Selina Hastings

WRITERS AND READERS WEEK, Friday 9 – Wednesday 14 March 2012

SELINA HASTINGS

British writer and journalist Selina Hastings has written literary biographies of Evelyn Waugh, Nancy Mitford and Rosamund Lehman. Her latest literary biography is The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham. She worked for 14 years on The Daily Telegraph and for eight years was the literary editor of Harper’s & Queen.

Hastings is aware of the barriers that subjects set up to protect themselves from the biographical gaze. Somerset Maugham might be seen as an extreme example, holding a large bonfire of personal papers and embargoing the rest. It is a reflection of Hastings’ reputation that the Royal Literary Fund granted her access to his papers. The result, The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham, certainly contradicts Maugham’s statement that “A life of myself is bound to be dull’’.

Wrote Nicholas Shakespeare on Hastings’ biography in The Daily Telegraph: “…pitch-perfect: supple, confident and written with something of the same beady detachment (and enjoyable signature streak of malice) as the great tale-teller himself.’’

Selina Hastings’ session The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham: A Life Under Cover will take place in Wellington’s Embassy Theatre. On Wednesday 14 March, Selina will present Nancy Mitford and Evelyn Waugh: A Literary Correspondence Course at a High Tea event at the Museum Art Hotel.

WHEN: Wednesday 14 March 3.30pm

WHERE: Museum Art Hotel

DURATION: 1 hr 30 mins

TICKETS: GA $65

ENDS

Writers and Readers Week is supported by the Lion Foundation, Victoria University of Wellington, John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellowship, Unity Books, Museum Art Hotel, Australia Council for the Arts, Australian High Commission, Goethe Institut, Canada Council for the Arts, Embassy of Spain and the Embassy of the United States of America.

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