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Educated at York Newnham College, Cambridge, she taught at the Central School of Art and Design, and was Senior Lecturer in English at University College, London, before becoming a full-time writer in 1983. She was appointed CBE in 1990 and DBE in 1999.
Byatt is one of Britain's most distinguished novelists and critics. The author of 12 works of fiction, she has also written on Iris Murdoch, Wordsworth, Coleridge and other literary subjects. She taught English and American Literature at University College, London before giving up academia to write full time. Her scholarly background is evident in all her fiction and adds an elegance to her essays but there is nothing esoteric in her musings. In this collection she considers history as fiction and fiction as history. She unapologetically quotes extensively from a wide range of novels, believing that it is important for the reader of criticism to move away from the current vogue of merely reading other critics and return to the text themselves. In this, she is writing primarily as a novelist herself. It is a powerful combination and makes these essays particularly interesting. She is a perceptive reader, aware all the time of the connections between novelists both chronologically and thematically. This collection will inspire readers to try many unfamiliar novels as well as returning to old favourites. (Kirkus UK)
