Books

Jenny’s most recent book, Sybil and Cyril: Cutting Through Time (November 2021), vividly illustrated throughout, tells the powerful story of two linocutters in the 1930s, Sybil Andrews and Cyril Power.

Her other books include award-winning biographies of Elizabeth Gaskell and William Hogarth, as well as The Lunar Men: The Friends who Made the Future; Nature’s Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick; A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration; In These Times: Living in Britain through Napoleon’s Wars, 1793-1815; A Little History of British Gardening and The Pinecone: The Story of Sarah Losh. Her biography of Edward Lear, Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense, was the winner of the Hawthornden Prize, 2018.

Cyril and Sybil: Cutting Through Time

In 1922, Cyril Power, a fifty-year old architect, left his family to work with the twenty-four
year old Sybil Andrews. They would be together for twenty years. Both became famous for
their dynamic, modernist linocuts, full of movement and brilliant colour, summing up the
hectic interwar years. Yet at the same time they looked back, to medieval myths and early
music, to country ways disappearing from sight.

Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense

Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense ‘Moving and fascinating’. TLS Books of the Year. We know Edward Lear as a genius of nonsense, full of shocks and surprises, and as a poet of strange loves: the Owl and the Pussy Cat, the Duck and the Kangaroo. We may know him too, for his…

In These Times

In These Times ‘A sumptuous treat . . . By showing us this world through the eyes of ordinary people, Uglow brings it to life.’ Sunday Times Books of the Year We know the thrilling, terrible stories of the battles of the Napoleonic Wars – but what of those left behind? The people on a Norfolk…

The Pinecone

The Pinecone ‘An exuberant match for the beautiful, ornate and moving personal nature of Losh’s extraordinary church‘, Guardia The story of Sarah Losh, forgotten Romantic heroine – antiquarian, architect and visionary St Mary’s church in Wreay is the strangest and most magical church of Victorian England. This book tells the story of its builder, Sarah…

A Gambling Man

A Gambling Man: Charles II and The Restoration This is panoramic history of a high order. Uglow evokes the tumultuous events of the 1660s, and catches the feel of men and women living at the extremes of danger, pleasure and recklessness. Guardian A study of Charles II and the first decade of the restoration, 1660-70:…

Thomas Bewick

Nature’s Engraver: A Life of Thomas Bewick An enthralling, richly illustrated biography of the artist whose miniature creations changed the way we view the world. ‘With Bewick on my knee I was then happy’Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre ‘A fascinating story told in the riveting style one has come to expect from Jenny Uglow. Hugely enjoyable!’…

The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future

The Lunar Men: The Friends Who Made the Future ‘ A spectacular, epic book… Never has the eighteenth century come so much to life.’ Gaby Wood, Observer ‘A remarkable story of remarkable men, richly detailed and brilliantly told’, New York Times Book Review ‘An absolute wonder of a book, huge in its span and close…

A Little History of British Gardening

A Little History of British Gardening ‘As captivating as a walk through the dew-drenched grass on an early summer’s morning, and impossible to put down.’ Kate Colquhoun, Daily Telegraph ‘Delectable… The best short introduction to the nation’s gardening past’. Roy Strong, Daily Mail Did the Romans have rakes?…

Words & Pictures

Words & Pictures: Writers, Artists and a Peculiarly British Tradition ‘Uglow writes with keen perceptiveness and captivating enthusiasm’. Guardian This beautifully illustrated little book explores the connections and interactions between British writers and artists. As children, learning to read, we look first at the pictures in books — they tell the tale in their own way.…

Hogarth: A Life and a World

Hogarth: A Life and a World ‘Jenny Uglow is one of the most talented of contemporary biographers, Hogarth is her masterpiece.. She recreates Hogarth’s mercurial genius most dramatically, as well as the turbulent and sophisticated world he inhabited. You can feel his presence in this book. It is a wonderful achievement.’Michael Holroyd ‘A sumptuous, thoughtful,…

Dictionary of Women’s Biography (2005) & Ghosts (1998)

Palgrave Macmillan Dictionary of Women’s Biography4th edition, 2005, Edited by Jenny Uglow, updated by Maggy Hendry ‘An excellent source …. Fascinating’, Daily Express ‘A valuable and necessary volume’, Literary Review Now a classic (if sometimes irreverent) reference book, this contains short biographies of over 2,500 women, from Cleopatra to Condoleeza Rice, Jane Austen to…

Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories

Elizabeth Gaskell: A Habit of Stories Faber & Faber (UK); Farrar, Straus and Giroux (USA) 1993 ‘A more comprehensive and sensitive study of Mrs Gaskell is unlikely to be written’, Margaret Forseter, Evening Standard ‘Like the best of Gaskell’s novel: compelling, affectionate, by turns funny and sad, gently subversive, committed and unobtrusively wise.’Katherine Franks, Literary…

Cultural Babbage: Time, Technology and Invention

Cultural Babbage: Time, Technology and Invention Edited with Francis Spufford Faber & Faber, 1996 ‘In Cultural Babbage, a fascinating group of academics and writers looks at interactions between technology amd culture… Invaluable for studies of the the ways these interact in eras of rapid change’.Times Higher Education Supplement. ‘A dazzling collection of overlapping essays…

George Eliot (1987) & Walter Pater (1990)

George Eliot Virago (UK); Pantheon Books (USA) 1987 ‘A fascinating study of George Eliot’s writing and life that should send you scuttling back to read her novels’, Claire Tomalin, The Times. One of the most brilliant writers of her day, George Eliot (1819-1880) was also one of the most talked about: intellectual and independent she…

Henry Fielding (1995) & Dr Johnson (1998)

Henry Fielding Writers and the Work , British Council, 1995 A fresh introduction to Fielding’s achievement as novelist, dramatist and journalist. In his day Fielding was always at the centre of controversy, attacked as immoral yet prised for his realism and wit. This short account traces his life story and sets him at the heart…