Roger Lewis (born 26 February 1960) is a Welsh academic, biographer and journalist.[1][2]

Biography

Lewis was raised in Bedwas, Monmouthshire, and educated at Bassaleg School in Newport. He then attended the University of St Andrews, graduating MA, then Magdalen College, Oxford, where he gained the MLitt degree, both with first class honours. He became a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, in 1984.[1][3]

Lewis has written biographies of Peter Sellers (1994),[4] Charles Hawtrey (2001), Anthony Burgess (2003), and Laurence Olivier (2007).[1] His book on Sellers was dramatized by HBO as The Life and Death of Peter Sellers, which won a Golden Globe Award[3] and was nominated for the Palme d'Or at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.[5]

Personal life

Lewis is married, with children, and lives in Hastings, with a holiday apartment in Bad Ischl, Austria. He is a lover of good art and bullfighting.[3]

Controversies

Writing a book review for the Daily Mail in August 2011, Lewis expressed a dislike of the Welsh language, calling it an "appalling and moribund monkey language". Plaid Cymru politician Jonathan Edwards reported Lewis's comments to the police and to the Press Complaints Commission.[6][7]

In 2014 comments about lesbians Lewis made in a Spectator article led to publishers Biteback Publishing withdrawing an offer of a book deal.[8][9]

Books

• Erotic Vagrancy. London: Quercus. 2017. ISBN 978-0-857-38172-9.
• What Am I Still Doing Here?. London: Coronet. 2011. ISBN 978-1-444-70868-4.
• Growing Up with Comedians. London: Century. 2010. ISBN 978-1-84413-808-1.
• Seasonal Suicide Notes: My Life as it is Lived. London: Short Books. 2009. ISBN 978-1-907595-00-4.
• The Real Life of Laurence Olivier. London: Arrow Books. 2007. ISBN 978-0-09-951366-7.
• Anthony Burgess. London: Faber and Faber. 2003. ISBN 978-0-571-21721-2.
• Charles Hawtrey 1914-1988: The Man Who Was Private Widdle. London: Faber and Faber. 2002. ISBN 978-0-571-21089-3.
• The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. London: Century. 1994.

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Roger Lewis.

• www.telegraph.co.uk

This article about a non-fiction writer from the United Kingdom or one of its constituent countries is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

• v
• t
• e