Angel by Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor was a popular English novelist and short story writer.
Taylors first novel, At Mrs. Lippincotes, was published in 1945 and was followed by eleven more. Her short stories were published in magazines and collected in four volumes. She also wrote a childrens book. The British critic Phillip Hensher called The Soul of Kindness a novel so expert that it seems effortless. As it progresses, it seems as if the cast are so fully rounded that all the novelist had to do was place them, successively, in one setting after another and observe how they reacted to each other.... The plot... never feels as if it were organised in advance; it feels as if it arises from her characters mutual responses.
Taylors work is mainly concerned with the nuances of everyday life and situations, which she writes about with dexterity. Her shrewd but affectionate portrayals of middle class and upper middle class English life won her an audience of discriminating readers, as well as loyal friends in the world of letters. She was a friend of the novelist Ivy Compton-Burnett and of the novelist and critic Robert Liddell. Her long correspondence with the latter forms the subject of one of her short stories, The Letter Writers , but the letters were unfortunately destroyed, in line with her general policy of keeping her private life private. A horror of publicity is the subject of another celebrated short story, Sisters, written in 1969.
Anne Tyler once compared Taylor to Jane Austen, Barbara Pym and Elizabeth Bowen -- soul sisters all, in Tylers words. In recent years new interest has been kindled by movie makers in her work. Elizabeth Taylor was also a close friend of Elizabeth Jane Howard, who was asked by Elizabeth Taylors widower to write a biography following Elizabeth Taylors death. Elizabeth Jane Howard refused due to what she felt was a lack of incident in Elizabeth Taylors life. See Slipstream, Elizabeth Jane Howards memoir, for more details on their friendship. Taylors editor at the UK publisher Chatto Windus was the poet D. J. Enright.
Novels
At Mrs. Lippincotes
Palladian shows most clearly the influence of Jane Austen.
A View of the Harbour
A Wreath of Roses
A Game of Hide and Seek
The Sleeping Beauty
The Real Life of Angel Deverell
In a Summer Season is her most sex-infused work, telling the story of a rich woman who marries a man ten years her junior.
The Soul of Kindness
The Wedding Group
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
Blaming , posthumous.
Short story collections
Hester Lilly
The Blush and Other Stories
A Dedicated Man and Other Stories
The Devastating Boys includes Sisters.
Childrens book
Mossy Trotter