Life and career

Holroyd was born in London, the son of Basil de Courcy Fraser Holroyd (a descendant of the great-great-grandfather of John Baker Holroyd, 1st Earl of Sheffield) and his wife, Ulla Knutsson-Hall.

He was educated at Eton College, though he has often claimed Maidenhead Public Library as his alma mater.

In 1964 he published his first book, a biography of the writer Hugh Kingsmill; his reputation was consolidated in 1967-68 with the publication of his life of Lytton Strachey (which the playwright Christopher Hampton later used extensively when writing the screenplay for the 1995 film Carrington). Holroyd has also written biographies of Augustus John and, in four volumes, of Bernard Shaw. His book A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers (2010) concerns the Villa Cimbrone on the Gulf of Salerno and the Edwardian literary and society figures who lived there, such as Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe.

Holroyd was chairman of the Society of Authors, 1973-83, and from 1985 to 1988 was president of the English branch of PEN. His awards include the 2001 Heywood Hill Literary Prize and the 2005 David Cohen Prize for literature. In 2006, he was awarded the Golden PEN Award by English PEN for "a Lifetime's Distinguished Service to Literature". He was president of the Royal Society of Literature from 2003 to 2008 and was knighted in the 2007 New Year Honours List. Holroyd is a patron of Dignity in Dying.

Holroyd is married to the author Dame Margaret Drabble.

Awards

• 1968—Yorkshire Post Book Award (Book of the Year): Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography
• 1988—Irish Life Arts Award
• 1989—CBE
• 1995—Prix du Meilleur Livre Etranger (France)
• 2001—Heywood Hill Literary Prize
• 2003—Golden PEN Award
• 2005—David Cohen British Literature Prize
• 2007—Knighted for services to English Literature

Works

• Hugh Kingsmill: A Critical Biography, Unicorn Press, 1964
• Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography, volume 1: The Unknown Years (1880-1910), Heinemann, 1967
• Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography, volume 2: The Years of Achievement (1910-1932), Heinemann, 1968
• A Dog's Life, Henry Holt (US only), 1969
• The Best of Hugh Kingsmill: Selections from his Writings (editor), Gollancz, 1970
• Lytton Strachey by Himself: A Self-Portrait (editor), Heinemann, 1971
• Unreceived Opinions, Heinemann, 1973
• Augustus John: A Biography, volume 1: The Years of Innocence, Heinemann, 1974
• The Art of Augustus John (with Malcolm Easton), Secker & Warburg, 1974
• Augustus John: A Biography, volume 2: The Years of Experience, Heinemann, 1975
• The Genius of Shaw: A Symposium (editor), Hodder & Stoughton, 1979
• The Shorter Strachey (editor with Paul Levy), Oxford University Press, 1980
• William Gerhardie: God's Fifth Column: A Biography of the Age: 1890-1940 (editor with Robert Skidelsky), Hodder & Stoughton, 1981
• Essays by Divers Hands, (editor), Boydell Press, 1982
• Peterley Harvest: The Private Diary of David Peterley (introduction), Secker & Warburg, 1985
• Bernard Shaw, volume 1: 1856-1898: The Search for Love, Chatto & Windus, 1988
• Bernard Shaw, volume 2: 1898-1918: The Pursuit of Power, Chatto & Windus, 1989
• Bernard Shaw, volume 3: 1918-1950: The Lure of Fantasy, Chatto & Windus, 1991
• Bernard Shaw, volume 4: 1950-1991: The Last Laugh, Chatto & Windus, 1992
• The Shaw Companion, Chatto & Windus, 1992
• Lytton Strachey: The New Biography, Chatto & Windus, 1994
• Augustus John: The New Biography, Chatto & Windus, 1996
• Bernard Shaw (one-volume revised edition), Chatto & Windus, 1997
• Basil Street Blues, Little, Brown, 1999
• The Whispering Gallery: Leaves from a Diplomat's Diary by Hesketh Pearson, (introduction), Phoenix Press, 2000
• Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography, Little, Brown, 2002
• Swedish Reflections: From Beowulf to Bergman (preface), Arcadia Books, 2003
• Mosaic, Little, Brown, 2004
• A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving and their Remarkable Families, Chatto & Windus, 2008
• A Book of Secrets: Illegitimate Daughters, Absent Fathers, Chatto & Windus, 2010
• On Wheels, 2013

[ Source: Wikipedia ]