Elizabeth Taylor (1) (1912–1975)
Author of Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont
For other authors named Elizabeth Taylor, see the disambiguation page.
About the Author
Image credit: Author Elizabeth Taylor
Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by Elizabeth Taylor
You'll Enjoy It When You Get There: The Stories of Elizabeth Taylor (New York Review Books Classics) (2014) 149 copies, 3 reviews
A Red-Letter Day 2 copies
The Letter Writers 2 copies
Sisters 1 copy
Elizabeth Taylor Collection 3 Books Set (Angel, A View Of The Harbour, Mrs Palfrey At The Claremont) (2019) 1 copy
The Excursion to the Source 1 copy
Associated Works
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 11, July 1975 — Contributor — 2 copies
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Taylor, Elizabeth
- Other names
- Coles, Elizabeth (born)
- Birthdate
- 1912-07-03
- Date of death
- 1975-11-19
- Gender
- female
- Education
- The Abbey School, Reading
Leopold Hall - Occupations
- governess
librarian
novelist
tutor - Relationships
- Kingham, Joanna (daughter)
Howard, Elizabeth Jane (friend)
Compton-Burnett, Ivy (friend) - Short biography
- Elizabeth Taylor, née Coles, was born in Reading, Berkshire, the daughter of Oliver Coles, an insurance inspector, and his wife, Elsie May Fewtrell. She was educated at The Abbey School, Reading and after graduation worked as a governess, tutor, and librarian. In 1936, she married John Taylor, the owner of a confectionery company. She was briefly a member of the British Communist Party, then a lifelong supporter of Labour. Her debut novel, At Mrs. Lippincote's, was published in 1945 and was followed by 11 more. She also wrote short stories that were published in magazines and collected in four volumes, and a children's book.
- Cause of death
- cancer
- Nationality
- UK
- Birthplace
- Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
- Places of residence
- Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, UK - Place of death
- Penn, Buckinghamshire, England, UK
- Map Location
- England, UK
Members
Discussions
May 2025: Elizabeth Taylor in Monthly Author Reads (May 2025)
Group Read, July 2021: Blaming in 1001 Books to read before you die (July 2021)
Liz'n'Dick II: "My Friend The Witch Doctor/He Told Me What To Do --"... in Pro and Con (August 2014)
Liz'n'Dick (The Burtons...) in Pro and Con (August 2014)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: General Discussion in Virago Modern Classics (January 2013)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: Blaming in Virago Modern Classics (December 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont in Virago Modern Classics (December 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: At Mrs. Lippincote's in Virago Modern Classics (December 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: The Soul of Kindness in Virago Modern Classics (October 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: In a Summer Season in Virago Modern Classics (October 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: The Wedding Group in Virago Modern Classics (October 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: A Game of Hide and Seek in Virago Modern Classics (August 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: Angel in Virago Modern Classics (August 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: The Sleeping Beauty in Virago Modern Classics (June 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: Elizabeth Taylor Day in Reading, UK (21 April) in Virago Modern Classics (June 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: A Wreath of Roses in Virago Modern Classics (May 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: A View of the Harbour in Virago Modern Classics (April 2012)
Elizabeth Taylor Centenary: Palladian in Virago Modern Classics (March 2012)
Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont in Orange January/July (September 2011)
Reviews
When this was written and published in 1957, it was a different world. It wasn't until the late 20th century that we began to hear and learn about things like ADHD, PTSD, and many assorted other mental health challenges and brain neurodivergencies. Thus, as I was reading about Angel, I couldn't help but wonder if her character wasn't perhaps autistic.
Angel was, in many ways, ridiculous as well as ridiculed. Yet her badly written novels made her rich and famous. Not too ridiculous, show more that.
Taylor didn't take the low road and ridicule Angel too, though. Rather, she depicted her as driven, loyal, and single-mindedly energetic. She also depicted her humorless, lacking curiosity, and cold to those she should have loved better. That realistically maddening complex mix kept my interest. I cared about Angel in spite of how so much was off-putting about her. I was intrigued how her life played out and her reaction to her circumstances. Both the good and the tragic.
I loved the way the end was written. It was lyrical and apt.
Elizabeth Taylor deserves more reading. show less
Angel was, in many ways, ridiculous as well as ridiculed. Yet her badly written novels made her rich and famous. Not too ridiculous, show more that.
Taylor didn't take the low road and ridicule Angel too, though. Rather, she depicted her as driven, loyal, and single-mindedly energetic. She also depicted her humorless, lacking curiosity, and cold to those she should have loved better. That realistically maddening complex mix kept my interest. I cared about Angel in spite of how so much was off-putting about her. I was intrigued how her life played out and her reaction to her circumstances. Both the good and the tragic.
I loved the way the end was written. It was lyrical and apt.
Elizabeth Taylor deserves more reading. show less
I read Elizabeth Taylor's Angel and I have to ask how in the world did Taylor create such a completely unlikable character in a book I ended up loving? Doesn't make sense. I should've hated this book because well, Angel is absolutely toxic. But Taylor's writing is so gobsmacking beautiful and descriptive that it's hard to get beyond that. Plus it's her genius, I think, that could create a character that's so repellent while being so absolutely fascinating. I won't soon forget her.
"At that show more first meeting, long ago in London, she had seemed to need his protection while warning him not to offer it: arrogant and absurd she had been and had remained: she had warded off friendship and stayed lonely and made such fortifications within her own mind that the truth could not pierce it. At the slightest air of censure in the world about her, up had gone the barricades, the strenuous resistance begun by which she was preserved in her own imagination, beautiful, clever, successful and beloved." show less
"At that show more first meeting, long ago in London, she had seemed to need his protection while warning him not to offer it: arrogant and absurd she had been and had remained: she had warded off friendship and stayed lonely and made such fortifications within her own mind that the truth could not pierce it. At the slightest air of censure in the world about her, up had gone the barricades, the strenuous resistance begun by which she was preserved in her own imagination, beautiful, clever, successful and beloved." show less
Taylor is at the top of her game in this novel, the love story of Vesey and Harriet, who have known each other from childhood. Harriet is modest, self-effacing, and diffident. Academically untalented in childhood, Harriet is aware early on of being a disappointment to her careworn, widowed mother, Lilian, who was once a suffragette and dreamed of great things for her child. Vesey is the restless, troubled, and rather unreliable nephew of Caroline, Lilian’s great friend, also a crusader for show more women’s rights. Vesey is uncomfortable with vulnerability and tenderness, so any demonstration of these towards Harriet is often followed by sarcasm and even cruelty. The love between the two is real enough, but the character of each prevents any real relationship from forming.
When Vesey goes off to Oxford, Harriet finds work as a shop girl. Ultimately, she marries a much older man, who provides her with a comfortable, middle-class existence. After almost twenty years without contact, Vesey re-enters Harriet’s life. The dutiful, conscientious, and quite conventional woman now finds herself behaving almost as a character in a drama or a novel. She corresponds with Vesey (destroying his letters after having memorized them) and journeys several times by train to London to meet him. Vesey has made little of himself. He’s a third-rate actor, who travels around the country, living in squalid boarding houses, neglecting himself, never getting ahead. Taylor suggests that a lack of parental love is at the root of his troubles.
I found this a much more fully realized novel than Taylor’s earlier works. There are no pontificators here. The characters and the situations—and, yes, the sad story of a tragically unfulfilled love between two ordinary people, as well—are very well realized.
Rating: 4.5 show less
When Vesey goes off to Oxford, Harriet finds work as a shop girl. Ultimately, she marries a much older man, who provides her with a comfortable, middle-class existence. After almost twenty years without contact, Vesey re-enters Harriet’s life. The dutiful, conscientious, and quite conventional woman now finds herself behaving almost as a character in a drama or a novel. She corresponds with Vesey (destroying his letters after having memorized them) and journeys several times by train to London to meet him. Vesey has made little of himself. He’s a third-rate actor, who travels around the country, living in squalid boarding houses, neglecting himself, never getting ahead. Taylor suggests that a lack of parental love is at the root of his troubles.
I found this a much more fully realized novel than Taylor’s earlier works. There are no pontificators here. The characters and the situations—and, yes, the sad story of a tragically unfulfilled love between two ordinary people, as well—are very well realized.
Rating: 4.5 show less
I've read all of Elizabeth Taylor's novels, but had yet to read any of her short fiction. In the introduction Paul Bailey wrote, "The masters of the short story are masters of omission as well as suggestion: it is what they leave out that often makes for their most devastating effects. Elizabeth Taylor quietly exhibited this particular skill." Oh yes, she did indeed. Bailey's words rang true in nearly every story in this collection. These are not happy stories; they generally deal with human show more failings, disappointment, and loss. And so much of the emotional impact comes from what is not said. For example, in Perhaps a Family Failing, a bridegroom gets drunk in the hotel bar on his wedding night, leaving his seductively-dressed bride alone and waiting upstairs. Taylor expertly lays the groundwork for this, describing the wedding as seen by family members, and the young couple's journey to the hotel. She doesn't need to tell me about the groom's immaturity and anxiety, or the bride's crushing disappointment -- I could feel it.
There are also moments where Taylor blends comedy with these other emotions, as in The Letter Writers, when a couple who have corresponded for years finally meet face-to-face. Or Summer Schools, where two "spinster" sisters take separate holidays for the first time.
As with any book of short stories, readers will like some more than others, for a variety of reasons. But the writing is stellar in all of them. show less
There are also moments where Taylor blends comedy with these other emotions, as in The Letter Writers, when a couple who have corresponded for years finally meet face-to-face. Or Summer Schools, where two "spinster" sisters take separate holidays for the first time.
As with any book of short stories, readers will like some more than others, for a variety of reasons. But the writing is stellar in all of them. show less
Lists
Female Author (1)
Overdue Podcast (1)
Booker Prize (1)
Women in War (1)
hopes (1)
Awards
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Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 30
- Also by
- 20
- Members
- 7,819
- Popularity
- #3,113
- Rating
- 3.9
- Reviews
- 324
- ISBNs
- 262
- Languages
- 12
- Favorited
- 64
