ABSTRACT
A diary entry, begun by a wife and finished by a husband. A daughter's memoir which reaches back to mother, grandmother, great-grandmother. A map of London, its streets bearing the names of forgotten lives. Biographies of siblings, and of spouses; a poem which gives life to long-dead voices from the archives. All these feature in this special issue as examples of 'writing lives together': British life writing which has been collaboratively authored and/or joins together the lives of multiple subjects. The chapter also presents essays by contemporary, practising biographers, Daisy Hay and Laurel Brake, who explain their decisions to move away from the single subject in writing the lives of figures from the Romantic and Victorian periods. It concludes with the reflections and work of a contemporary poet, Kathleen Bell, writing on James Watt and his family, in a ghostly collaboration with the archives.
