Susannah Clapp January 22, 2012

Angela Carter – a portrait in postcards

Funny, vivid and revealing, the picture postcards Angela Carter sent to her friend Susannah Clapp in the 1980s provide a unique insight into the life and imagination of the late novelist

Angela Carter postcards: Bard card — A ‘Bard card’ from the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare festival in Canada, 1988. At the time, Carter was writing her last novel, Wise Children, in which she tried to refer to all of Shakespeare’s plays Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: Bambi’s mother — This postcard was sent from Lake Erie, New York State in the late 80s: ‘I think this is very funny,’ Carter wrote, ‘but I’m not sure why’ Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: geisha card — This geisha card was posted in London in the late 80s. Carter lived in Japan for two years after winning the 1969 Somerset Maugham prize: ‘I used the money to run away from my husband,' she said. 'I’m sure Somerset Maugham would have been very pleased’ Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: Texas chili — From Austin, Texas in 1985 Carter wrote: ‘Carter’s reply to her critics! Texas chili, it goes through you like a dose of salts. I would like to forcefeed it to that drivelling wimp…’
Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp Photograph: Action images

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — From Taormina in 1987, a postcard of Mount Etna exploding and a message packed with observations of Sicilian life, including a sighting of South Pacific actor Rossano Brazzi Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — On the Beach by the Australian artist E Phillips Fox, sent from New South Wales. Carter described Australia as 'the stage on which the great drama of the British working class is played out' Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — 'ALL DAMNED!' was how Carter signed off a missive from Austin, Texas, referring to the many armadillos she saw killed on the roads – and the consequences of capitalism Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — This postcard, featuring a Model A truck being gobbled by a chicken, marked Carter's return to England in the 80s. 'It might have been designed to illustrate her love for the gaudy and unsettling,' writes Susannah Clapp Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — 'A likely story,' she scoffs on the back of a postcard sent from Auckland in 1990, depicting a Maori legend about the creation of the Wanganui river Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — Sunny sentences from Cedar Rapids, Iowa are given a sardonic twist by this picture of the Statue of Liberty submerged in a lake of sludge: ‘It would be hard to prove that she is sinking rather than emerging,’ writes Susannah Clapp, ‘but that's what it looks like’ Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — Bill Owen's photograph of the 1972 Good Times Parade in Pleasanton, California, arrived from St Louis in the late 1980s. 'Here was the America she relished, the country at its most unbuttoned, in carnival display' Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — Christmas and New Year wishes were sent with this card in 1987: ‘The royal family afforded Angela the pleasure of 'rolling-eyed ridicule' Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — 'Angela always liked a bit of rude,' writes Susannah Clapp. This 'now you see it, now you don't' card was sent from Le Beausset in the Var in 1990, her last year of good health Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — From Budapest but posted in London in 1989. Of all the cards, says Susannah Clapp, ‘this brown and white, lush but shadowy photograph is the one that most evokes her stories… it’s hard not to think of The Magic Toyshop’ Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

Angela Carter postcards: postcard — The invitation to Angela Carter's memorial service in 1992, created by her friend Corinna Sargood. It opened, writes Susannah Clapp, on to ‘an onstage menagerie… a crescent moon, a shooting star and a hand holding out from the wings a glass of bubbling-over champagne’ Photograph: courtesy of Susannah Clapp

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