Saturday, January 04, 2014

Tributes paid to Elizabeth Jane Howard


Tributes have been paid to novelist Elizabeth Jane Howard, who has died aged 90.
Howard, who was married three times including to Kingsley Amis, was known for works including the five-book Cazalet Chronicles – The Light Years, Marking Time, Confusion, Casting Off and All Change.
Howard died at her home yesterday afternoon (January 2nd) after a short illness, her publicist Jacqueline Graham said.

The author was working on a new novel, not part of the Cazalet Chronicles. Pan Macmillan, Howard’s publisher since 1990, published All Change in November last year.
Howard’s publisher, Maria Rejt, said: "Elizabeth Jane Howard leaves a body of work - non-fiction and 15 novels including the Cazalet quintet - that is remarkable in its profound humanity.  
“Her novels illuminate and celebrate what it means to be alive - regardless of age, gender or circumstance - and they moved and inspired countless readers, as her vivacity and wisdom inspired her friends in her own eventful and extremely generous life.  
“She was unfairly overlooked by the literary establishment, perhaps because her novels are so eminently readable but that was also part of her extraordinary gift as a writer: her life's lessons were given lightly and generously through her fiction but the struggle was always kept from view."

Howard’s agent, Ann Evans, said: “It was a privilege and joy to represent Elizabeth Jane Howard - she was a wonderful writer with a marvellous insight into the human condition.
“She was also the most fabulous friend – interesting, kind and generous and we will miss her terribly.”
Pan Macmillan is to publish the paperback of All Change in April, to coincide with a Radio 4 dramatisation of the book.
The publisher also said that plans were already in place to reissue the earlier Cazalet novels in the second half of this year.

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