Book description
This is an unconventional memoir - a book of reflections upon the
things that have been most important in Pamela Hansford Johnson's life.
It is a wide-ranging book. It offers personal reminiscenses; views on
literature, music and painting; portraits of remarkable people; opinions
on politics and society; and scenes from an active life.
Pamela Hansford Johnson writes about her childhood and youth, giving a
marvellous portrait of her mother. She brilliantly discusses the writer
who is her greatest enthusiasm-Marcel Proust. With wit and a sharp eye
she describes her travels in the United States and Russia. She gives an
account of her close friendship with Dylan Thomas, and she portrays
Edith Sitwell.
At once personal and reflective, Important To Me
is written with immediacy and unassuming grace.
Pamela Hansford Johnson wrote 27 novels across genres as diverse as
romance, comedy and tragedy. An incredibly readable and literary author,
who deserves to be rediscovered by a new generation, Bello has brought
18 of Johnson's books back into print. Pamela Hansford Johnson was
born in 1912 and gained recognition with her first novel, This Bed Thy
Centre, published in 1935. She wrote 27 novels. Her themes centred on
the moral responsibility of the individual in their personal and social
relations. The fictional genres she used ranged from romantic comedy
(Night and Silence, Who Is Here) and high comedy (The Unspeakable
Skipton) to tragedy (The Holiday Friend) and the psychological study of
cruelty (An Error of Judgement). Her last novel, A Bonfire, was
published in the year of her death, 1981. She was a critic as well as a
novelist and wrote books on Thomas Wolfe and Ivy Compton-Burnett; Six
Proust Reconstructions (1958) confirmed her reputation as a leading
Proustian scholar. She also wrote a play, Corinth House (1954), a work
of social criticism arising out of the Moors Trial, On Iniquity (1967),
and a book of essays, Important to Me (1974). She received honorary
degrees from six universities and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Literature. She was awarded the C. B.E. in 1975. Pamela Hansford
Johnson, who had two children by her first marriage with journalist
Gordon Neil Stewart, later married C. P. Snow. Their son Philip was born
in 1952.
