'Programmed to be Curious'

 

“Why do we read biography? Why do we choose to write it? Because we are human beings, programmed to be curious about other human beings, and to experience something of their lives. This has always been so - look at the Bible, crammed with biographies, very popular reading.” – Claire Tomalin

 

Born in London on June 20, 1933 Tomalin is best known for her biographies of such luminaries as Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy and Jane Austin.    She did not set out to be a writer but jumped into the field to support her family of 5 children after her journalist husband Nicholas Tomalin was killed while working as a war correspondent.   Starting in 1973, she worked as an editor of the New Statesman and at The Sunday Times before trying her hand at biography. Her very first effort, The Life and Death of Mary Wollstonecraft, not only was a popular bestseller but set her on a writing path that has produced 11 bestselling biographies and won her more than a dozen top prizes.

 

While she has scaled back her writing – her most recent book is 2021’s The Young H.G. Wells: Changing The World  -- she is still active as a vice president of both the Royal Literary Fund and The Royal Society of Literature. 

 

Among her books, she said she very much enjoyed writing Charles Dickens: A Life, considered one of the best ever on the author and his works . 

 

“Dickens was a part of how the whole celebration of Christmas as we know it today emerged during the 19^th century,” she said.  “Dickens is (was) a lover of human beings; a relisher of human beings.”