Stella Tillyard
Stella Tillyard FRSL 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, 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