Emma Tennant
Emma Tennant
The Hon. Emma Christina Tennant FRSLis a British novelist and editor. She is known for a postmodern approach to her fiction, which is often imbued with fantasy or magic. Several of her novels give a feminist or dreamlike twist to classic stories, such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. She has also published work under the name Catherine Aydy...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth20 October 1937
born both cannot gardening hand interested remember time
I cannot remember a time when I was not interested in both gardening and painting. I must have been born with a trowel in one hand and a paintbrush in the other.
exotic gardening growing grown interested paint wild
Because I am really interested in gardening, I do really interesting plants, not even always flowers. And because I have grown them, I really know them like friends. I paint everything from exotic orchids to rosehips growing wild in a hedge. They just have to speak to me.
arrived books bought cheque died greek next pounds publishers
When my father died in Greece, leaving my mother strapped, a cheque arrived next day from my Greek publishers who'd just bought two of my books for pounds 500.
asking fairly family obvious people quite suppose
Quite a lot of people wanted me to write about my family, I suppose for fairly obvious reasons, and there was always something that would stop me, I thought they were asking me for the wrong motives.
ball life marrying odd though time
My life has really been about writing, though some think it's all about once having been in a ball dress and having an odd life and marrying all the time. But it's the writing that's always been the point.
among felt grew hardly james people versed
I didn't go to university; I hardly went to school, but I grew up among people well versed in Henry James and Proust, and just felt this endless, total inadequacy.
awful either possible time women
Like all women, I've had a pretty awful time in many ways, but it's always possible to either make a joke or find someone else.
attached call drawn gifts love original somebody
The fascination of somebody with original creative gifts is something that's always drawn me. I get attached to them, but I can't call it being in love, because the words are so debased.