Helen Smith

Rich in anecdote and knowledge, this is an exceptional biography of an exceptional human being.

[I]t rescues from obscurity one of the great English literary taste-makers of the twentieth century, and in the process sheds new light on some important writers, paints a portrait of the London publishing scene that remained largely unchanged until the big corporate buy-ups of the 1980s and 90s, and presents a character -- Garnett himself -- who is interesting, charming and impressive.

Essential reading for anyone who cares about modernism.

Sunday Times **Literature Book of the Year 2017**

Well-researched, neatly written and not above the occasional flash of sly humour.

There is a nugget on every page of Smith’s biography. She spirits up the whole jealous, bitching, scribbling literary world of the age.

Helen Smith is to be congratulated on having written a masterly and highly readable biography of Edward Garnett ... The Uncommon Reader is required reading.

Henrietta Garnett, granddaughter of Edward Garnett

A superb biography of Edward Garnett ... Smith has an eye for the telling detail ... and her book paints a textured picture of what life was like for people of Garnett’s milieu ... Readers will end up loving Garnett. With Smith’s fine sense of pacing and a fascinating subject, her book both delights and informs.

A sensitive biography of an influential editor and critic ... In her assured literary debut, Smith ... draws on Garnett's copious correspondence, critical writings, and memoirs of those who knew him to create a finely etched portrait of a man who exerted a quiet, decisive influence on arts and letters.

An alternative history of British modernism.

A precision and eye for detail that constantly delights.

A Life of Edward Garnett

THE SUNDAY TIMES LITERATURE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 
 
Over a career spanning nearly fifty years Edward Garnett – editor, critic and publisher’s reader – would become one of the most influential men in twentieth-century British literature. Famed for his incisive criticism and unwavering conviction in matters of taste, Garnett was responsible for spotting and nurturing the talents of a constellation of our greatest writers. 
 
In The Uncommon Reader Helen Smith brings to life Garnett’s fascinating, often stormy, relationships with those writers – from Joseph Conrad to John Galsworthy, D.H. Lawrence to T.E. Lawrence, Henry Green to Edward Thomas. All turned to Garnett for advice and guidance at critical moments in their careers, and their letters and diaries offer an insight into their creative processes, their hopes and fears. 
 
Addressing questions of culture, fame and success, this absorbing portrait of a man who shaped the literary landscape as we know it asks us to consider genius – what it is, where it comes from and to whom it belongs.

Helen Smith

Praise for The Uncommon Reader

Rich in anecdote and knowledge, this is an exceptional biography of an exceptional human being.

[I]t rescues from obscurity one of the great English literary taste-makers of the twentieth century, and in the process sheds new light on some important writers, paints a portrait of the London pub ...

Essential reading for anyone who cares about modernism.

Rich in anecdote and knowledge, this is an exceptional biography of an exceptional human being.

[I]t rescues from obscurity one of the great English literary taste-makers of the twentieth century, and in the process sheds new light on some important writers, paints a portrait of the London pub ...

Essential reading for anyone who cares about modernism.

Rich in anecdote and knowledge, this is an exceptional biography of an exceptional human being.

[I]t rescues from obscurity one of the great English literary taste-makers of the twentieth century, and in the process sheds new light on some important writers, paints a portrait of the London pub ...

Essential reading for anyone who cares about modernism.

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter