Ana the article on William Mayne was really interesting. Sometimes I find it hard to seperate current authors personal behaviour from their work (as in I sometimes don't read authors whose biography contains problems for me, or at least I put them way down my mental reading list) even if what I find distateful about their out of text opinions doesn't make it into their work. I think the immediacey of my connection to a modern author, like often I can watch a whole catastrophe play out in real time, makes linking work and biography much more apparent.

When it comes to authors who wrote a long time ago, or are even dead it's much easier to create that seperation. And to go off on a mind wander, it becomes much more acceptable to wind biography into any analysis of their text (even though lots of people are oppossed to texts being read biographically it's still become a recognised approach to study). Distance is a big influencer for me I think and I find it a lot easier to say 'this work was important to me before I knew this and remians important' about authors who aren't around anymore. It becomes much more complicated when the people are still alive and producing. I'd love to hear how other people feel about that.