# Stella Tillyard

Stella Tillyard FRSL (born 1957) is a British author and historian, educated at Oxford and Harvard Universities and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1999 her bestselling book Aristocrats was made into a six-part series for BBC1/Masterpiece Theatre sold to over 20 countries. Winner of the Meilleur Livre Étranger, the Longman/History Today Prize and the Fawcett Prize, she has taught at Harvard; the University of California, Los Angeles; Birkbeck, London and the Centre for Editing Lives and Letters at Queen Mary, London. She is a visiting professor in the Department of History, Classics and Archaeology, Birkbeck, University of London, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

## Books

* 2024 (as translator), In Defense of Don Giovanni: A Feminist Mythobiography, by Luisa Passerini, Punctum Books, California
* 2019 George IV: King in Waiting, Allen Lane, an imprint of Penguin Books, London
* 2018 The Great Level, Chatto & Windus, London; published in 2019 as Call Upon the Water, Atria Books, New York
* 2011 Tides of War. A Novel of the Peninsular War, Chatto & Windus, London. Danish translation available
* 2006 A Royal Affair: George III and His Troublesome Siblings, Chatto & Windus, London; Published in New York as A Royal Affair. George III and his Scandalous Siblings, Random House. Swedish translation available
* 1999 Aristocrats: The Illustrated Companion, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London
* 1997 Citizen Lord: Edward Fitzgerald 1763-1798, Chatto & Windus, London. Russian, Hungarian and Brazilian translations in preparation
* 1994 Aristocrats: Caroline, Emily, Louisa and Sarah Lennox 1740-1832, Chatto & Windus, London. Reprinted by the Folio Society, 2008, with a new introduction. Translations into Danish, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese and Swedish
* 1987 The Impact of Modernism, 1900-1920: The Visual Arts in Edwardian England , Routledge, London

## Professional activities

* 2019 Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature
* 2016 Visiting Professor, Birkbeck, University of London
* 2016 Judge, Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year
* 2013 Judge, Hesell-Tiltman History Prize for English PEN
* 2010 Judge, Samuel Johnson Prize
* 2010-14 Judge, Prison Reform Trust writing competition
* 2009 Writer in Residence, Farmleigh, Dublin
* 2006-11 Senior Research Fellow, AHRB Centre for Editing Lives and Letters, Queen Mary, University of London
* 2002 Judge, Whitbread Prize
* 1999-2000/2005-6, Columnist, Prospect magazine

## Prizes and awards

* 2012 Orange Prize long list, Tides of War
* 1999 Meilleur Livre Etranger, Aristocrats
* 1997 Whitbread Prize biography short list, Citizen Lord
* 1995 Fawcett Prize, Aristocrats
* 1994 Longman/History Today Book of the Year Award, Aristocrats
* 1988 Nicholas Pevsner Prize
* 1981-2 Knox Fellowship, Harvard University
* 1979-81 Domus Student, Linacre College, Oxford

## Film and television

* 2012 A Royal Affair, Denmark 2012
* 2009 Deutsches Radio TV documentary, A Royal Affair
* 2008 "Library Late", National Library, Dublin
* 2000 "The Making of Aristocrats". One-hour documentary interview. BBC Education
* 1999 Aristocrats BBC/WGBH 6 part Co-Production with Screen Ireland, for BBC1 and Masterpiece Theatre

## Radio

* 2019 BBC Radio4, A Point of View:
** "The Sea is Back"
** "Peak Stuff"
* 2018 BBC Radio 4, A Point of View:
** "Speak, History!"
** "Cities of the Dead"
** "A Problem with Words"
** "The Museum of Deportation"
* 2017 BBC Radio 4, A Point of View: "The Screensaver of Life, or the Idling Brain"
* 2014 BBC Radio 4 on the Georgians
* 2012 Woman's Hour, Radio 4, "Female Academicians"
* 2012 Today, Radio 4, "The History of Fame and Celebrity"
* 2011 BBC Radio 3, "Private Passions"

## Recent articles and introductions

* 2014 Introduction, Jan Morris, The Venetian Empire
* 2014 "The Creaking of the Scenery", Writing Historical Fiction: The Writers & Artists Companion
* 2012 Introduction, Nancy Mitford, The Sun King
* 2008 "Biography and Modernity: some thoughts on origins", Writing Lives, Biography and Textuality, Identity and Representation in Early Modern England
* 2006 Introduction, James Boswell, London Journal
* 2006 "All our Pasts", TLS, October 2006. Reprinted in The Author, Spring 2007.
* 2006 "David Malouf", Prospect
* 2005 "Alan Hollinghurst", Prospect

## Catalogue essays

* 2015 "Newfoundland", the work of Romilly Saumarez Smith, Edmund de Waal Studio; Sainsbury Centre, Norwich
* 2005 "Paths of Glory: Fame and the Public in Eighteenth Century London", Joshua Reynolds and the Creation of Celebrity, Tate Britain, London

## Recent talks

* 2019 "The Hanoverians: when Germans spoke French in St James's", Europe House, London
* 2017 "History and the Historical Novel", Warwick University
* 2017 "Female Celebrity, Feminism and Celebrity Culture", Oxford University
* 2016 "Opera and the Historical Novel", Royal Holloway, London
* 2015 "Tony Small; an African American in Ireland", Dublin Festival of History
* 2015 "Collecting the World; How Global Art came to Ireland in the Eighteenth Century", Art Institute of Chicago
* 2015 "Hollywood and the Eighteenth Century", ASECS Conference, Los Angeles
* 2015 "Two Irish Interiors", Northwestern University
* 2015 "Celebrity and the Plain Portrait in the Eighteenth Century", King's College, London, February
* 2014 "History and the Historical Novel", Warwick University, 14 January

## Personal

Tillyard moved to the United States in 1981 and has lived for long periods in Boston, Los Angeles, Chicago and Florence. In 2006 she moved to London. She campaigned for Britain to remain in the EU. She divides her time between London and Italy. She has two children.