When Claire Tomalin was looking for a job in journalism in the late 1960s, the editor of the Observer David Astor told her she should stay at home and look after the children. That she ignored him was to the great benefit of the NS books pages, which she was instrumental in shaping over the next decade, first as deputy to the literary editor Anthony Thwaite from 1968 to 1970, and then as literary editor from 1974 to 1977.
Tomalin will turn 90 this year. In the house in Richmond that she shares with her husband, the playwright Michael Frayn, surfaces are stacked with newly arrived books and magazines, from Der Spiegel to The Keats-Shelley Review. She recalls how Neal Ascherson told her that literary editors are people who prevent writers from getting on with their books – with each commission, then, “you want to make it seem irresistible”. At the NS, Tomalin successfully distracted the likes of VS Pritchett, Marina Warner, John Carey, AS Byatt and Eric Hobsbawm, all of whom wrote for her.
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