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Club member scales Yala Peak
Club member Rosemary J Brown has been awarded an Authors’ Foundation grant for books in progress from the Society of Authors (SoA). Endowed by Lady Antonia Fraser, the grant supports the research and writing of a biography of a woman or women. Brown used it to join an all-woman mountaineering expedition to Yala Peak (5,550…
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New book from Paul Smiddy
The latest book from Club member Paul Smiddy is Moonlight Crusaders: Special Duties Pilots over Occupied Europe (Osprey).It explores the creation, development and actions of the Special Duties squadrons, which carried spies, political figures and documents in and out of Occupied Europe. Packed with first-hand accounts and expert research, this book dives into the history…
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BLYTHE BIOGRAPHY WINS NEW ANGLE PRIZE
Blythe Spirit: The Remarkable Life of Ronald Blythe, by Ian Collins, has won the 2025 New Angle Prize for Literature. The judges said: ‘Ian Collins moved us with the obvious affection that he has for Ronald Blythe. It is a work that is rich, insightful in its research, which gives a comprehensive but totally fascinating…
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Gillian Tindall 1938-2025
The Biographers’ Club is very sorry to report the death of Gillian Tindall, an active member for many years and an outstanding biographer and historian. Gillian Tindall began her authorial career as a novelist, winning a Somerset Maugham award, but became better known for biographies such as her life of George Gissing, and for histories…
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Christmas Party and Elizabeth Buccleuch Prize-Giving
Wednesday 10 December, 6.30pm to 8.30pm, at Albany, PiccadillyJoin us for drinks and nibbles at our Christmas party, and for the presentation of the Elizabeth Buccleuch Prize, given for the best proposal by a first-time biographer. Tickets: £20 (members and guests). PLEASE PAY BY BANK TRANSFER OR THROUGH YOUR BRANCH. Book and get bank details…
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Frances Wilson and the enigma of Muriel Spark
Time: 6.30pm, Tuesday 11 NovemberAddress: Maggs Bros, Bedford Square Frances Wilson’s Electric Spark (Bloomsbury), about the early years of the great novelist Muriel Spark, can claim to be the most highly praised biography of 2025. ‘A brilliant, wonderfully shrewd biography’ (William Boyd); ‘Pitch-perfect, electrifying. Reconfirms Wilson’s pre-eminence as Maestra of British biography’ (Rachel Holmes); ‘Joyously,…
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The Biographers Club Summer Party!
Date and time: Tuesday 1st July, 6.30pm-8.30pmVenue: St Mary’s Rectory, Draycott Terrace, Chelsea, SW3 2BG Join us for drinks and canapés in the garden of St Mary’s, a Grade II-listed Catholic church in Chelsea. There is a marquee in case of rain. Tickets: £25 RSVP and apply for bank details (no cheques, please): [email protected]
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Francesca Wade, Adrian Clark at Hatchards
5th June, 6.30pmHatchards, 187 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LE Come and hear Francesca Wade, author of Gertrude Stein: An Afterlife, in conversation with Adrian Clark, co-author of Irascible: The Combative Life of Douglas Cooper, Collector and Friend of Picasso. Francesca Wade is the author of the acclaimed Square Haunting: Five Women, Freedom and London Between the…
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Dr. Koop: The Many Lives of the Surgeon General
Weds, May 21st, from 6.30 p.m., at the Royal Society of Medicine, 1 Wimpole Street You are invited to join the launch of the first biography of Dr C Everett Koop, by Biographers’ Club member Nigel Cameron. Dr Koop was the world’s most famous paediatric surgeon before President Reagan made him US Surgeon General in…
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Booksellers’ Tales at Hatchards
Sarah Anderson and Martin LathamTuesday, 18 February, 6.30pmHatchards Piccadilly Sarah Anderson, founder of the Travel Bookshop in Notting Hill, explains how she set up the shop and how THE film changed things. Martin Latham, the longest-serving bookseller at Waterstones and author of The Bookseller’s Tale, takes us on a journey through comfort reads, street book…
