Elizabeth Howard is a famous English writer, popular model and actress. She wrote a large number of successful works among readers and critics, including “Carefree Years,” “The Chronicles of the Casalet Family,” and the latest novel was even made into a movie.
Writer Biography
Elizabeth Howard was born in 1923. She was born in the town of Bangui in the county of Suffolk in England. In her youth she was fond of acting, even achieved some success in this field. During the Second World War she worked as a journalist, collaborated with the BBC news agency.
At the same time, in her youth, Elizabeth Jane Howard did not even think about the career of a writer. For the first time she began to try herself in literature only in the 50s, when she turned 30 years old.
Literary work
Already in 1951, Elizabeth Howard received her first literary prize. She was awarded the prize for her novel Beautiful Visit, which was released in 1950. Before embarking on her most famous work, a series of books about the Casalet family, Elizabeth Howard wrote six more novels, which had some success.
She was not limited to novels. She is the author of a storybook entitled Mr. Harm, a television script, and she was the editor of three anthologies. In 2002, her autobiography was released, which was popular with fans of the writer.
For his literary work, Howard was even awarded the Order of the British Empire in 2000. Currently, her books have been translated into a large number of foreign languages; they have been distributed in millions of copies all over the world.
Her most famous work in the field of cinema is the script for the comedy drama by Randal Kleiser, "Everything is Right." She created it on the basis of her novel of the same name. The film and the book are about the 31-year-old Gavin, who at that age still lives with his parents.
In many ways, his life is shaped like this because of increased shyness, so his relationship with women does not add up. But suddenly two of them immediately get carried away with it - Lady Minerva Mandei and wealthy, sexually preoccupied Joan. Surprisingly, Gavin will refuse both of these women, choosing the most ordinary hairdresser.
The last years of her life, Howard spent in the hometown of Bangui in the county of Suffolk. She worked constantly, it was creativity that made her get out of bed every day. In 2014, the heroine of our article died in her house after a short illness. She was 90 years old.
Personal life
Model and aspiring actress Elizabeth in her youth conquered many with her beauty. But she could not find personal happiness for a long time, she was married three times. Her first husband was Sir Peter Scott, who was the son of the famous Arctic explorer Robert Scott. In 1943, during the Second World War, they had a daughter, whom they named Nicola. In 1951, the couple divorced, shortly after Howard became interested in literary work. Peter Scott became famous when he became one of the founders of the World Wide Fund for Nature.
Left alone, Elizabeth got a part-time job in the environmental organization as a secretary. There she met Robert Aikman. She collaborated with him on a storybook, In the Dark. But their relationship did not last long.
The second time the heroine of our article married Jim Douglas-Henry in 1958, but the couple soon broke up. In 1983, she entered into a third marriage with the writer Kingsley Amis, who was considered in Britain as one of the leaders in the literary movement "angry young people."
It is believed that it was Elizabeth who carried away the literature of her stepson, who also became a writer. Martin Amis wrote such popular works as Dead Babies, Space Aliens Invasion, London Fields, Night Train, Time Arrow or Nature of Crime, Pregnant Widow.
Family chronicle
Howard's most famous work is a series of books about the Casalet family. This is a saga about the life of several generations of one English family in England during the war.
From 1990 to 1995 Elizabeth released her first four novels, and at the end of 2013, the last book of this series, entitled “Everything Changes,” was released. Radio plays on these books were released on the BBC, and then the novels were also filmed.
In 2001, the series “The Callets" directed by Suri Krishnamma was released. The main roles in it were played by Hugh Bonneville, Stephen Dillane, Leslie Manville.
Tragicomedy with a British accent
This is how critics originally describe one of Elizabeth Jane Howard's most famous novels, Carefree Years, which is part of a series of books about the Casalet family.
Events in it unfold in 1937, when before the Second World War it was so far away that no one even thought about it. Hugh, Rupert and Edward, together with their wives and children, go on vacation to a family estate outside the city to spend the whole summer there. The heroes of the novel "Carefree Years" Elizabeth Howard are constantly faced with minor sorrows and problems, they learn shameful secrets of each other, they are tormented by anxious forebodings.
This is a classic English novel that conveys the atmosphere that prevailed in pre-war Britain.