Edinburgh International Book Festival: Claire Tomalin

Claire Tomalin’s work has kept the lives of many of the greatest writers in the public eye of the contemporary world. Her bestseller status is unusual for non-fiction writers, but her passion and energy for the authors whose lives she studies clearly shows as she speaks of their lives and works. Her latest publication centres on the life of Charles Dickens and, as she described tales of his life to the audience, her engagement with her subject was clear.

Tomalin began by sharing a letter which Dickens had written to his sister Fanny about a trip from Liverpool to Birmingham, recounting his welcome to Liverpool and the speech he had made there: "(I) had a pint of champagne and a pint of sherry, donned a magpie waistcoat and gave the best speech (I) had ever made!" The personal, amicable insight into the life of Dickens immediately showed his humanity – an essential element in character description and something which Tomalin foregrounds in her work. This is also evident in her love of the imperfections in Dickens. "All writers have failings," she said. "Indeed, I have more respect for those that bound forward and leave mistakes behind than those that appear perfect."

Although she did turn to other great biographers while researching her own work, she very firmly insisted that in writing biographical work, one should try to convey one’s own impression and own excitement of the subject – it is this which the reader can then hold on to. As Tomalin spoke at length on Dickens and his life and values, her enthusiasm for the writer was clear. She spoke wistfully of his decision to destroy many of his own letters as well as the correspondence he received from others. This was, Tomalin tells us, because he in fact "wanted no memorial but wanted to live on in the minds of friends." He would not, it seems, have cared for Tomailin’s biography of his life, but she has done him a great service in bringing his life and work so firmly into the lives of a modern day reader. [Megan Agnew]