Femmes Fatales

Artemis Cooper and Edmund Gordon

The lives of novelists Elizabeth Jane Howard (whose books include the five volume The Cazalet Chronicles) and Angela Carter (whose work include Nights at the Circus and Wise Children) have recently been reappraised in biographies by Artemis Cooper (Howard) and Edmund Gordon (Carter). Artemis Cooper was able to interview Elizabeth Jane Howard; Edmund Gordon was barely a toddler when Angela Carter died in 1992. What are the advantages and disadvantages of knowing your biographical subject?