‘An absolute belter of a biography’ MARINA HYDE

**A Times Literary Non-Fiction Book of the Year 2022**

An LA Times Best Book of the Year 2022

An intimate, revealing and profoundly moving biography of Jean Rhys, acclaimed author of Wide Sargasso Sea.

An obsessive and troubled genius, Jean Rhys is one of the most compelling and unnerving writers of the twentieth century. Memories of a conflicted Caribbean childhood haunt the four fictions that Rhys wrote during her extraordinary years as an exile in 1920s Paris and later in England. Rhys’s experiences of heartbreak, poverty, notoriety, breakdowns and even imprisonment all became grist for her writing, forming an iconic ‘Rhys woman’ whose personality – vulnerable, witty, watchful and angry – was often mistaken, and still is, for a self-portrait.

Many details of Rhys’s life emerge from her memoir, Smile Please and the stories she wrote throughout her long and challenging career. But it’s a shock to discover that no biographer – until now – has researched the crucial seventeen years that Rhys spent living on the remote Caribbean island of Dominica; the island which haunted Rhys’s mind and her work for the rest of her life.

Luminous and penetrating, Seymour’s biography reveals a proud and fiercely independent artist, one who experienced tragedy and extreme poverty, alcohol and drug dependency, romantic and sexual turmoil – and yet was never a victim. I Used to Live Here Once enables one of our most excitingly intuitive biographers to uncover the hidden truth about a fascinatingly elusive woman. The figure who emerges for Seymour is powerful, cultured, self-mocking, self-absorbed, unpredictable and often darkly funny. Persuasive, surprising and compassionate, this unforgettable biography brings Jean Rhys to life as never before.

Seymour's biography is a deep dive into the history of the West Indies, exploring the modern criticism of one of the top authors of the 20th century. The narrative is a journey through the North and South Americas, tracing the life and work of one of the most influential figures in literature.

For fans of Zadie Smith (Intimations), Matt Rowland Hill (Original Sins), Laura Cumming (Thunderclap), Claire Harman (All Sorts of Lives), and Keiron Pim (Endless Flight).

HarperCollins 2022

I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys

I Used to Live Here Once: The Haunted Life of Jean Rhys