Miranda Seymour Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Writer and critic Miranda Seymour talks about her moving biography of Jean Rhys, author of Wide Sargasso Sea.

Seymour says Rhys is one of the most compelling and unnerving writers of the 20th century. She explains how a conflicted Caribbean childhood and experiences of heartbreak, poverty, notoriety, breakdowns and imprisonment all contributed to her writing. Seymour’s biography is the first to research the 17 years Rhys spent living on Dominica, an island that haunted her mind and work for the rest of her life. Seymour reveals a proud and independent artist who was never a victim despite suffering tragedy, poverty, alcohol and drug addiction, and romantic and sexual turmoil.

Seymour is a biographer, novelist, memoir writer and critic. She is author of In My Father’s House and of biographies of Henry James, Otteline Morrell, and Mary Shelley. Here she talks to journalist and reviewer for the FT Suzi Feay.