Ann Wroe.
ANNE WROE
LIFESCAPES: A BIOGRAPHER’S SEARCH FOR THE SOUL (2023)
A Financial Times, Sunday Times and Times Literary Supplement Book of the Year 2023.
Shortlisted for the James Tait Black Prize for Biography.
Anne Wroe’s book is a mix of observation, memoir and biography. She describes her fascination with people’s lives, how she chose her subjects for biography, and how she became (with the exception of Orpheus) greatly attached to the people about whom she wrote. She explores what it is that makes a life and how a life lingers after the person’s death.
The Times wrote of the book: ‘Beautifully written, the prose witty, twisting and sensuous, but it is sharp, too.’ The Observer wrote: ‘A brave, unfashionable and out of the ordinary book… A delight… Lifescapes encourages us to take a deep breath, contemplate life more keenly and acknowledge the miraculous if – and when – we find it.’
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Ann Wroe (born 1951) is an author and journalist who writes the obituary page in the Economist magazine. Her obituaries seek to capture the essence of the person, rather than (as is the case in other obituaries) giving a chonological account of their lives. Wroe has published several books, including biographies of Pontius Pilate, Perkin Warbeck, Shelley, and St. Francis of Assisi. She obtained a first class degree and PhD in History at the University of Oxford. Before joining the Economist in 1976 she worked at the BBC World Service.
