – review". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 May 2024.
24. Seymour, Miranda (22 March 2018). In Byron's Wake. Simon & Schuster UK. ISBN 978-1-4711-3859-1.
25. Hughes, Kathryn (28 April 2018). "In Byron's Wake and Ada Lovelace reviews – computing reputations". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
26. Cooke, Rachel (18 March 2018). "In Byron's Wake by Miranda Seymour – the Lord's ladies". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
27. Seymour, Miranda (12 May 2022). I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys. HarperCollins Publishers. ISBN 978-0-00-835560-9.
28. Cooke, Rachel (16 May 2022). "I Used to Live Here Once by Miranda Seymour review – the troubled life of Jean Rhys". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
29. "Miranda Seymour". David Higham Associates. Retrieved 19 April 2024.
30. "Introducing our new Royal Literary Fund Fellows for 2023-24 – Centre for Doctoral Studies". blogs.kcl.ac.uk. Retrieved 19 April 2024.

External links

• Official website
• Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval, The Book Show, ABC Radio National 1 April 2007
• House Proud Book review of Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father's House by Charles McGrath New York Times 27 July 2008
• 'The Knife by the Handle at Last' Tim Parks review of Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father's House from The New York Review of Books – subscription-based

• 1948 births
• Living people
• Academics of Nottingham Trent University
• Alumni of Bedford College, London
• English biographers
• English journalists
• Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature