Philip Hensher

West’s World: The Extraordinary Life of Dame Rececca West, by Lorna Gibb — review

<em>Philip Hensher</em> explains how Rebecca West’s remarkably liberated attitude to life cost her dear

issue 30 March 2013

Lorna Gibb ends her book on Rebecca West by saying: ‘That she would be remembered because her work would go on being read was her greatest legacy.’ A more measured suggestion might be found in a sentence 20 pages earlier, from a 1973 TLS survey of her writing: ‘Dame Rebecca’s work has not fused in the minds of critics, and she has no secure literary status.

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Written by
Philip Hensher
Philip Hensher is professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University and the author of 11 novels including A Small Revolution in Germany.

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