Books like Iris and the Friends by John Bayley

Elizabeth Gaskell’s unsentimental biography traces Charlotte Brontë’s rise from the rural parish of Thornton to becoming the celebrated author of *Jane Eyre*, highlighting her family life, school years, and characteristic kindness.

"John Bayley began writing Iris and Her Friends, a sequel to the New York Times bestseller Elegy for Iris, late at night while his wife, the beloved novelist Iris Murdoch, succumbed to Alzheimer's Disease. In a Proustian irony, as Iris was losing her memory, Bayley was flooded with vivid recollections of his own."--BOOK JACKET. "Avoiding the gloom associated with his family tragedy, Bayley luminously brings to life in Iris and Her Friends the remarkable story of a philosopher whose novels celebrated the goodness of everyday existence. In bursts of vivid, lyrical reverie, Bayley also recreates the unforgettable scenes of his youth: being born to a civil servant in colonial India; his epiphanic childhood vacations at the seaside English resort Littlestone-on-Sea, which gave him his first, important glimmers of adult consciousness; his discovery of the power of literature, especially the work of Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Bowen, and Marcel Proust; and of course his long romance with Iris and its heartbreaking end."--BOOK JACKET.

Linda Lear’s biography reveals the extraordinary life of Beatrix Potter, celebrated artist, illustrator, author, businesswoman, scientist, and Lakeland landowner.