Fanny Burney

Claire Harman's first book, a biography of the novelist Sylvia Townsend Warner, was published by Chatto & Windus in 1989 and won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize for 'a book of value from a writer of growing stature'. Her second, a life of Fanny Burney (2000), published by HarperCollins, was shortlisted for the Whitbread Prize. She has edited Warner's Collected Poems (1982) and Diaries (1994) as well as works by Robert Louis Stevenson, a new biography of whom she has just completed. Harman worked for the literary periodical PN Review in the 1980s and has taught at the universities of Manchester and Oxford. She has written for all the major British literary papers and currently teaches a course in creative writing at Columbia University's School of the Arts.

'A superb, highly intelligent, readable study...if a biography can claim perfect pitch, this one can.' Eileen Battersby, Irish Times 'Excellent..unlikely to be bettered for years to come.' Kathryn Hughes, New Statesman 'This scholarly, judicious and entertaining book is all that a biography should be.' Ian McIntyre, The Times 'A great achievement.' Andrew Marr, Observer 'Excellent.' Miranda Seymour, Sunday Times 'A thoroughly entertaining as well as scholarly book.' Allan Massie, Daily Telegraph