'Dunn dissects this disturbing life with intelligence and sympathy, sparing no detail but making no judgements. One finishes her book with a clearer idea of the demons that may drive creative artists, and with respect and a measure of affection for a woman who was often difficult to love.' SUNDAY TIMES 'It is easy to see in all this how egocentric and difficult White could be, but Dunn displays the mix and the confusion of her life fully, to let us see how utterly fascinating and complex she was too.' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY 'Dunn's eloquent prose, eye for humourous anecdote and sympathy make this an excellent biography.' OBSERVER 'Antonia White is best known for the autobiographical quartet of novels that began with her pre-World War I adolescence in a Catholic convent (Frost in May) and ended with institutionalisation for manic depression in the 1920s. (Beyond the Glass). More infamously, White's three unsuccessful marriages, her affairs, and her tortuous relationship with her two daughters and their subsequent feud over the editing of White's diaries after her death, have been extensively chronicled. Biographer Jane Dunn, who has also covered other literary lives--Mary Shelley in Moon in Eclipse and sisters Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf in A Very Close Conspiracy--plunges with relish into White's complex world. She portrays White as a highly talented writer whose Catholicism and father-fixation contributed much to her low self-worth, problematic relationships and recurring bouts of madness. Despite this, White, unusually for a woman in the 1930s, held down a lucrative job as an advertising copywriter, became a highly respected translator (her translations of the novels of Colette are among the best), and moved within an intensely artistic circle of friends which included Djuna Barnes, David Gascoyne and Dylan Thomas. White's allegedly low opinion of women was compounded just before her death, with the newly launched Virago publishing house choosing Frost in May (1978) as its first rediscovery. The continuing republication of White's novels and her astonishingly frank diary have captivated new generations of readers. Jane Dunn's skilful, intelligent biography ensures that this interest will not abate.' Catherine Taylor, AMAZON.CO.UK REVIEW 'Dunn, who writes with captivating elegance and piercing intelligence, is tender, scrupulous, ironic and worldly...' INDEPENDENT
