The Hawthornden Prize for Literature 2018 was awarded to Jenny Uglow for her ‘outstanding biography of a secretive genius’, Mr Lear. The award was presented on behalf of the Hawthornden Literary Retreat by Christopher Reid, chairman of the judges, at a reception at the London Library. The Hawthornden Prize rewards works of ‘imaginative literature’ whether prose…
Jenny Uglow
Cover Design: Mr Lear
We talked to Creative Director Donna Payne about the process of designing the cover art for Jenny Uglow’s beautiful Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense. A Jenny Uglow cover commission is always a delight, with the brief for Mr Lear no exception. When you think ‘Edward Lear’ it is more often his line work…
The home front during the Napoleonic Wars, by Jenny Uglow
‘Our Boy Tim Tooley who was supposed to have been gone to bed was not to be found … It is thought he is gone to Norwich to enlist himself, as his Head has long run on a Soldiers Life.’ James Woodforde, Norfolk, 1793 We know the thrilling, terrible stories of the battles of the…
The world of William Hogarth, by Jenny Uglow
With a new exhibition of William Hogarth’s work and Grayson Perry’s tapestries drawing comparisons with his illustrations, it seemed a good moment to speak to Jenny Uglow, author of his biography, Hogarth, about his remarkable life and times. Your biography of William Hogarth was published in 1997. What was it first drew you to his…
Jenny Uglow: A Gambling Man
A Gambling Man is acclaimed biographer Jenny Uglow’s portrait of Charles II and the first decade of the Restoration: a time of glamour and gossip, drama and risk, faction and crisis. Writing about a monarch is something of a change for her, as she explains below. What parallels can be drawn between the Restoration and…
