The view from Downshire Hill

About this book

"Not all of us have books publisher in our hundredth year, and some readers may need reminding of Elizabeth Jenkins's considerable literary reputation. She is the suthor of twelve novels (the first published in 1929) and this is her twelfth work of non-fiction. She was one of the pioneers of the 'reportage' novel; her biography of Elizabeth I impressed even A.L. Rowse; and she is the doyenne of Jane Austen aficionados and the only surviving Founding Member of the Jane Austen Society. She recounts here the story of its beginnings (and deals summarily, too, with the theory that Chatsworth was the model for Pemberley). She lived for much of her adult life in the house her father bought her in Hampstead, and so 'the view from Downshire Hill' encapsulates her experiences of working and writing in the capital and its attendant encounters and friendships, particularly with a gallery of writers, publishers, and actors. Her polite, sensible shoes style has a wry, attractive edge. Especially enjoyable, for instance, is her account of how, when first in London after finishing at Cambridge, she was taken up (and down) by Virginia Woolf. As her nephew, Sir Michael Jenkins, recalls in his Introduction, she was once well described as being personally 'rather like her books, a combination of understatement and insight'." -- Provided by publisher.