About

Alex Larman

Alexander Larman is the author of several historical and biographical titles. His most recent book, The Crown In Crisis: Countdown to the Abdication, a new account of the abdication crisis of 1936, was published by Weidenfeld & Nicolson in July 2020.  His first book, Blazing Star: The Life and Times of John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, was published by Head of Zeus in 2014, and his second, Restoration, a social history of the year 1666, was published in April 2016. His third, Byron’s Women, came out in September 2016 and was shortlisted for the Elma Dangerfield Prize.

He is books editor of The Spectator’s world edition and is a contributing editor to The Critic magazine. He has a monthly book review column in The Observer and writes regularly about literature and the arts for publications including Prospect, The Chap and the Daily Telegraph.

He has worked on editing and ghostwriting various titles in the past, including the late Sebastian Horsley’s bestselling memoir Dandy in the Underworld, which led Horsley to comment ‘There is nobody in London more capable of genius – or a flop – than Alexander Larman.’ He also contributed a selection of profiles of iconoclastic and notable figures including Quentin Crisp, Morrissey and Ayrton Senna to the designer and presenter Patrick Grant’s first book, Original Man, and a chapter of counterfactual political history to Iain Dale’s book Prime Minister Corbyn, as well as assisting with Simon Sebag Montefiore’s bestselling Written In History. His most recent ghostwriting project, a major biography of a historical figure, was critically acclaimed in titles as diverse as the Wall Street Journal, Observer and Catholic Herald.

He lives in Oxford with his wife Nancy, who is also a writer, and daughter Rose, who harbours ideas of going on the stage.