Anne Sebba

Anne Sebba (''née'' Rubinstein; born 31 December 1951) is a British biographer, lecturer and journalist. She is the author of nine non-fiction books for adults, two biographies for children, and several introductions to reprinted classics.

Life

Anne Sebba (''née'' Rubinstein) was born in London on 31 December 1951. She read history at King's College London (1969–72) and, after a brief spell at the BBC World Service in Bush House, joined Reuters as a graduate trainee, working in London and Rome, from 1972 to 1978. She wrote her first book while living in New York City and now lives in London.

Her discovery of an unpublished series of letters from Wallis Simpson to her second husband Ernest Simpson, shortly before her eventual marriage to the former King, Edward VIII, later the Duke of Windsor, formed the basis of a Channel 4 documentary, ''The Secret Letters'', first shown on UK television in August 2011, and also a biography of Simpson, ''That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson Duchess of Windsor''.

Sebba's books have been translated into several languages including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Polish, Czech and Chinese.

Since working as a correspondent for Reuters, Sebba has written for ''The Times'', ''The Guardian'', ''The Daily Telegraph'', ''The Spectator'', ''Times Higher Education Supplement'' and ''The Independent''. She has been cited as an authority on biography.

In 2009, Sebba wrote and presented ''The Daffodil Maiden'' on BBC Radio 3. It was an account of the pianist Harriet Cohen, who inspired the composer Arnold Bax when she wore a dress adorned with a single daffodil and became his mistress for the next 40 years. In 2010, she wrote and presented the documentary ''Who was Joyce Hatto?'' for BBC Radio 4.

In September 2009, Sebba joined the management committee of the Society of Authors. She was chair of the committee between 2012 and 2014 and is now a member of the Council of the Society of Authors. She is a longstanding member of English PEN and after several years on the Writers in Prison Committee served twice on the PEN management committee. She visited Turkey twice as an official observer for PEN for the trial of journalist Asiye Guzel Zeybeck. She has served on the judging panel of the Jewish Quarterly-Wingate Literary Prize. and has twice been a judge for the Biographers' Club awards. In 2012, Sebba spoke at the Beijing and Shanghai Literary Festivals and the Sydney Writers' Festival.

Sebba is a Trustee of the National Archives Trust (NAT), a senior research fellow of the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), and a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

In 2023-2024, Sebba was appointed a judge for th
Inaugural Women’s Prize for Non- Fiction

Critical reception

''Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother'' was reviewed, ''inter alia'', in ''The Independent'',

', and ''The Scotsman'',

According to

'' Sebba’s book retrieved ‘Jennie Churchill in sparkling three dimensions nddoes much to put flesh on the bones of a subject who has been reduced to a cipher for American Brashness.‘
T''he Literary Review''
said the book was ‘sharp and intelligent… immensely enjoyable. ebba’s proseis as smooth and elegant as expensive cashmere; it reads like a novel.’

''That Woman'' was described in ''The New York Times'' Sunday Book Review as a "devourable feast of highly spiced history…which acquires the propulsive energy of a thriller as it advances through Wallis's life". and in ''The Washington Times'' as "a delicious new biography… meticulously researched".

In 2016, Sebba published ''Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s'' (Weidenfeld & Nicolson UK), published in the United States as ''Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died under the Nazi Occupation'' (St Martin's Press). This was described as "fascinating and beautifully written" by ''The Spectator'' and was the joint winner of the Franco-British society's book prize for 2016.

''Les Parisiennes'' has been translated into Chinese, (SDX) Czech (Bourdon) and French (La Librarie Vuibert). In 2018, a reviewer in ''Le Figaro Magazine'' coined the phrase "La Méthode Sebba" to describe the author's method of linking interviews with living people and archive material to create a tableau of women during the dark years.

''Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy'', published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson (UK) in 2021, concerns the Rosenberg espionage case. Sebba’s book received wide ranging positive reviews and was shortlisted for th
Wingate Award of 2022
Adam Sisman of the ''Literary Review'' said “In Anne Sebba, Ethel Rosenberg has found the ideal biographer, sympathetic without being blind to her faults and with a sure understanding of the period … Her portrayal is compelling”. In the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' Carl Rollyson described the book as a "compassionate account of Ethel's character as a wife and mother" and an "engrossing narrative". In ''The Critic'' Gerald Jacobs described Sebba's reconstruction of the trial as “gripping” and went on to say “Anne Sebba has given Ethel Rosenberg a towering memorial”. In ''The Telegraph'' Jake Kerridge said ''"Sebba gets her readers under the skin of both Ethel and her era so effectively that this shameful saga had me alternately close to tears and boiling with rage. She is right to identify this as a uniquely despicable episode in US history."'' Rachel Cooke in the ''Observer'' called ''Ethel Rosenberg'' as "a powerful biography" and "gripping". In ''The Guardian'' Melissa Benn said "Sebba has dug deep beneath this famous and archetypically male story of spying, weapons and international tensions to give us an intelligent, sensitive and absorbing account of the short, tragic life of a woman made remarkable by circumstance".

In 2025, to mark the 80^th anniversary of the liberation of the camps, Sebba published ''The Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz  A story of Survival'' in th
UK
an
US
 

Simon Heffer i
''The Telegraph''
wrote :  ''Sebba's command of detail is superb. She quite rightly outlines the atrocities of the sadists, psychopaths and savages whom Auschwitz seemed to attract like a magnet; but also the resilience and courage of a group of women who refused to be beaten by evil, and used music to save their lives.''

In the
Spectator
' Clare Mulley described the book as  ''"Deeply moving . . . This complex story pays fine tribute not only to the women's orchestra but also to their captive audiences, who remained as affected by the music as by the inhumanity that surrounded them’"''

Olivia Lichtenstein in th

wrote ''‘Deeply affecting . . . What makes The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz so powerful is its unswerving commitment to detail. Sebba ensures that every woman's name, every story, is documented. This is not a faceless tragedy, it is a collection of individual lives, each deserving of remembrance''

The book was described by Kathryn Hughes  in ''The Guardian'' as ''‘Remarkable . . . deft . . . A vivid account of the experiences of the 40 or so women who briefly came together to make the music that saved their lives. Running through this fine book is Sebba's empathy for the impossible moral choices presented to these young women’''

Caroline Moorehead wrote in the
TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
'

''‘Meticulous research . . . a detailed picture of the orchestra's players. remarkable story . . . The author has done these women proud .’''

Bibliography

* ''Samplers: Five Centuries of a Gentle Craft'' (1979)
* ''Mother Teresa'' (1982) (Blackbird Books series)
* ''Margot Fonteyn'' (1983) (Blackbird Books series)
* ''Enid Bagnold: A Life'' (1986)
* ''Laura Ashley: A Life By Design'' (1990)
* ''Battling For News: The Rise of the Woman Reporter'' (1994)
* ''Mother Teresa: Beyond the Image'' (1997)
* ''The Exiled Collector: William Bankes and the Making of an English Country House'' (2005)
* '' Jennie Churchill: Winston's American Mother'' (2007)
* ''That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Duchess of Windsor'' (2011)
* ''Les Parisiennes: How the Women of Paris Lived, Loved and Died in the 1940s'' (2016)
* "A Room of One's Own... or Not?" in ''The Women Writers Handbook'' (2020)Aurora Metro Books
Retrieved 4 June 2025
* ''Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy'' (2021)
* ''The Women's Orchestra of Auschwitz: A Story of Survival'' (2025)

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sebba, Anne
1951 births
Living people
British biographers
British women writers
Alumni of King's College London
British women biographers
Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature