- Paperback: 500 pages
- Publisher: Pan; New edition edition (6 Jun 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330484052
- ISBN-13: 978-0330484053
- Product Dimensions: 13 x 19.7 x 3.5 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
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- #69 in Books > Biography > Novelists, Poets & Playwrights > Novelists
Slipstream: A Memoir
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Product Description
Daily Telegraph, June 2003
...suffused with laughter, glamour and wit... a heartbreaking, entertaining and delightful read.
Independent on Sunday, June 2003
Brave, revelatory, unvarnished, this is a hell of a story.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Elizabeth Jane Howard is one of my favourite writers and here she gives us, honestly and without dissimulation, the story of her life so far. In her eighties now, she has a lot of life to go over. Her childhood was fraught, her mother cold and quite unashamedly biased towards her sons rather than her awkward but highly intelligent daughter. Her father was a sybarite, loving and charming, but in her adolescence Jane was prey to his inappropriate gropings which understandably soured their relationship. She married Peter Scott, naturalist and navy man, but this was not a particularly successful marriage. Nevertheless they had a daughter; although EJH seemed destined to repeat her own mother's mistakes by palming her off on a nanny.
The matter of class comes to the fore in considering much of EJH's life. Upper-middle and arty, her milieu was one of easy relationships and friendships. She had affairs with Cecil Day Lewis, Arthur Koestler and Laurie Lee, but only the last of these seems to have been sexually rewarding. All this occurred while she was struggling to write her first couple of novels, which were rather indifferently received by the reading public. Her struggles with houses and gardens and money are documented entertainingly, but slightly tainted with her other-worldly social attitudes. She is never without domestic help throughout and unless she has left a great deal out of this account it appears that the natural elements of life, such as one's children, can only be handled at arms length.
Her marriage to Kingsley Amis (her third marriage) is reported without self-justification. EJH takes the blame for much of what happened, though it is clear to the reader that Amis was a drunken misogynist, much happier with his right-wing chums than his hapless family and it is a relief for all when she gives up her martyrdom and leaves him.
The writing throughout this not entirely comfortable tale is faultless and open, with very little vanity or self-consciousness displayed. EJH is a skilful, intelligent and un-showy writer and her story is deeply interesting to those who value insight into the artistic and literary life in England during the last half of the last century.
The matter of class comes to the fore in considering much of EJH's life. Upper-middle and arty, her milieu was one of easy relationships and friendships. She had affairs with Cecil Day Lewis, Arthur Koestler and Laurie Lee, but only the last of these seems to have been sexually rewarding. All this occurred while she was struggling to write her first couple of novels, which were rather indifferently received by the reading public. Her struggles with houses and gardens and money are documented entertainingly, but slightly tainted with her other-worldly social attitudes. She is never without domestic help throughout and unless she has left a great deal out of this account it appears that the natural elements of life, such as one's children, can only be handled at arms length.
Her marriage to Kingsley Amis (her third marriage) is reported without self-justification. EJH takes the blame for much of what happened, though it is clear to the reader that Amis was a drunken misogynist, much happier with his right-wing chums than his hapless family and it is a relief for all when she gives up her martyrdom and leaves him.
The writing throughout this not entirely comfortable tale is faultless and open, with very little vanity or self-consciousness displayed. EJH is a skilful, intelligent and un-showy writer and her story is deeply interesting to those who value insight into the artistic and literary life in England during the last half of the last century.
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a very honest and moving account of the life of a remarkable lady. I had never heard of Elizabeth Jane howard before I picked up this book, but once I had picked it up I couldn't put it down! It starts off slowly with her early life and the difficult relationship between Elizabeth and her mother, but quickly picks up after moving away from home.
She comes across to start with as very naive when it comes to relationships and speaks very openly about motherhood and her early relationship with her daughter.
Elizabeth Jane Howard has some remarkable friends and all though I had not heard of her before most of her friends, lovers and acquaintances are giants in the literary world. Cecil Day-louis, Arthur Koestler, Louis st Bernieres and of course her third husband Kingsley Amis, to name just a few.
Although her relationship with Kingley Amis lasted over eighteen years it ended badly, and thier differences were not resolved before his death. However Elizabeth Jane Howard speaks about him with great affection regardless.
I enjoyed this book so much that I have now bought a copy of Kingley Amis' boigraphy to hear his side of the story!
This book is a must for fans of biography and literature.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Highly recommended for all writers out there, this is inspirational. Not in the sense that she has so many wonderful things to say about writing and technique, but really in that Elizabeth Jane Howard had so many of the ordinary and difficult things going on and yet managed to produce quality writing.
She came from what many would call a privileged background, yet it was so emotionally faulty. She dropped into acting and never really made a success of it, then flitted from job to job. You could say she also flitted from relationship to relationship and the developing story of what a damaged person she was is very touching.
It is true that she was lucky to meet so many people who were famous, useful to her career, or both, but somehow there is always a sadness in the background; she wasn't a user and self-promoter and often felt that she wasn't able to relate to these people as she would ideally have wished.
In some ways she comes across as so very ordinary a person, and that is refreshing. What is deeply saddening is the way she shows herself as being a subject of the men in her life; she came from the time when to be a woman meant to be subject to men, putting them first and leaving your own needs aside.
She draws some beautiful pictures of her contemporaries, but you also realise just how many predatorial men there were out there, and know instinctively that there still are.
The chapters that cover the thirties and forties are worth reading for her depiction of the harsh realities of day to day living. You can't imagine people being able to exist on so little now, or how they might manage to keep a working life going in the places she describes having lived in.
The fifties and sixties and rising affluence takes us into much more middle-class territory and this is really where the "names" come into their own. And as the book progresses, we arrive with the author at a greater understanding of herself.
It's a good read, well worth a few nights staying up late for.
She came from what many would call a privileged background, yet it was so emotionally faulty. She dropped into acting and never really made a success of it, then flitted from job to job. You could say she also flitted from relationship to relationship and the developing story of what a damaged person she was is very touching.
It is true that she was lucky to meet so many people who were famous, useful to her career, or both, but somehow there is always a sadness in the background; she wasn't a user and self-promoter and often felt that she wasn't able to relate to these people as she would ideally have wished.
In some ways she comes across as so very ordinary a person, and that is refreshing. What is deeply saddening is the way she shows herself as being a subject of the men in her life; she came from the time when to be a woman meant to be subject to men, putting them first and leaving your own needs aside.
She draws some beautiful pictures of her contemporaries, but you also realise just how many predatorial men there were out there, and know instinctively that there still are.
The chapters that cover the thirties and forties are worth reading for her depiction of the harsh realities of day to day living. You can't imagine people being able to exist on so little now, or how they might manage to keep a working life going in the places she describes having lived in.
The fifties and sixties and rising affluence takes us into much more middle-class territory and this is really where the "names" come into their own. And as the book progresses, we arrive with the author at a greater understanding of herself.
It's a good read, well worth a few nights staying up late for.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
stretto49
Interested in Elizabeth Jayne Howard for her involvement in the start of the Inland Waterways Association. This was detailed very well and very much more as well. Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2009 by Stret
Jaw-dropping
There are many times in this jaw-dropping book when you find yourself thinking that although Elizabeth Jane Howard was blessed with tremendous beauty, she lacked the slightest... Read more
Published on 22 Dec 2003 by Claretta
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