Book description
Catherine Carter
tells of two ardent people who loved each other passionately and who
have to fight to bring their love to fulfilment. They also have to fight
a conflict between themselves, for, despite their love, their ambitions
clash head-on. This conflict is presented without any softening of the
truth, and no such relation has ever been treated with greater warmth,
compassion, depth of understanding.
Set in the theatrical London of the 1880's, the story opens when Henry
Peverel is a youngish actor rising to the height of his power and fame.
He has every needful gift, but he cannot bear competition. Into his
company is introduced an aspiring actress, Catherine Carter, fifteen
years younger, just at the start of her career. Almost at once she loves
and venerates Henry; but she believes that she can become his artistic
equal. Much has to happen before he returns her love and the two are
united on this plane while on the artistic plane, both continue to
struggle with the other's nature and their own.
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.
