Pamela Hansford Johnson, Baroness Snow (1912–81) was an English novelist, playwright, poet, literary and social critic. She was born in London. Her mother, Amy Clotilda Howson, was a singer and actress, from a theatrical family. Her mother’s father, C E Howson, worked for the London Lyceum Company, as Sir Henry Irving’s Treasurer. Her father, Reginald Kenneth Johnson, was a colonial civil servant who spent much of his life working in Nigeria. Her father died when she was 11 years old, leaving debts. Her mother earned a living as a typist. Until Pamela was 22, the family lived at 53 Battersea Rise, Clapham, South London.
Source: Wikipedia (via CC-BY-SA license) • READ: Works by Pamela Hansford Johnson
You slam a politician, you make out he’s the devil, with horns and hoofs. But his wife loves him, and so did all his mistresses.
—Pamela Hansford Johnson
Topics: Politics, Politicians
There are few things more disturbing than to find, in somebody we detest, a moral quality which seems to us demonstrably superior to anything we ourselves possess. It augurs not merely an unfairness on the part of creation, but a lack of artistic judgment. Sainthood is acceptable only in saints.
—Pamela Hansford Johnson
Topics: Morality, Morals, Perfection
The sky broke like an egg into full sunset and the water caught fire.
—Pamela Hansford Johnson
Topics: Water
We demand that people should be true to the pictures we have of them, no matter how repulsive those pictures may be: we prefer the true portrait in all its homogeneity, to one with a detail added which refuses to fit in.
—Pamela Hansford Johnson
Topics: People
Be fond of the man who jests at his scars, if you like; but never believe he is being on the level with you.
—Pamela Hansford Johnson
Topics: Humor
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Iris Murdoch British Novelist, Philosopher
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu English Aristocrat, Poet
Letitia Elizabeth Landon English Poet, Novelist
Jane Austen English Novelist
Virginia Woolf English Novelist
D. H. Lawrence English Novelist
J. B. Priestley British Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
John Dryden English Poet
John Masefield English Poet
F. L. Lucas English Literary Critic