1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006
– 1997
Thursday 4th September 12.45 for 1.00
Elena’s L’Etoile, 30 Charlotte St W1
3rd December 12.45 for 1.00
Grant McIntyre Publishing Biography
Grant McIntyre, Publishing Director of John Murray, explains what publishers look for in commissioning biography.
The Sloane Club, 52 Lower Sloane St, SW1
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– 1998
Friday 1st May 12.45 for 1.00
Paul Marsh Biography in Translation
Paul Marsh, The Marsh Agency, on which biographies sell abroad.
Academia Club, 8 Grosvenor Place, SW!
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– 1999
All meetings held at Veronica’s Restaurant, 3 Hereford Rd, W2
Wednesday 27th January 12.45 for 1.00
Christine Nicholls Writing Short Biographies
The former editor of the Dictionary of National Biography and editor of a biography series for Sutton looks at the skills in writing and publishing shorter lives.
Thursday 25th February 12.45 for 1.00
Rupert Allason Secret Lives: Intelligence Biography
As Nigel West the author of numerous intelligence books , Rupert Allason considers the special problems of researching and publishing biographies of spies and spymasters.
Thursday 30th March 12.45 for 1.00
Michael Holroyd The Case Against Biography
Regarded as one of Britain’s leading biographers, Michael Holroyd argues that biography is not a proper literary genre.
Tuesday 27th April 12.45 for 1.00
Marion Milne Adapting biography for television and radio
The founder of 3BM TV ,which specialises in historical and biographical subjects, looks at how individual lives can be turned into film portraits.
Tuesday 25th May 7.45 for 8.00
Philip Ziegler ‘How Royal Biography Differs’
The author of many royal biographies, Philip Ziegler considers the special problems and different approaches to writing in the the genre.
Monday 28th June 12.45 for 1.00
Andrew Crofts ‘Ghosting a Life’
Andrew Crofts, one of Britain’s best-known ghost writers, describes how he tries to capture the voice of each of his autobiographical subjects.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Tuesday 27th July 12.45 for 1.00
Roy Jenkins Political Biography
Roy Jenkins looks at how he brings his own political experience to bear when writing lives of politicians.
7th September – 7.45 for 8.00
Hilary Spurling ‘The Unknown Matisse’
Hilary Spurling discusses her biography of the artist Henri Matisse.
Monday 4th October – 7.45 for 8.00
Andrew Motion Wainewright the Poisoner
The biographer of Keats and Larkin on his biography-cum-novel which uses a first person narrative with footnotes.
9th December 6.00-8.00
Christmas Party
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– 2000
All meetings held at Veronicas Restaurant, 3 Hereford Rd, W2 except the annual dinner.
Monday 31st January 7.45 for 8.00
BRENDA MADDOX Whats Love Got to do with it
The biographer of DH Lawrence, WB Yeats and Nora Joyce talks about the importance of the private life in biography.
Wednesday 16th February 12.45 for 1.00
ANDREW LOWNIE (last minute replacement for Jan Morris) Different approaches to Biography.
Wednesday 15th March 12.45 for 1.00
CHARLES SPENCER The Challenges of Generational Biography
Earl Spencer draws on his recent histories of his own family to examine the techniques of writing multi-biography.
Thursday 13th April 7.45 for 8.00
ROBERT LACEY The Biography of a Year
The author of books on Princess Grave of Monaco, Sothebys and the House of Saud, Robert Lacey relates his experiences of writing the story of the year 1000.
Thursday 27th April 12.45 for 1.00
DAVID STARKEY The Importance of the Early Life in Biography
David Starkey, biographer of several Tudor and Elizabethan monarchs, traces the importance of childhood influences in shaping the adult subject.
Wednesday 24th May 12.45 for 1.00
ANDREW MORTON The Biographer as Subversive
Drawing on his lives of Princess Diana, President Moi and Monica Lewinsky, Andrew Morton argues for the role of biographer as subversive.
Wednesday 28th June 12.45 for 1.00
GILLIAN TINDALL Biography or Fiction?
The novelist and biographer Gillian Tindall discuss the shifting space between fact and fiction.
Tuesday 25th July 7.45 for 8.00
BIOGRAPHERS SUMMER PARTY
Wednesday 30th August 12.45 for 1.00
JEFFREY SIMMONS Celebrity Biography
The publisher and agent Jeffrey Simmons looks back on forty years of dealing with celebrity biography.
Thursday 28th September 12.45 for 1.00
JANE RIDLEY Can Biography be Taught?
Jane Ridley, biographer of Disraeli and Lutyens, who teaches a course on biography asks whether the skills can be taught.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Wednesday 25th October 12.45 for 1.00
JOHN CLAY Psycho-Biography
The biographer of RD Laing discusses the strengths and weaknesses of psycho-biography.
Tuesday 14th November 12.45 for 1.00
JULIET BARKER 19 th Century Biography
Juliet Barker, author of a recently-published biography of Wordsworth, on the case for the 19 th century approach to writing biography.
Tuesday 5th December 6.30
CHRISTMAS PARTY
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– 2001
All meetings held at Veronicas Restaurant, 3 Hereford Rd, W2 except annual dinner.
Friday 2nd February 12.45 for 1.00
TONY RENNELL Queen Victoria Symposium
To mark the centenary of Queen Victorias funeral Tony Rennell, author of a recently published book on her last days, talks about her legacy and how biographers have written about her. To be filmed by the BBC.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Thursday 22nd February 12.45 for 1.00
ADAM SISMAN The Biography of a Biography
The author of Boswells Presumptuous Task, discusses writing the story of James Boswell and his life of Johnson.
Wednesday 21st March 7.45 for 8.00
JAN MORRIS Annual Dinner
In the 14th century Founders Hall, New College, Oxford the journalist, travel writer and biographer Jan Morris reflects on forty years experience of writing and her view of biography.
Tuesday 3rd April 7.45 for 8.00
DAVID HOOPER Biographers and the Law
A solicitor and the author of several books on libel, David Hooper explains the particular legal problems biographers may encounter, especially with new rules on privacy.
Monday 23rd April 12.45 for 1.00
KATHRYN HUGHES The Future of Biography
Kathryn Hughes, winner of last years James Tait Black Prize for her life of George Eliot, draws on her extensive reviewing experience to speculate on biographical trends.
Tuesday 22nd May 7.45 for 8.00
GEOFF METZGER The Biography Channel
Geoff Metzger, Managing Director of The History Channel, explains the workings of the new Biography Channel.
Wednesday 27th June 7.45 for 8.00
HUMPHREY CARPENTER The Biographer as Villain
The biographer of several contemporary figures, Humphrey Carpenter looks at the sort of controversies involved in writing biography.
July
SUMMER PARTY
Athenaeum Hotel, Picadilly
Tuesday 24th July 7.45 for 8.00
VALERIE GROVE The Journalist as Biographer
The journalist and biographer of, amongst others, Laurie Lee, Valerie Grove recounts how journalistic skills can be brought to bear in writing biography.
Thursday 30h August 12.45 for 1.00
NIGEL JONES The Biographer as Gumshow
The author of a life of Rupert Brooke and a journalist on first History Today and now the BBC History Magazine, Nigel Jones looks at the investigative skills and techniques required by biographers.
Wednesday 26th September 12.45 for 1.00
ARTEMIS COOPER The Biography of Place
Artemis Cooper has written portraits of Cairo during the Second World War and Paris immediately afterwards. She considers how a place can be as much of a subject to the biographer as people.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Monday 22nd October 12.45 for 1.00
GARRY OCONNOR Authorised or Unauthorised?
Garry OConnor who has written lives of Ralph Richardson, Paul Scofield, Peggy Ashcroft and William Shakespeare – some authorised and some unauthorised analyses the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.
Thursday 22nd November 12.45 for 1.00
ANGELA THIRLWELL The role of autobiography in biography
Angela Thirwell edited The Folio Anthology of Autobiography and is currently writing a life of the art-critic William Rossetti.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Monday 10th December 6.30
CHRISTMAS PARTY Berkeley Square Café, 7 Davies St, W1. Tickets £15
The Berkeley Square Cafés owner, film producer Leslie Linder, has kindly opened the café for our exclusive use. It takes over 150 people so I hope many of you will bring along potential new members as guests.
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– 2002
Tuesday 26th February 7.45 for 8.00
Cafe Rouge, 2 Lancer Square, Kensington Church St, W8
John Campbell, biographer of Margaret Thatcher and Edward Heath, will be discussing whether or not biography is simply a branch of history.
Wednesday 20th March 12.45 for 1.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
Lucasta Miller, author of The Bronte Myth, on ‘The Biographer as Myth Maker’.
Friday 12th April 7.45 for 8.00
Magdalene College, Cambridge
Annual Dinner.
Piers Brendon, Keeper of the Churchill College Archives and author of books on Eisenhower and Churchill , will be our speaker in the candlelit medieval college hall.
Guests welcome. Tickets £40.
Monday 29th April 12.45 for 1.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
John Blake of Blake Publishing on Heroes and Villains: Biography publishing for the mass market
Friday 24th May 7.30 for 8.00
Longleat House, Wiltshire
The Marquess of Bath will be talking about publishing his autobiography on his web site and the Wessex oral history project.
Guests welcome. Tickets £30.
Friday 14th June 12.45 for 1.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW!
The journalist and biographer Gyles Brandreth, currently writing a book on the Queen, will speak on The Queen and I: the pitfalls of writing about Monarchy.
Monday 24th June 6.30-8,30
Athenaeum Club, 107 Pall Mall
Fifth Anniversary party to which all previous speakers and judges have been invited.
Tickets £25. Guests welcome
Wednesday 10th July 12.45 for 1.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
Phil Craig, writer and television journalist, on Biographers at war: the story behind the Princess Diana biographies.
Tuesday 13th August 12.45 for 1.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
Reading the Father-Daughter Relationship: Cross Fertilisations between psychoanalysis and biography. Jane Polden gained a First in English at Cambridge before becoming a psychotherapist and author.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Thursday 12th September 7.45 for 8.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
Peter Conradi, the authorised biographer of Iris Murdoch, discusses how his friend has been represented in film, the three memoirs of her husband and in biography.
Friday 27th September 12.45 for 1.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
David Ellis is Professor of English Literature at the University of Kent. His books include Literary Lives: Biography and the Search for Understanding and DH Lawrence: Dying Game 1922-1930 ,which was short-listed for the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. His talk is entitled Letters, biography and the strange case of William Shakespeare.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Friday 25th October 12.45 for 1.00
Bertrollis, Frith St. Biographers Club Prize lunch.
Richard Holmes, Professor of Biography at UEA and author of biographies of amongst others Chatterton, Shelley and Coleridge will discuss his approach to biography.
Thursday 7th November 7.45 for 8.00
Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
Sally Cline, author of a forthcoming life of the Fitzgeralds, on ‘Zelda (and Scott) Fitzgerald: Two Lives Beneath One Legend.’
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Thursday 14th November 7.45 for 8.00
Café Rouge, Lancers Square, W8.
J.D.F. Jones, whose most recent book is the authorised biography of Laurens van der Post,on The Problems of authorised biography.
Monday 2nd December 6.30-8.30
Georgian Group, 6 Fitzroy Square, W1
Christmas party. Guests welcome. Tickets £20.
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– 2003
Wednesday 3rd September 12.45 for 1.00
Biographers’ Club Prize lunch
Ben Pimlott and Diane Middlebrook in discussion on ‘The Current State of Biography’
Bertorelli’s, Frith St
Tuesday 7th October 7.45 for 8.00
Andrew Roberts ‘Virtual history: can speculation about what did not happen in the past help us in the study of what did’
Tuesday 4th November 12.45 for 1.00
Neil McKenna The Importance of the Sex Life
Drawing on his The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde, Neil McKenna shows how the sex lives of individuals are often crucial in understanding their life and work.
Bertorelli’s, Frith St
Monday 1st December 6.00-8.00
Christmas Party
Georgian Group, 6 Fitzroy Square, W1
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– 2004
Monday 5th July Summer Party 6.00-8.00
Destino, 25 Swallow St, W1
Wednesday 29th September
Jane Mays and Brian MacArthur ‘Serialising Biography’
Two of Britain’s most important serial buyers, respectively for the Daily Mail and Times explain what they look for in extracting biography and how it can help sales.
Destino, 25 Swallow St, W1
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Wednesday 27th October 7.45 for 8.00
The Contented Vine, 17 Sussex St, SW1
Rosalie Macfarlane, Group Publicity Director at Time Warner and Rina Gill, Publicity Manager at Random House will discuss Publicising Biography.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Monday 8th November 6.00 for 7.00
English Pen Media-Biz Quiz and dinner
Savoy Hotel
Tickets £100.
Last year The Biographers Club entered three teams more than any other group and I very much hope we can at least equal that number this year.
Monday 6th December 6.30-8.30
Christmas Party
Georgian Society, 6 Fitzroy Square, W1
Guests welcome. Tickets £20.
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– 2005
All meetings at The Savile Club, 69 Brook Street, W1 unless otherwise specified.
Friday 18th February
Drinks 6.30 for 7.00 pm talk. Dinner at 8.15pm. Guests welcome.
Jonathan Bate, author of The Genius of Shakespeare and Professor of Shakepeare and Renaissance Literature at the University of Warwick will talk on “The Impossibility of Shakespearean Biography”. The talk will be chaired by David Ellis, Professor of English Literature at the University of Kent.
The Biographers Club has entered a team for University Challenge and the BBC will be filming the drinks beforehand.
Thursday 31st March 12.45 for 1.00
Barbara Schwepcke, founder of Haus Publishing (UK) on “The Sorry Tale of an Independent Publisher of Short Biographies”.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Monday 9th May 12.45 for 1.00
Thomas Staley ‘Lives, Letters and the Ransom Centre.’
The Director of the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre at the University of Texas at Austin on his collection and how biographers can best use it.
Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1
Monday 23rd May 7.45 for 8.00
Ann Wroe ‘Unknowable Lives’
The biographer of Pilate and Perkin Warback shows how biographies can be written about people of whom very little is known.
Arts Club, Dover St, W1. Tickets £27.50
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Monday 6th June 7.45 for 8.00
David Twiston Davies Obituary Writing
Formerly Daily Telegraph obituaries editor and the author of The Daily Telegraph books on Naval and Military Obituaries, David Twiston Davies on writing obituaries.
The Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £27.50
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Thursday 16th June 12.45 for 1.00
Jeremy Lewis – Allen Lane
The publisher and writer Jeremy Lewis on his new biography of the publisher Allen Lane.
At and in association with the Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £25.
Monday 20th June 6.30-8.30
Summer party
The Athenaeum Club, Pall Mall, SW1. Guests welcome. Tickets £20.
Guests welcome. Tickets £20.
Monday 4th July 12.45 for 1.00
Yvonne Ward ‘Packaging the Monarchy: Queen Victoria and her Editors’.
Yvonne Ward shows how our view of Queen Victoria has been based on highly selective editions of her letters.
Tickets £25.
Wednesday 14th September 12.45 for 1.00
Biographers’ Prize lunch
2005 judges: Caroline Moorehead, Miranda Seymour and Robert Lacey
Speaker: Alison Weir, The Appeal of Medieval Biography.
The Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £25.
Friday 23rd September 7.45 for 8.00
Margaret Crick will discuss the problems she encountered writing her biography of Mary Archer.
The Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £27.50
Monday 3rd October 12.45 for 1.00
David Sutton ‘Keeping WATCH: tracking down copyright holders’.
David Sutton is Director of Research Projects at Reading University Library, with responsibility, since 1982, for the Location Register literary manuscripts project (www.locationregister.com) and, since 1994, for the WATCH copyright project (Writers Artists & Their Copyright Holders, http://tyler.hrc.utexas.edu).
Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £25.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Wednesday 26th October 7.45 for 8.00
Dr Rebecca Stott, whose books include Darwin and the Barnacle, will talk about writing the biography of an animal species.
The Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £27.50.
Tuesday 8th November 12.45 for 1.00
Hazel Bell Biographers in Fiction
Hazel Bell will be discussing some 24 novels which feature biographers including Henry James, Julian Barnes, William Golding, AS Byatt and Carol Shields
Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £25.
THIS SPEECH IS NOW ONLINE – CLICK HERE TO READ.
Monday 28th November
PEN Quiz, Raphael Gallery at V&A Museum
Friday 9th December 6.30-8.30
Christmas Party
The Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1. Tickets £20
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– 2006
Monday 24th April 12.45 for 1.00
Special Forces Club, 8 Herbert Crescent, SW1
Sarah Helm will talk about researching her biography A Life in Secrets: Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE.
Wednesday 24th May 12.45 for 1.00
Kazan, 93-94 Wilton Road, SW1
Diana Souhami’s talk ‘Subverting Biography’ is about her forthcoming book Coconut Chaos, which she describes as covering everything from chaos theory and cargo ships to the Mutiny on the Bounty and lesbian seduction at sea.
Wednesday 24th May 6.30 for 7.00
The Savile Club, 69 Brook St, W1
Lisa Chaney will be discussing her life of JM Barrie. Talk £10 with a glass of wine or £25 to include supper. You should book direct with the Savile on 0207 629 5462.
Tuesday 20th June 6.30-8.30
Garden, Athenaeum Club, 107 Pall Mall
Summer Party
September
Biographers Club Prize lunch.
Monday 27th November
Cafe Royal, Regent St
PEN Media Biz Quiz.
Monday 4th December 6.30 to 8.30
Georgian Group, 6 Fitzroy Square, W1
Christmas Party
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