Edmund Gordon

Splendid…this is an exemplary piece of work…which will satisfy readers, and on which further investigation can rest with great confidence that nothing has been concealed and no pathway has been neglected. Everyone should read it.

[A] gripping biography, brimming with new material… He has undertaken feats of scholarship and written an admirably clearsighted book… Gordon’s achievement, however, is tremendous. From baroque entanglements of material and controversy, he brings living contours into view… A quarter century on, this new biography should renew our readerly appetites for Carter.

This fascinating, highly readable biography will be extremely hard to beat.

[It] glints with well-placed detail and witty apercus, and it pays proper attention to what matters most, Angela Carter’s writing… Let’s hope that this thoughtful and engaging biography will introduce a generation of new readers to her work.

[An] astute biography… Edmund Gordon has done an industrious and intelligent job.

[A] rich, well-written and sympathetic biography... this book should introduce her to new readers. She deserves them.

Meticulously researched, [it] treats her novels and stories, if not her journalism, with deep respect and intelligence.

A brilliantly researched, astute and fascinating account of the growth and emergence of one of the most heroic figures in modern fiction.

Edmund Gordon brings a wealth of research, intelligence and wit to this biography of a great and subversive writer. He vividly illuminates Angela Carter’s life and work, underlining her bravery, her discontents and her ultimate flourishing.

Fine and sympathetic…the book is as much a treasure trove of unseen work as it is a conventional biography…[Gordon] never loses focus on why a biography on Carter is important: she was a singularly significant writer who changed the landscape of English language fiction.

Gordon’s book reminded me of the deep pleasures if literary biography at its best. It will fascinate Carter’s admirers, create interest in her work among a new generation and possibly even make her detractors think again.

An intimate portrait of the woman behind the fantastical narratives.

Gordon’s is a warm sort of skepticism, and his exemplary, subtle Life is attuned to Carter’s anarchic wit.

[A] fine and sympathetic biography… Fascinating.

[It] has the irreplaceable imprint of a life still warm to the touch of memory.

He’s polite and respectful and extremely through.

The strange, earthy zest in Carter’s books is fully displayed here… Gordon is excellent on her need for literary recognition; for love; and for the more prosaic matter of earning a living… Thanks to Gordon’s sympathetic, stylish book, we can peep under the witchy mask, and delight in a fantastical life lived fully.

The true Carter emerges from the pages of Edmund Gordon’s expansive new biography… Reading this book, it seems clear that more readers and biographers should devote their time to this complex, intelligent and thoroughly un-boring woman.

Gordon did a splendid job… The research and the just sobriety of his writing have produced a book which will always have a special place on the Carter shelf.

A wise, generous and inspiring book by an exciting young scholar.

It's almost 25 years since the death of Angela Carter, one of Britain's most inventive, imaginative novelists. This first full biography reveals that she followed her own unconventional path and led a life filled with adventure, incident, misfortune and love… Listeners are in for a treat as her story unfolds.

This is a meticulous life of the anarchically inventive novelist.

His work is full of care and elegance, his ear attuned to Carter’s wit.

The best biography of the year was Edmund Gordon’s luminous The Invention of Angela Carter. He beautifully drew the best from Carter’s friends and acquaintances, and the result will become a classic.

A fascinating journey through layers of English and Japanese bohemia while triumphantly bringing us closer to the brilliantly wayward personality and mind of one of the finest, most original writers of the last 50 years.

My book of the year is Edmund Gordon’s thorough and timely biography… Fascinating.

I would enthusiastically recommend Edmund Gordon’s subtle, empathetic account of Angela Carter.

[A] fine biography… It is not only insightful about her work, but also wise in its approach to presenting a portrait of her life… Her own light has gone, but her brilliance glitters still.

[It is] humane, wide-ranging, replete with deftly handled detail and as sensitive as its subject to the fabular nature of identity. Gordon’s formidable critical faculties go to work on the diaries, drafts, fiction and poetry… A rich and scrupulous account.

[It is] lush with comment from those who knew her best, and benefiting from full access to her manuscripts, letters and journals, Gordon’s research and style is impeccable.

[An] impressively detailed and elegant account of Carter’s life and work… [It] is ingenious.

Edmund Gordon is clearly a serious and gifted biographer… Gordon discusses Carter’s writing with skill and sense

Gordon’s is a warm sort of skepticism; his subtle study is attuned to her anarchic wit

A very good biography, which makes Carter seem absolutely real.

Finely judged and elegantly written… He brings out her wit, in contrast to the ethereal Wise Witch myth that grew around her in middle age… His biography has the irreplaceable imprint of a life still warm to the touch of memory.

Gordon’s book is both a hugely engaging portrayal of a wonderful writer – cantankerous and mercurial, sharp-tongued and meticulously observant, possibly rather monstrous – and of the pivotal time in British publishing in which she worked.

A brilliantly researched, astute and fascinating account of the growth and emergence of one of the most heroic figures in modern fiction and one of the most exquisite and original literary sensibilities in our culture. Edmund Gordon captures Angela Carter's mixture of the wayward, the weird, and the everyday with insight and care and charts Carter's steely ambition and sense of direction with sympathy, as well as her sexual power and her dedication to making it new.

A Biography

WINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARD 
 
NBCC AWARD FINALIST 
 
WINNER OF THE 2017 SLIGHTLY FOXED BEST FIRST BIOGRAPHY PRIZE 
 
Selected as a Book of the Year 2016 in The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times, Spectator and Observer 
 
Angela Carter’s life was as unconventional as anything in her fiction. Through her fearlessly original and inventive books, including The Bloody Chamber and Nights at the Circus, she became an icon to a generation and one of the most acclaimed English writers of the last hundred years. This is her first full and authorised biography. 
 
Edmund Gordon uncovers Carter’s life story – from a young woman trying to write in a tiny bedsit in Tokyo, to one of the most important and daring writers of her day. From a life full of adventure sprang work so fantastic, dazzling and seductive that it permanently changed and reinvigorated British literature. This is the story of how Angela Carter invented herself. 
 
'An exemplary piece of work... Everyone should read it' Spectator

Edmund Gordon

Praise for The Invention of Angela Carter

Splendid…this is an exemplary piece of work…which will satisfy readers, and on which further investigation can rest with great confidence that nothing has been concealed and no pathway has been neglect ...

[A] gripping biography, brimming with new material… He has undertaken feats of scholarship and written an admirably clearsighted book… Gordon’s achievement, however, is tremendous. From baroque entangl ...

This fascinating, highly readable biography will be extremely hard to beat.

Splendid…this is an exemplary piece of work…which will satisfy readers, and on which further investigation can rest with great confidence that nothing has been concealed and no pathway has been neglect ...

[A] gripping biography, brimming with new material… He has undertaken feats of scholarship and written an admirably clearsighted book… Gordon’s achievement, however, is tremendous. From baroque entangl ...

This fascinating, highly readable biography will be extremely hard to beat.

Splendid…this is an exemplary piece of work…which will satisfy readers, and on which further investigation can rest with great confidence that nothing has been concealed and no pathway has been neglect ...

[A] gripping biography, brimming with new material… He has undertaken feats of scholarship and written an admirably clearsighted book… Gordon’s achievement, however, is tremendous. From baroque entangl ...

This fascinating, highly readable biography will be extremely hard to beat.

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