Lives for Sale: Biographers' Tales [Hardcover]

Biography is well recognised as a peculiarly British vice. This new anthology is a collection of essays by some of the best biographers now writing in Britain. They tell of the ups and downs of life writing: of problems with families and friends of their subjects, of shocking new discoveries, and of bitter professional rivalries. Essays in favour of biography, others that describe disenchantment with an attempt to capture another human being in the pages of a book.

Published in the autumn of 2004 - to coincide with the appearance of the most important British publishing enterprise of the new century to date, the new Oxford Dictionary of National Biography - Lives For Sale is full of amusing anecdotes and fascinating experiences retold by some of the masters of the form, including Michael Holroyd, Fiona MacCarthy, Graham Robb, Andrew Roberts, Hermione Lee, Margaret Forster, Jenny Uglow, Antonia Fraser, as well as contributions from the rising generation, and an essay by Beryl Bainbridge on 'Waiting for the Biographer'.

 wonderfully entertaining --The Tablet (UK) , November 2004 Blurb from reviewer

 an entertaining ragbag of very brief and light essays by biographers. --The Spectator (UK) November 2004 Blurb from reviewer

One of our favorite books of 2004 --New York Newsday, December 2004 Blurb from reviewer

 Concerns for accuracy and detail seem to cut across all biographers' discussion of their work, and how they respond to this need is varied and will be of interest to those writers and historians looking to take up the art. --Library Journal, January 15, 2005 Eric C. Shoaf,Library Journal

 fascinating collection of essays....Readers who enjoy entering into the lives of others by reading biographies will find pleasurable anecdotes and insights here from those who make such careful snooping their profession. --Publishers Weekly December 2004 Publishers Weekly