Hilary Spurling Explained

Honorific Suffix:	CBE FRSL
Birth Name:	Susan Hilary Forrest
Birth Date:	25 December 1940
Birth Place:	Stockport, Cheshire, England
Occupation:	Writer
Awards:	Rose Mary Crawshay Prize Duff Cooper Prize Whitbread Prize James Tait Black Memorial Prize
Alma Mater:	Somerville College, Oxford

Susan Hilary Spurling CBE FRSL (Forrest; born 25 December 1940) is a British writer, known for her work as a journalist and biographer.

Early life and education

Born in Stockport, Cheshire,^[1] to circuit judge Gilbert Alexander Forrest (1912–1977)^[2] and teacher Emily Maureen, daughter of Joseph Armstrong, of Fivemiletown, County Tyrone,^{[3] [4]} Spurling was educated at Clifton High School, an independent school in Bristol, South-West England, and then at Somerville College, Oxford.^{[5] [6]}

Career

Spurling won the Whitbread Prize for the second volume of her biography of Henri Matisse in January 2006.^[7] Burying The Bones: Pearl Buck in China was published in March 2010.^[8]

Personal life

In 1961, she married playwright John Spurling. The couple have three children (Amy, Nathaniel, and Gilbert).^[9]

Works

• Ivy When Young: The Early Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884–1919 (1974)
• Mervyn Peake

Drawings (1974), editor

• Invitation to the Dance: A Handbook to Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time (1977)
• Secrets of a Woman's Heart: The Later Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1920–1969 (1984)
• Elinor Fettiplace's Receipt Book

Elizabethan Country House Cooking (1986)

• Paul Scott

A Life (1990)

• Paper Spirits. Collage Portraits by Vladimir Sulyagin (1992), introduction
• Ivy: The Life of I. Compton-Burnett (1995; combines two volumes originally published separately in 1974 and 1984)
• The Unknown Matisse: Volume 1 – A Life of Henri Matisse 1869–1908 (1998)
• La Grande Thérèse: The Greatest Swindle of the Century (1999) on Thérèse Humbert
• The Girl from the Fiction Department: A Portrait of Sonia Orwell (2002)
• Matisse the Master: The Conquest of Colour 1909–1954 (2005)
• Ann Stokes

Artists' Potter (contributor) (2009)

• Matisse: The Life (abridged version of two earlier works) (2009)
• Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China (2010)
• Anthony Powell

Dancing to the Music of Time (2017)^[10]

Awards

• 1976, Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for Ivy When Young: The Early Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884–1919
• 1984, Duff Cooper Prize for Ivy When Young: The Early Life of Ivy Compton-Burnett 1884–1919
• 2005, Whitbread Book of the Year award for Matisse the Master: The Conquest of Colour 1909–1954
• 2010, James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography, for Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China^[11]

External links

• British Council page

Notes and References

1. World Authors, 1985–1990, ed. Vineta Colby, H. W. Wilson Ltd, 1995, p. 842.
2. Who was Who: A Cumulated Index 1897–2000, A. & C. Black, 2002, p. 289.
3. The Solicitors' Journal, vol. 121, 1977, p. 648.
4. Kelly's Handbook to the Titled, Landed and Official Classes, 95th edition, Kelly's Directories Ltd, 1969, p. 764.
5. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/apr/17/hilary-spurling-biographer-pearl-buck Biography of Hilary Spurling
6. International Who's Who of Writers and Authors, 23rd edition, Europa Publications, Taylor & Francis Group, 2008, p. 685.
7. News: Secret life of Matisse wins Whitbread prize. John. Ezard. 25 January 2006. The Guardian. 26 September 2023.
8. News: Burying the Bones: Pearl Buck in China by Hilary Spurling. Sun. Shuyun. 17 April 2010. The Guardian. 26 September 2023.
9. Encyclopedia: 1988 . Spurling, John . Contemporary Dramatists . St. James Press . Chicago and London . Kirkpatrick . Kirk . Fourth . 500 . 0912289627 . Vinson . James.
10. Mabb, David. (2023). Return to Hilary Spurling's Dancing to the Music of Time (2017). Anthony Powell Newsletter 90 (spring): 3-16.
11. News: 20 August 2011 . Dazzling tale of Ms Saigon takes top award . The Scotsman .