Alexandra Harris wins Somerset Maugham Award

Alexandra Harris has been awarded a Somerset Maugham Award at the 2011 Authors' Awards for her book ROMANTIC MODERNS.

Alexandra Harris studied at Oxford and at the Courtauld Institute in London before returning to Oxford to write a doctorate on art and literature in the 1930s. She is now a lecturer in English at the University of Liverpool, running courses on Modernism and American writing, and leading the MA in Contemporary Literature.  She is now writing a short biography of Virginia Woolf for the Hesperus 'Brief Lives' series and is represented by Caroline Dawnay at United Agents.

ROMANTIC MODERNS: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper (Thames & Hudson, 2010)  was awarded the Guardian First Award in 2010 and was published to great acclaim.

Reviews:

‘The originality of Romantic Moderns is the extraordinary breadth of its focus … a joy to read’ The Sunday Times

'It would be impossible to over-emphasise what a clever book Romantic Moderns is … not just an important book but a deeply pleasurable one, too' Guardian Book of the Week

‘… teems with fascinating detail … Well researched, wide-ranging and generously illustrated, the book contains many delights and surprises’ The Daily Telegraph

‘… brilliant, delightfully readable … thoroughly invigorating’ Financial Times

‘A spectacular debut by a gifted and versatile cultural historian … [also] a beautiful piece of bookmaking’ – Peter Conrad, Observer