Selina Hastings (writer)

Lady Selina Shirley Hastings (born 5 March 1945) is a British journalist, author and biographer.

Not to be confused with Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.
Hastings ancestral coat of arms

The elder daughter of Francis, 16th Earl of Huntingdon, by his second marriage to Margaret Lane,[1] Hastings was educated at St. Hugh's College, Oxford, where she took an MA degree.[2]

Hastings has written books including Sir Gawain and the Loathly Lady (1985), Nancy Mitford (1986), The Singing Ringing Tree (1988), The Man Who Wanted to Live Forever (1988), The Firebird (1995), Evelyn Waugh (1995), Beibl Lliw Y Plant (1998), Rosamond Lehmann (2002) and The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham (2010). She is a past recipient of the Marsh Biography Award.[3]

Several of Hastings' works have received critical attention. Reviewing Nancy Mitford for The New York Times, William McBrien questioned Hastings' sparse documentation of some of the facts in the book. He praised the book for its depiction of that historical period.[4] Evelyn Waugh was reviewed by The New York Times, The Guardian and The Spectator.[5][6][7] Rosamond Lehmann was reviewed in The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.[8][9] The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham was reviewed in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.[10][11][12][13]

Hastings was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (FRSL) in 1994.[14] Among others she and her sister, Lady Harriet Shackleton, are in remainder to several ancient English baronies, including those of Hastings and Botreaux.

See also

References
  1. "ThePeerage.com, p. 7908". ThePeerage.com. Retrieved 2015-04-01.
  2. "Debrett's People of Today". Debretts.com. 1945-03-05. Archived from the original on 21 February 2015. Retrieved 1 April 2015.
  3. International Who's Who of Authors and Writers 2004. Europa Publications. 2003. p. 238. ISBN 978-1-85743-179-7. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  4. McBrien, William (August 17, 1986). "O Brave U World". The New York Times. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  5. Kenner, Hugh. "Hell was other people". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  6. Sevenson, Sinclair. "Keeping his gin, not his chin, up". The Guardian. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  7. Kane, Russell. "'Evelyn Waugh: A Biography', by Selina Hastings - review". The Spectator. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  8. Clark, Alex. "'O I must tell Osbert!'". The Guardian. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  9. Picardie, Justine. "A problem with beauty". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  10. Leavitt, David (July 22, 2010). "Lives of the Novelists: Somerset Maugham". The New York Times. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  11. Sansom, Ian. "The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham by Selina Hastings". The Guardian. Retrieved April 8, 2015.
  12. Dirda, Michael. "Selina Hastings's 'The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham,' reviewed by Michael Dirda". The Washington Post. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  13. Rayner, Richard (30 May 2010). "Book review: 'The Secret Lives of Somerset Maugham' by Selina Hastings". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 8 April 2015.
  14. "Royal Society of Literature, RSL Fellows". RSLiterature.org. Retrieved 1 April 2015.


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