Hastings, Selina 1945- (Lady Selina Shirley Hastings, Selina Shirley Hastings)

PERSONAL:

Born March 5, 1945; daughter of the 16th Earl of Huntingdon and Margaret Lane. Education: St. Hugh's College, Oxford, M.A.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Coleridge & White, 20 Powis Mews, London W11, England. E-mail—selina.hastings@talk21.com.

CAREER:

Writer, editor, and journalist. Daily Telegraph, London, England, literary editor, 1968-82; Harpers & Queen, London, literary editor, 1987-95. Served as judge for the Booker, Whitbread and Duff Cooper Prizes, and for the UK Biographers' Award.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Marsh Biography Prize, 1994, for Evelyn Waugh: A Biography; Royal Society of Literature fellow.

WRITINGS:

STORIES RETOLD FOR CHILDREN

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, illustrated by Juan Wijngaard, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (New York, NY), 1981.

Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady, illustrated by Juan Wijngaard, Lothrop, Lee & Shepard (New York, NY), 1985.

Over the Moon: A Book of Nursery Rhymes, illustrated by C. Voake, Walker (London, England), 1985.

Peter and the Wolf: Based on the Orchestral Tale by Sergei Prokofiev, illustrated by Reg Cartwright, Holt (New York, NY), 1987, reprinted, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 2002.

The Man Who Wanted to Live Forever, illustrated by Reg Cartwright, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.

Geoffrey Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales, illustrated by Reg Cartwright, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.

The Singing Ringing Tree, illustrated by Louise Brierley, Holt (New York, NY), 1988.

Reynard the Fox, illustrated by Graham Percy, Tambourine (New York, NY), 1991.

The Firebird, illustrated by Reg Cartwright, Candlewick Press (Cambridge, MA), 1993.

The Miracles of Jesus: And Other Bible Stories, Dorling Kindersley (New York, NY), 1994.

Noah's Ark: And Other Bible Stories, Dorling Kindersley (New York, NY), 1994.

The Children's Illustrated Bible, illustrated by Eric Thomas and Amy Burch, Dorling Kindersley (New York, NY), 1994.

David and Goliath: And Other Bible Stories, Dorling Kindersley (New York, NY), 1994.

The Birth of Jesus: And Other Bible Stories, Dorling Kindersley (London, England), 1996.

The Illustrated Jewish Bible for Children, illustrated by Eric Thomas and Amy Burch, Dorling Kindersley (New York, NY), 1997.

BIOGRAPHIES

Nancy Mitford: A Biography, Hamish Hamilton (London, England), 1985, Dutton (New York, NY), 1986.

Evelyn Waugh: A Biography, Houghton Mifflin (Boston, MA), 1994.

Rosamond Lehmann: A Life, Chatto & Windus (London, England), 2002.

Contributor to books, including The Surviving Works of Anne Wharton, Stump Cross Books (Stump Cross, England), 1997.

SIDELIGHTS:

Author Selina Hastings is known for her biographies of noted British writers. She also writes children's books that retell well-known stories from the Bible and other sources. The author's many retellings, usually illustrated, include Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady from the King Arthur legends. A New York Times Book Review contributor referred to the children's version of the tale as a "a lavishly illustrated colloquial retelling." New York Times Book Review contributor Karla Kuskin, writing about the author's reworking of another Arthurian tale, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, commented that "the interweaving of reality and magic is persuasive and chilling." Commenting on The Firebird, the author's version of a Russian folktale, a Publishers Weekly contributor noted "Hastings's stylish prose."

Hastings also took on the seemingly impossible task of making the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer suitable for children. Noting in the New York Times Book Review that "a version of Chaucer for children sounds, on the surface, only slightly less improbable than an I-Can-Read Henry Miller," Francine Prose went on to write that Hastings never "attempts to sanitize or falsify Chaucer's world view, to persuade us of a genial Chaucer in the manner of those children's Bible stories that represent Adam and Eve as the first Ozzie and Harriet."

In her first work on noted twentieth-century British authors, Nancy Mitford: A Biography, Hastings writes of an author known both for her novels, such as The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, and for her biographies of such notables as Voltaire and Frederick the Great. William McBrien, writing a review of Nancy Mitford in the New York Times Book Review, commented: "Miss Hastings is good on the period … especially bringing to life the decor, the clothes, the manners and the slang. Her narration is racy and the style … suits its subject." National Review contributor H.W. Crocker III commented: "One of the major joys of Selina Hastings's book is that she makes Nancy Mitford's life as entertaining as her novels."

Evelyn Waugh: A Biography explores the life and works of the author of such highly regarded novels as Brideshead Revisited and The Loved One. Writing about Waugh the man, the author delves into Waugh's reputation as an often unkind person who claimed to dislike his children, aimed his acerbic wit at strangers and longtime friends alike, and erupted into tantrums with little prodding. Referring to Hastings's biography of Waugh as "long and remarkable," New York Times Book Review contributor Hugh Kenner also noted that the author "declares that her book intends ‘to give as close an impression as possible of what it was like to know Evelyn Waugh.’" Other reviewers also praised the biography. Writing in the Atlantic, Phoebe-Lou Adams called the biography "excellent" and later wrote that the author "discusses the writer intelligently, with no attempt to elevate Waugh's potboiler travel pieces to classic status." In a review in America, Francis L. Fennell wrote: "Ms. Hastings documents the rage and cruelty [of Waugh], but she generally avoids speculating about its origins." Richard Lamb wrote in Insight on the News: "Hastings has several great gifts as a biographer. Chief among them is her ability to describe the nature of an emotional connection so to convey its weight and significance as well as its tenuousness."

Rosamond Lehmann: A Life is, according to New Statesman contributor Kathryn Hughes, a "straightforward biography, telling a story that runs in close parallel with that of Olivia Curtis, Judith Earle and all those other ardent, thwarted girls who suffer and flop through Lehmann's fictional world." Hastings delves into Lehmann's youth and her devotion to her brother John, a noted publisher. The author also writes of Lehmann's lifelong search for love in her own life, which most often resulted in rejections by those with whom she was romantically involved. In her review of the biography, Hughes wrote that "Hastings is an acute reader of the social and emotional contexts that fashioned Lehmann's neediness and snobbery; and she is perceptive, too, on the way she manipulated anyone who strayed into her overheated world. Most important of all, however, she makes you want to go back to the novels and think again about whether they matter and, if so, why." A Kirkus Reviews contributor called the biography "sympathetic but true to a life lived for love."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

America, December 30, 1995, Francis L. Fennell, review of Evelyn Waugh: A Biography, p. 27.

Atlantic, May, 1995, Phoebe-Lou Adams, review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 125.

Booklist, April 15, 1995, Ron Antonucci, review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 1468.

Catholic Library World, December, 1997, Lisa Handleman, review of The Illustrated Jewish Bible for Children, p. 84.

Commonweal, May 19, 1995, Robert Murray Davis, a review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 35.

Horn Book, July-August, 1993, Maeve Visser Knoth, review of The Firebird, p. 484.

Insight on the News, June 26, 1995, Richard Lamb, review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 25.

Kirkus Reviews, October 1, 2003, a review of Rosamond Lehmann: A Life, p. 1209.

National Review, March 27, 1987, H.W. Crocker III, review of Nancy Mitford: A Biography, p. 55.

New Republic, May 8, 1995, John Banville, review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 38.

New Statesman, June 17, 2002, Kathryn Hughes, review of Rosamond Lehmann, p. 52.

New York Review of Books, August 14, 1986, Gabriele Annan, "Goodness, How Sad," pp. 3-4.

New York Times Book Review, February 7, 1982, Karla Kuskin, review of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, p. 27; October 20, 1985, review of Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady; August 17, 1986, William McBrien, review of Nancy Mitford; December 11, 1988, Francine Prose, review of The Canterbury Tales; April 16, 1995, Hugh Kenner, review of Evelyn Waugh.

People, May 29, 1995, Barbara Fisher, review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 29.

Publishers Weekly, May 17, 1991, review of Reynard the Fox, p. 78; March 8, 1993, review of The Firebird, p. 78; February 6, 1995, review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 67.

Spectator, June 15, 2002, Caroline Moore, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall," p. 33.

Telegraph, June 15, 2003, Justine Picardie, "A Problem with Beauty."

Times Educational Supplement, March 10, 1989, Elisabeth Brewer, "Pilgrims' Way," p. B13; February 25, 1994, David Self, "Pictorial Testaments," p. R6.

Times Literary Supplement, October 25, 1985, Anne Chisholm, "Lonely Laughter," p. 1210; May 24, 2002, Jeremy Treglown, "A Hot Potato in the Pocket," pp. 3-4.

World Literature Today, autumn, 1995, Robert Murray Davis, review of Evelyn Waugh, p. 804.

ONLINE

Biographers Club,http://www.biographersclub.co.uk/ (March 21, 2007), brief profile of author.

University of Texas at Austin Web site,http://www.utexas.edu/ (September 23, 2004), "Selina Hastings, Biographer of Evelyn Waugh, Speaks at Harry Ransom Center."