Elizabeth Jane Howard (26 March 1923 – 2 January 2014) was an English novelist and short‑story writer whose work gained wide recognition for its depiction of family life and social change. Often referred to as Lady Amis after one of her marriages, she was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and received the CBE for services to literature. For more biographical detail see Elizabeth Jane Howard.

Before establishing herself as a writer she worked as an actress and as a model in the years after World War II, a background that informed her early novels and social observations. Contemporary notices and later profiles often note this phase of her life; for example, her work as a model and performer is documented in several memoirs and interviews. She is widely described as an English novelist whose career spanned several decades.

Major works and themes

Howard’s best‑known achievement is the multi‑volume family saga often called the Cazalet Chronicles, a sequence of novels that traces an English family through the years before, during and after the Second World War. Her fiction typically blends close psychological observation, detailed domestic scenes and a steady interest in how historical events reshape private lives. Critics have praised her for warmth, subtlety and vivid character portraits.

  • The Cazalet novels (often listed together as a sequence)
  • Earlier and mid‑career standalone novels that explore marriage, identity and social change
  • Short stories and essays that complement her longer fiction

One of the Cazalet novels was adapted for television by the BBC, bringing Howard’s portrait of family life to a broader audience and renewing interest in her backlist. Over time she received several honors and formal recognition for her literary contributions, including election to the Royal Society of Literature and a CBE.

Howard’s personal life included several marriages; she was married to the novelist Kingsley Amis for a period, a connection that contributed to her public profile and the courtesy title Lady Amis. In later life she lived in east England and died at the age of 90 in Bungay, Suffolk. Her novels continue to be read for their humane storytelling and finely observed depiction of English domestic life.