JAMES Boswell’s Life of Samuel Johnson (1791) was ground-breaking. Boswell had known Johnson for the last 21 years of his life (Johnson died in 1784) and had kept notes throughout this time intending one day to write his biography. He also knew many of Johnson’s friends and got stories about him from them.

His Life is enriched with examples of Johnson’s conversation and anecdotes about him. And in bringing his subject to life in this way, Boswell’s biography became the template for other biographies.

Someone writing A Life today would certainly draw on their subject’s letters and diaries (if these exist); on memories of their friends and acquaintances; and if there are TV or radio recordings of them talking, extracts from these too.

Dickens has attracted many biographers, including Claire Tomalin (2011). This was abridged and serialised on Radio 4 just a few weeks ago. Like any good biography it tells not only the ‘life’ but describes the ‘times’ in which the subject lived too (something Boswell, as a contemporary of Johnson, did not feel the need to do).

George Orwell asked that no biography be written of him. His widow, Sonia, was very protective of his request and it was not until 1980 that George Orwell: A Life was published by Bernard Crick. It is a fine biography and many more have followed in its wake. The best, I think, is by D.J. Taylor (2003), and he is currently writing a second biography because so much new material has come to light since his original Life.

Philip Larkin published just four slim volumes of poetry. He was a very private man, who worked full-time as a librarian at Hull University. He avoided TV appearances, public readings, literary gatherings etc. Admirers of his poetry knew little of the man himself, until Andrew Motion published Philip Larkin: A Writer’s Life (1993).

It is an excellent biography, but it does include some ugly revelations about Larkin’s views, particularly on women and race, that were expressed in private letters. These details which one would almost rather not have known, raised the issue of whether our enjoyment of his poetry is affected by what we now know of the man. I tend to think not. What if documents were discovered showing Shakespeare in a bad light? Would this devalue the plays and the poetry?

I must mention one more great ‘life’ of a writer – Richard Ellmann’s James Joyce (1983). Considered by some to be the best literary biography of our times, it is so rich in detail and anecdotes, and, like Boswell’s, of recovered conversations, that I think even if you haven’t read Joyce you would enjoy reading it. Ellmann also wrote a wonderful biography of Oscar Wilde (1988) – equally enjoyable and entertaining to read.

Perhaps readers would like to recommend a biography of a writer they think others would enjoy and say briefly what its qualities are.

Lance Christopher

PS Although books can be bought as paper copies, or as eBooks via Kindle, they can also be borrowed digitally and, once the coronavirus lockdown has passed, as print copies, from Wiltshire libraries.

Free RBdigital eBooks, eAudio and eMagazines are available from Wiltshire libraries, who have over 2,500 eBooks, over 1,000 eAudiobooks and 38 eMagazines available.

All you need to access them is a Wiltshire library card and an email address so that you can register with RBdigital. If you don’t have a library card, you can join online by completing a form and then receiving an email with your library card number.

More information about this service and a link to the joining form can be found at http://www.wiltshire.gov.uk/libraries-ebooks