Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy
Quick Facts
Biography
Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (born 1933 in Edinburgh) is a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system. For his autobiography, Half an Arch, he received the J. R. Ackerley Prize for Autobiography in 2005. He has also written novels and children's literature.
He was brought up in London, and educated at Port Regis School, Bryanston and Cambridge. As a boy, he was one of Benjamin Britten's favourites and he and his family provided the names for the characters in The Little Sweep. His involvement with Britten is described in John Bridcut's Britten's Children.
He subsequently worked in advertising and publishing.
Robert Gathorne-Hardy and Edward Gathorne-Hardy were his uncles.
Works
- Chameleon (1967)
- The Office (1970)
- The Rise and Fall of the British Nanny (1972) as The Unnatural History of the Nanny (US)
- Jane's Adventures In and Out of the Book (1966)
- Jane's Adventures on the Island of Peeg (1972)
- Jane's Adventures In A Balloon (1975)
- The Airship Ladyship Adventure (1975)
- The Public School Phenomenon, 597–1977 (1977) as Old School Tie – Phenomenon of English Public School (US)
- Cyril Bonhamy vs Madam Big (1981)
- Love, Sex, Marriage and Divorce (1981)
- Cyril Bonhamy and the Great Drain Robbery (1983)
- Doctors: The Lives and Work of GPs (1984) (non-fiction)
- The Centre Of The Universe Is 18 Baedekerstrasse (1985)
- Cyril Bonhamy and Operation Ping (1985)
- The City Beneath The Skin (1986)
- Cyril Of The Apes (1987)
- The Munros' New House (1987)
- A Life of Gerald Brenan (1994)
- Particle Theory (1996)
- Bookseller's War, Heywood and Anne Hill (1997) (letters, editor)
- Alfred C. Kinsey. Sex the Measure of All Things. A Biography (1998)
- Half An Arch (2004) (autobiography)