Matthew Sturgis (born 1960) is a British historian and biographer.

Early life

Sturgis earned a degree in history at the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

Career

Sturgis has written art criticism for '' Harpers & Queen'', travel journalism for ''

The Sunday Telegraph ''The Sunday Telegraph'' is a British broadsheet newspaper, first published on 5 February 1961 and published by the Telegraph Media Group, a division of Press Holdings. It is the sister paper of ''The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Tele ...

'', book reviews for ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'', and cartoons for the ''Oldie'' and the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily Middle-market newspaper, middle-market Tabloid journalism, tabloid conservative newspaper founded in 1896 and published in London. , it has the List of newspapers in the United Kingdom by circulation, h ...

''. ''

'' called his 1998 ''

Aubrey Beardsley Aubrey Vincent Beardsley ( ; 21 August 187216 March 1898) was an English illustrator and author. His black ink drawings were influenced by Woodblock printing in Japan, Japanese woodcuts, and depicted the grotesque, the decadent, and the erotic. ...

: A Biography'' "impressively researched". Reviewing '' Walter Sickert: A Life'', Sickert scholar Richard Shone concluded, "At last Sickert has the biography he deserves". Another reviewer found Sturgis "marvelous in capturing the sparkling eccentricities of his subject along with the changing fads and fashions to which Sickert was throughout his long life so sensitive". Reviewing ''

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

: A Life'' in ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', Anthony Quinn wrote "he is a tremendous orchestrator of material, fastidious, unhurried, indefatigable." The ''

Evening Standard The ''London Standard'', formerly the ''Evening Standard'' (1904–2024) and originally ''The Standard'' (1827–1904), is a long-established regional newspaper published weekly and distributed free newspaper, free of charge in London, Engl ...

'', called it "sympathetic and insightful", and "much better" than the last major biography of Wilde, by Richard Ellman thirty years earlier.

Personal life

He is married to the art dealer and gallerist Rebecca Hossack, and they live in a Georgian house in

Fitzrovia Fitzrovia ( ) is a district of central London, England, near the West End. Its eastern part is in the London Borough of Camden, and the western in the City of Westminster. It has its roots in the Manor of Tottenham Court, and was urbanised in ...

, London.

Publications

*''1992 and All This'', Macmillan, 1991 *''Passionate Attitudes: The English Decadence of the 1890s'', Macmillan, 1995 *''Aubrey Beardsley: A Biography'', 1998 *''1900 House: Featuring Extracts from the Personal Diaries of Joyce and Paul Bowler and Their Family'' with Mark McCrum, Macmillan, London, 1999. *''Walter Sickert: A Life'', 2005 *''Oscar: A Life'', Head of Zeus, 2018. Published in the U.S. as ''Oscar Wilde: A Life'', Alfred A. Knopf, 2021.

References

Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford 20th-century British historians 21st-century British historians British biographers Place of birth missing (living people) 1960 births {{UK-writer-stub