Two books heralded by the Tony Lothian Prize (TLP), given for a proposal for a debut biography, came out in July.
Elaine Thornton won the Tony Lothian Prize in 2013, for her proposal for a biography of the family of the German-Jewish composer Giacomo Meyerbeer. Her book Giacomo Meyerbeer and his Family: Between Two Worlds is out from Vallentine Mitchell.
In the mid-19th century, the name of Giacomo Meyerbeer dominated the operatic world. The first Jewish composer to achieve international fame, Meyerbeer staged a series of grand and celebrated operas in France. His second French work, Les Huguenots, became the first opera to reach 1,000 performances at the Paris Opéra.
Meyerbeer was born in Berlin in 1791, eldest son of Jacob and Amalia Beer. As the Jews of Europe emerged from the ghetto in the upheavals of the Enlightenment and the Napoleonic Wars, Giacomo’s wealthy parents took a leading role in the cultural life of the times.
Giacomo’s brother Wilhelm, an amateur astronomer, built an observatory in the family villa, where he and his scientific partner, Johann Mädler, produced the first accurate maps of the moon and Mars. The youngest son Michael was a noted dramatist and poet who died at the age of 33.
This biography reveals the story of a remarkable family, who fought prejudice and intolerance to become role models for their contemporaries, and whose lives illuminate a crucial and formative period in German-Jewish history.
A 20% discount is available from Vallentine Mitchell at www.vmbooks.com (UK/rest of world) or www.ipgbook.com (North America, Australia or South Africa). Enter the code: Thornton21. Offer valid until 21 January 2022.
Katharine Campbell was shortlisted for the TLP in 2018 for her proposal for a biography of her father Sholto Douglas. Behold the Dark Gray Man: Triumphs and Trauma: The Controversial Life of Sholto Douglas is now published by Biteback.
Sholto Douglas was the hero of Katharine Campbell’s childhood, an unconventional senior commander in the Royal Air Force, described as “a gloriously contentious character”. Following childhood abandonment and poverty, he rose through the ranks of the fledgling RAF in the First World War before taking on a crucial role in the Second as head of Fighter Command and going on to serve as military governor in Germany in the war’s devastating aftermath.
But when Katharine was five years old, he began to be stolen away by strange night-time wanderings and daytime distress – including vivid flashbacks to his time signing death warrants in post-war Germany. The doctors called it dementia, but decades later Katharine started researching her father’s story, and realised that she had observed the undiagnosed consequences of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Behold the Dark Gray Man comes with advance praise from Dan Snow, Air Chief Marshall Sir Mike Wigston, and General Lord Dannatt. Sir Mike calls it “a fascinating and humbling account”.