Miranda Seymour

Miranda Jane Seymour (born 8 August 1948) is an English literary critic, novelist and biographer of Robert Graves, Mary Shelley, Ada Lovelace and Jean Rhys among others. She was formerly married to Andrew Sinclair, and Anthony Gottlieb and is now married to Ted Lynch.<ref name="Thrumpton">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>Her son, Merlin Sinclair, is also a writer (The Cardinal's Man).

Early life and education

Miranda is the daughter of George FitzRoy Seymour (from a cadet branch of Marquess of Hertford and Duke of Somerset) and Rosemary Nest Scott-Ellis (a daughter of Thomas Evelyn Scott-Ellis, 8th Baron Howard de Walden).

Miranda Seymour was two years old when her parents moved into Thrumpton Hall,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> the family ancestral home. She detailed her unconventional upbringing in her 2008 memoir In My Father's House: Elegy for an Obsessive Love (Simon & Schuster, UK<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>),<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> which appeared in the US as Thrumpton Hall (HarperCollins)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and won the 2008 Pen Ackerley Prize for Memoir of the Year.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

She studied at Bedford College, London, now part of Royal Holloway, University of London, earning a BA in English in 1981.<ref>Template:Citation</ref>

Career

Seymour began her literary career in 1975 with an historical novel, The Stones of Maggiare.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This was followed by six others concerned with Italy and Greece, including Daughter of Darkness, about Lucrezia Borgia,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Medea (1982).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 1982, Seymour turned to biography, beginning with a group portrait of Henry James in his later years, entitled A Ring of Conspirators.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> This was followed by biographies of Lady Ottoline Morrell,(updated in 2024)<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Mary Shelley<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and Robert Graves,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> upon whom she also based a novel, The Telling,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> and a radio play, Sea Music.

In 2001, she came across material on Hellé Nice, a forgotten French Grand Prix racing driver of the 1930s and in 2004 published a book, The Bugatti Queen,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> about Nice's ultimately tragic life. The book provided the material for an exhibition about Helle Nice on show until October 2025 at the Mac Museum at Singen, Germany. The Bugatti Queen was followed by another life of an unconventional woman, that of 1930s film star, Virginia Cherrill. This was also based on a substantial archive in private ownership, and published as Chaplin's Girl: The Lives and Loves of Virginia Cherrill in 2009.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In 2002, Seymour published a book about herbs: A Brief History of Thyme.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Noble Endeavours: Stories from England; Stories from Germany appeared in September 2013 from Simon & Schuster and was described as being a magnificent, deeply researched and scholarly work of 'unfazed optimism'.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Seymour returned to biography with In Byron's Wake<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> (2018) which covered the lives of Lord Byron's wife and daughter, Annabella Milbanke and Ada Lovelace.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys was published by Harper Collins in 2022.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Seymour reviews and has written articles for newspapers and literary journals, including The Economist, The Times, the Times Literary Supplement, [the Financial Times, the Literary Review, and the New York Review of Books.

Formerly a Visiting Professor of English Studies at the University of Nottingham Trent,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Seymour is currently the Royal Literary Fund Fellow at King's College London.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Personal life

On 17 October 1972, she married, as his second wife, author Andrew Sinclair. Before their marriage was dissolved 6 June 1984, they were the parents of one son:<ref name="Thrumpton"/>

• Merlin George Sinclair (born 1973).<ref name="Debrett's2001">Template:Cite book</ref>

Seymour later married writer Anthony Gottlieb.<ref name="Stead2013">Template:Cite book</ref> They divorced and she married Ted Lynch.<ref name="Thrumpton"/>

External links

• Official website
• Transcript of interview with Ramona Koval, The Book Show, ABC Radio National 1 April 2007
• House Proud Book review of Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father's House by Charles McGrath New York Times 27 July 2008
• 'The Knife by the Handle at Last' Tim Parks review of Thrumpton Hall: A Memoir of Life in My Father's House from The New York Review of Books – subscription-based