Tim Jeal

Infobox Writer
name = Tim Jeal


imagesize = 200px
caption = Publicity picture for Dulwich Festival 2006
birthdate = 1945
birthplace = London?
occupation = novelist, biographer
nationality = United Kingdom
period = 1960s–
genre = fiction; biography
subject = notable Victorian men
notableworks = Baden-Powell (book)
influenced = Scouting
website = http://www.faber.co.uk

Tim Jeal (born 1945) is a British novelist, and biographer of notable Victorian men. His publications include biographies of Baden-Powell, Livingstone and his most recent, Henry Morton Stanley (2007). In 2004 his memoir "Swimming with my Father" was acclaimed and was shortlisted for the J.R.Ackerley Prize for Autobiography.Jeal was formally educated in London and Oxford, and lives in North London. He has a wife, and three adult daughters.

Personal history

Jeal's mother was Norah Pasley, daughter of Sir Thomas Pasley Bt, and Constance Wilmot Annie Hastings, who was the daughter of the 13th Earl of Huntingdon. [Jeal, "Swimming with my Father", 2004] Jeal was educated at Westminster School, London, and Christ Church, Oxford. From 1966 to 1970, he worked for BBC Television in the features group. [Author details to "Baden-Powell", Pimlico edition, 1991] For his third novel, "Cushing's Crusade", he was awarded the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize in 1974.cite web | title = Publisher's details about the author | url = http://www.faber.co.uk/a_article_detail.html?aid=23548&clid= | publisher = Faber and Faber | accessdate = 2006-08-25 ]

cite web | url = http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0CE5D6103FF932A35757C0A966958260&pagewanted=print | title = There is a brotherhood of boys, review of Jeal's "Baden-Powell" book | date = 1990-04-01 | last = Steiner | first = Zara | publisher = New York Times | accessdate = 2006-08-25]

Publications

Jeal has been writing books since the 1960s, for London-based publishers. [cite web | title = Books by Jeal, on Amazon UK | url = http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/search?search-alias=stripbooks&field-keywords=Tim%20Jeal | accessdate = 2006-08-25 ] Although most of his works are fictional, he is best known for his biographies, all of which fundamentally and enduringly changed the way in which his subjects had hitherto been perceived. His new biography of Stanley has attracted interest for its revisionist tendencies.cite web | url = http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n07/port01_.html | title = Did he puff his crimes to please a bloodthirsty readership?, review of Jeal's "Stanley" | date = 2007-05-05 | last = Porter | first = Bernard | publisher = London Review of Books | accessdate = 2007-06-18] Dr Jane Ridley in the "Sunday Telegraph" (2007-03-18) argues that 'Tim Jeal's absorbing biography will surely be definitive.' Professor John Carey in the "Sunday Times" (2007-03-18) accepted that Jeal's 'ardent, intricate defence of a man history has damned' had been successful,and concluded: 'Anyone who, after reading this book, imagines they would have behaved better than Sanley, if faced with the same dangers, must have a vivid imagination.' Tim Gardam in the "Observer" (2007-04-01) felt that Jeal had 'fulfilled a mission to rehabilitate one of the most complex heroes of Victorian Britain'. Kevin Rushby in the "Guardian" (2007-03-24), said he was 'aware of the dangers of revisionism' and doubted that Stanley was as innocent as Jeal argued, but pronounced "Stanley" 'a stunning and provocative work, an awesome piece of scholarship executed with page-turning brio.' In the "Washington Post" (2007-12-23), Jason Roberts wrote of '...this commanding, definitive biography' being 'an unalloyed triumph...', and in the "New York Times Book Review" (2007-09-30), Paul Theroux described it as 'the most felicitous, the best informed, the most complete and readable [biography of Stanley] '. Tim Jeal had unique access to the massive Stanley collection in the Royal Museum of Central Africa in Brussels and saw many letters, diaries and other documents (including correspondence between Stanley and King Leopold of Belgium) unseen by previous biographers. "Stanley" was named "Sunday Times" Biography of the Year for 2007 (2007-11-25) and won the American National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography (2008-03-06)

Fiction

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Biographies

* About David Livingstone: cite book | first = Tim | last = Jeal | authorlink = Tim Jeal | title = Livingstone | year = 1973 | pages = 427p | publisher = Heinemann | location = London | id = ISBN 0-434-37208-0
* About Robert Baden-Powell cite book | first = Tim | last = Jeal | authorlink = Tim Jeal | title = Baden-Powell | pages = 688p | publisher = Hutchinson | location = London| year = 1989 | id = ISBN 0-09-170670-X
* About his own parents: cite book | first = Tim | last = Jeal | authorlink = Tim Jeal | title = Swimming with my father | year = 2004 | pages = 208p | id = ISBN 0-571-22100-9 | publisher = Faber and Faber | location = London
* About Henry Morton Stanley, cite book | first = Tim | last = Jeal | authorlink = Tim Jeal | title = Stanley | publisher = Faber and Faber | location = London | year = 2007 | id = ISBN 0-571-22102-5

ee also

* Baden-Powell (book)

References