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Anna Kavan |
World’s ‘best kept secret’ is out
Anna Kavan’s novels are published by Peter Owen order this book
THE name Anna Kavan may not have household kudos yet, or ever, but the late, great writer pioneered a haunting and affecting style that continues to influence authors to this day.
Writers Doris Lessing, Virginia Ironside, Brian Aldiss and Christopher Priest took over the London Review Bookshop in Bury Place, Holborn recently, to discuss the life and work of the self-effacing author, described as “De Quincey’s heir and Kafka’s sister”.
“Reality,” says one of Kavan’s characters in her most celebrated work Ice, “has always been something of an unknown quality to me.” It seemed Ms Kavan was of the same opinion.
Born Helen Woods, she adopted the name Anna Kavan from a character in one of her novels after the end of her second marriage and her subsequent breakdown. She was a manic-depressive before the condition was recognised by the medical profession. Unable to get treatment, she self-medicated with heroin.
Despite being addicted to the drug for many years, she was a consistently prolific writer, producing both classically great literature and challenging new forms of writing. She sent the stories to her publisher, Peter Owen, pinned together with a hypodermic needle, which she referred to as her “bazooka”.
Kavan’s diverse work is usually filed under the reductive labels of “Aga-sagas” and “science fiction”, but the assembled speakers at the London Review Bookshop were keen to defend Ms Kavan’s originality.
“I think the science fiction tag is a complete red herring,” said novelist Christopher Priest. “Anna belonged to the ‘slip stream’ with people like Ballard and Burroughs.”
The talk also cast a sidelong glance at Guilty, Kavan’s lost novel which has just been published for the first time. “There is no one like her for creating an atmosphere of cold, cold horror,” said Brian Aldiss. “To read this book is to live on a diet of iced cucumber for ever.”
Ironically, after a life of suicide attempts and heroin addiction, she died of natural causes in London in 1968.
A recluse in life, Kavan has remained an enigma in death – she destroyed most of her correspondence and dairies shortly before she died. She once declared she was “the world’s best kept secret”, but if the audience and its patrons are any indication, she will not be a secret for long.
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