Roger Lewis

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For the architect, see Roger K. Lewis. For the American football player, see Roger Lewis (American football). For the historian, see Wm. Roger Louis.

Roger Lewis
Born (1960-02-26) 26 February 1960 (age 64)
Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales
OccupationAcademic, biographer, journalist
EducationBassaleg School, Newport
Alma materUniversity of St Andrews; Magdalen College, Oxford

Roger Lewis (born 26 February 1960) is a Welsh academic, biographer and journalist.[1][2]

Biography[edit]

Lewis was born in Caerphilly, Glamorgan in 1960. He was raised in Bedwas, Monmouthshire, and educated at Bassaleg School in Newport. He then attended the University of St Andrews, graduating MA, then Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained the MLitt degree, both with first class honours. He became a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, in 1984.[1][3]

Lewis has contributed literary journalism to the Daily Express, Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.[4] He has written biographies of Peter Sellers (1994),[5] Charles Hawtrey (2001), Anthony Burgess (2003), and Laurence Olivier (2007).[1] His book on Sellers was dramatized by HBO as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which won a Golden Globe Award[3] and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[6] Seasonal Suicide Notes (2009) chronicles five years of the author's life.[4] It was followed up by a second volume of "dyspeptic musings", What am I Doing Here? My Years as Me, in 2012.[7] Erotic Vagrancy, his massive joint biography of Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor, took him 13 years to complete, and was published to generally positive reviews in October 2023.[8]

Controversies[edit]

Following the publication of his Burgess biography, Blake Morrison declared himself "appalled by Roger Lewis's 20-year quest to destroy Anthony Burgess".[9] In defense, Lewis told Stephen Moss: "What I was trying to do with all my biographies was find a form that would suit the subject matter...Anthony Burgess was a great charlatan, so the book is full of all these mock-scholarly footnotes. I thought I'd pulled it off, and then the reviews came out and they were homicidal".[4]

Writing a book review for the Daily Mail in August 2011, Lewis expressed a dislike of the Welsh language, calling it an "appalling and moribund monkey language". Plaid Cymru politician Jonathan Edwards reported Lewis's comments to the police and to the Press Complaints Commission.[10][11]

In 2014 comments about lesbians Lewis made in a Spectator article led to publishers Biteback Publishing withdrawing an offer of a book deal.[12][13]

Personal life[edit]

Lewis is married - to Anna, an educational psychologist - with three sons, and lives in Hastings, with a holiday apartment in Bad Ischl, Austria. He is a lover of good art and bullfighting.[3]

Books[edit]

  • Erotic Vagrancy: Everything about Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor. London: Quercus. 2023. ISBN 978-0-857-38172-9.
  • What Am I Still Doing Here? My Life as Me. London: Coronet. 2011. ISBN 978-1-444-70868-4.
  • Growing Up with Comedians. London: Century. 2010. ISBN 978-1-84413-808-1.
  • Seasonal Suicide Notes: My Life as it is Lived. London: Short Books. 2009. ISBN 978-1-907595-00-4.
  • The Real Life of Laurence Olivier. London: Arrow Books. 2007. ISBN 978-0-09-951366-7.
  • Anthony Burgess. London: Faber and Faber. 2003. ISBN 978-0-571-21721-2.
  • Charles Hawtrey 1914–1988: The Man Who Was Private Widdle. London: Faber and Faber. 2002. ISBN 978-0-571-21089-3.
  • The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. London: Century. 1994.

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c "The Writers of Wales Database: Roger Lewis". Literature of Wales. Archived from the original on 13 November 2013. Retrieved 13 November 2013.
  2. ^ "The Modern Word – "Anthony Burgess: A Life" Review". Archived from the original on 18 March 2011. Retrieved 5 June 2011.
  3. ^ a b c Stephen Masty, "Roger Lewis – Modernist, Moralist and Wit", The Imaginative Conservative, 30 May 2012, accessed 28 October 2021
  4. ^ a b c Stephen Moss. ''Roger Lewis: My father died and I thought, I'll try and make that funny', in The Guardian, 8 December 2009
  5. ^ Lewis, Roger (1995). The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. London: Arrow Books. ISBN 0-09-974700-6. 1108 pages.
  6. ^ Festival de Cannes: The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, Cannes Film Festival, accessed 28 October 2021
  7. ^ Reviewed by Nicholas Lezard in The Evening Standard, 10 April 2012
  8. ^ Anthony Quinn. 'An epic hymn to a joyously vulgar pair', in The Guardian, 22 October, 2023
  9. ^ Blake Morrison. 'Kingdom of the Wicked', in The Guardian, 9 November, 2002
  10. ^ Addley, Esther (17 August 2011). "Esther Addley's diary". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  11. ^ "Welsh 'monkey language' anger". BBC News. 16 August 2011. Archived from the original on 17 March 2018. Retrieved 17 March 2018.
  12. ^ "Spectator columnist on Dusty Springfield: 'You can always spot a lesbian by her big thrusting chin' ·". PinkNews. 14 August 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2017.
  13. ^ "The mad, bad and sad life of Dusty Springfield". The Spectator. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 13 January 2017.

External links[edit]

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