Curated playlist
English biographers
- George Wyatt (writer)George Wyatt was born just as his father was being led to the scaffold. His father had led a failed rebellion.
- Samuel JohnsonSamuel Johnson told his publishers he could write an English dictionary in three years, and it took eight.
- Benjamin DisraeliBenjamin Disraeli bought a controlling stake in the Suez Canal within days in 1875.
- Stanley SadieStanley Sadie grew a nine-volume music dictionary into twenty volumes. The 1980 result needed a new name: The New Grove.
- Barbara LevickOnly Barbara Levick turned her 1950s Turkey research trips into a book.
- Alison WeirPublishers rejected Alison Weir's Henry VIII book for being too long, then her next for being too short.
- Colin WilsonColin Wilson finished his book The Outsider while sleeping rough on Hampstead Heath.
- Correlli BarnettMichael Heseltine gave every Cabinet member a copy of Correlli Barnett's The Lost Victory.
- Simon CallowSimon Callow's acting career began with a fan letter to Laurence Olivier. Olivier wrote back with a box-office job.
- Martin GilbertA boy evacuated to Canada in wartime grew up to write Churchill's official biography.