Michael Holroyd was born in 1935, and educated at Eton and the Maidenhead Public Library. His biographies of Hugh Kingsmill, Lytton Strachey, Augustus John and Bernard Shaw have established him as one of the most influential biographers of modern times. He was awarded the CBE in 1989 and was knighted in 2007. A past chairman of the Society of Authors and the Book Trust, past president of English PEN and a former member of the Arts Council, Michael Holroyd currently chairs the Council of the Royal Society of Literature and lectures around the world for the British Council and at literary festivals. His account of his own family’s lives before, during and after the second world war, BASIL STREET BLUES (Abacus), and its sequel, MOSAIC, were published to a chorus of outstanding reviews. His collection of essays and journalism, WORKS ON PAPER (Little, Brown) was published in 2002. He won the David Cohen Prize for Literature in 2005. Michael's latest book is A BOOK OF SECRETS. He is married to novelist Margaret Drabble and lives in London and Somerset. Author photo: Bernard Mitchell

Recent/New titles for Holroyd, Michael

ON WHEELS - Weaving together memoir and anecdote with historical example, in ON WHEELS renowned author Michael Holroyd traces his relationship with cars and driving throughout a lifetime of biography. For...

A BOOK OF SECRETS - On a hill above the Italian village of Ravello stands the Villa Cimbrone – a place of fantasy and make-believe. The characters that move through Michael Holroyd’s new book are destined...

A STRANGE EVENTFUL HISTORY: ELLEN TERRY AND HENRY IRVING - Michael Holroyd's book about the encounter of two great theatrical characters is his first major biography since his three-volume study of George Bernard Shaw. It follows Ellen Terry and Henry...

BASIL STREET BLUES - What happens when the eminent biographer of George Bernard Shaw, Lytton Strachey and Augustus John turns his skills on himself? Part detective story, part family saga, and a unique literary event,...

LYTTON STRACHEY BY HIMSELF - While researching his landmark biography of Lytton Strachey, MIchael Holroyd had access to the fascinating Strachey archives. From this source he collected all Strachey's diaries and memoirs, which...

MOSAIC - In 1999 Michael Holroyd published BASIL STREET BLUES, in which the attentions of a biographer were turned towards something personal – his own family. MOSAIC represents the continuation of that story...

WORKS ON PAPER - Michael Holroyd opens this collection of essays with a startling attack on biography, which is answered by two essays on the ethics and values of non-fiction writing. He then goes on to examine the...