Georgia de Chamberet interviews Linda Kelly, biographer and historian, for BookBlast
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in Kent and brought up in the country, mostly in Hampshire. However, I was also a wartime evacuee, from 1940-43, in the US: a Saturday Evening Post – Norman Rockwell kind of America, complete with freckle-faced kids and rocking chairs on verandas. It was an idyllic period from which I date a certain independence of mind and a dislike of snobbery.
What sorts of books were in your family home? Who were early formative influences?
Our house was full of books, both English and French, and my mother read a lot to us when we were small. Due to wartime paper shortages, there were few new books being published for children, so we were thrown back on the classics of our parents’ generation: Frances Hodgson Burnett, Charlotte Mary Yonge, Stevenson, Henty, and Conan Doyle. Perhaps because of my American experience, I particularly loved books like Little Women and What Katie Did, but I was more or less omnivorous and gobbled up anything from Agatha Christie to Walter Scott.
In your home, was the atmosphere for women emancipated?
I don’t think it was a subject which arose – I had two brothers and two sisters, and we all regarded each other as equals.
Are there any advantages in being a woman and a writer?
I personally like having outside occupations, like cooking and shopping and looking after children and grandchildren. Writing is an escape into another world which I wouldn’t appreciate so much if I didn’t have the contrast. So for me, it is an advantage being a woman, with domestic tasks to ground one.
When did you begin writing biographies?
I began writing biographies when I left my job as travel editor of Vogue. I couldn’t find a flexible job which fitted in with children, so I decided to try and write a book at home.
How do you choose your subjects?
I do a lot of reading about people or periods which attract me till eventually, if I’m lucky, the penny drops. Sometimes it’s just a phrase or a picture which provides the first inspiration – the pre-Raphaelite painting of Chatterton in the Tate, for instance – and then I start to build up around it.
Are there individuals you considered, but didn’t pursue?
Two people I wish I’d written about are Mrs. Gaskell and the French poet André Chenier. Mrs. Gaskell had been the subject of two recent biographies, so I didn’t feel there was a place for another. André Chenier, who perished in the French Revolution, is a poet I’ve always loved and a forerunner of the French romantic movement. But having written one book with a background of the Terror – Women of the French Revolution – I didn’t feel I could live through the horror of the period again.
What is it about late 18th and early 19th-century romanticism which appeals to you?
One of the things I specially love about the late 18th and early 19th century is the way that people use English. Even the simplest letters have a zest and style which seems to vanish once one enters the Victorian age. And then it’s a period with a tumultuous background of war and revolution, dramatic events which are mirrored in the works of the poets and writers of the day. And what wonderful people it threw up – from Byron to Madame de Staël.
How do you move from research to writing; is it difficult to begin?
I try and get a general feel of the subject before I start and then research in detail, chapter by chapter. I like the feeling of discovery as I go along. I find it incredibly difficult to get started and have sometimes taken a year to get the first chapter right. Once the scene is set, things become much easier.
Do you write every day; what is your writing process? Do you do many drafts?
I try and write every day though it’s not always possible. I go through many drafts but usually try to get the main outline down in the first. I can then fiddle around till I think I’ve got it right.
Why is history valuable? Why does it matter?
Solzhenitsyn said that being ignorant of history is like having had a lobotomy. We need to know where we come from. And how boring it would be if the past was a blank.
When you look back at the books you have written, is there a favourite?
I suppose I like my second book, The Young Romantics, best. It is about the friendships, loves, and rivalries of the French romantics between 1827-37, the years that saw the first night of Hernani and the July Revolution. The group included Victor Hugo, Alfred de Vigny, Alexandre Dumas, Alfred de Musset, and George Sand. I fell in love with all of them and had severe withdrawal symptoms once the book was finished.
What are you working on now?
I’m thinking about the salons in Paris, and the ferment of new ideas there, in the years just before the French Revolution.
What is the significance of being married to a fellow writer and historian?
We read and comment on each other’s work; it’s very helpful to have someone to discuss things with. Laurence specializes in Russian history and has written books on Lermontov and Griboyedov. I’m interested in French and British subjects, but we both feel specially at home in the romantic period.
Are there any other writers in your family?
My father, Ronald McNair Scott, worked for the London Mercury and wrote two novels before the war. My sister Valerie Pakenham has written several books, and my daughters Rosanna and Rachel Kelly have also published widely, including books on Russian history and mental health awareness.
Your views on book publishing?
I owe a lot to publishers, and am glad to see new ones springing up at a time when many of the older ones are being swallowed up by big conglomerates.
Your views on how new technology has (or has not) changed your writing life? Do you enjoy reading e-books?
I am woefully old-fashioned and have not got around to reading e-books. I’m not very good on social media either!
Your views on celebrity?
I think celebrity is a bit of a two-edged sword – sooner or later it turns against you. But I realize it helps sell books.
If you could go anywhere in time for one day, where would you go and why?
I would like to have been one of the audience at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre for a performance of Twelfth Night.
Who are the five people, living or dead, you’d invite to a party?
I’d like to invite some of the characters I know from my books: Sheridan, Talleyrand, Madame de Staël, George Sand, and Victor Hugo. The question is, how would they all get a word in?
Which characters in history do you like the most?
The Duke of Wellington, Winston Churchill, Walter Raleigh, Elizabeth I.
Which characters in history do you dislike the most?
Apart from the monsters of the 20th century, Stalin, Mao, and Hitler, I would choose Napoleon and Henry VIII.
Who are the writers you admire?
Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Dickens, Proust, P.G. Wodehouse, and Anthony Powell.
Your idea of happiness?
Reading a Victorian novel by the fire on a cold November day, with a cat asleep on my knee.
Your bedside reading?
A detective story, a collection of poetry, something in French, and a solid biography or novel.
Your favourite motto?
Keep punching.
Linda Kelly died in January 2019. Condolences to her family and friends. RIP.
Linda Kelly‘s books include Women of the French Revolution, Richard Brinsley Sheridan: A Life, Holland House: A History of London’s Most Celebrated Salon, Ireland’s Minstrel: A Life of Tom Moore, Poet, Patriot and Byron’s Friend and, just published, Talleyrand in London: The Master Diplomat’s Last Mission. She has written for The Washington Post, New York Times, Times Literary Supplement and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Wordsworth Trust. She is married to the writer Laurence Kelly, a specialist in Russian history.
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