A Biographer’s Diaries – Gordon Bowker

In 2010, Gordon Bowker (1934-2019) encouraged Dione Venables to broaden her reach, from running a blog about the life and works of George Orwell (Orwell Direct), to founding The Orwell Society we know today.  What was less clear is how Gordon himself came to write his ground-breaking Orwell biography, despite admitting at the time that “The ground of Orwell’s life has been well dug over in the past”.  The answer is revealed in Glimpses, Gordon’s own, often frank account of his pathway to becoming a biographer and some of the challenges he encountered on the way.  

Glimpses of a Biographer’s Diaries 1961-2000 is divided into two parts, starting with his formative years in sixties London as a teacher, lecturer and journalist navigating the vibrant and often dazzling arts scene through theatre, music, poetry, cinema and publishing.  The second half examines what it takes to be a biographer reaching down as far as was possible into the emotional roots of the lives of his subjects, tapping into dark sources often mirrored in their literary work, sometimes to high acclaim and sometimes not entirely what people wanted to hear.  Gordon’s published deep dive biographies of Malcolm Lowry, Lawrence Durrell and James Joyce as well as George Orwell; writers he didn’t just pick from his book-shelf for their celebrated bodies of work, or indeed their hell-raising antics or uncompromising politics, but for something much more personal to him.  

Glimpses of a Biographer’s Diaries 1961-2000, edited by Gordon’s widow, Ramdei Bowker, who also writes the introduction, is available as an ebook.  If there is sufficient interest, a paperback will be issued.