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Ann Wroe

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Not to be confused with Anne Roe.

Ann Wroe
FRSL
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
Occupation(s)Author and columnist
EmployerThe Economist
Notable workOrpheus: The Song of Life (2011); Six Facets of Light (2016)

Ann Wroe FRSL is an English author and columnist who has been the obituaries editor of The Economist since 2003.[1][2]

Education and career

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After taking a first-class degree in History, Wroe received a doctorate in medieval history from the University of Oxford in 1975.[3][4][5][6] After completing her university education, she worked at the BBC World Service covering French and Italian news.[7]

Wroe began working at The Economist, the weekly newspaper, in 1976. In her tenure she has held the position of Books and Arts editor, from 1988 to 1992, and US Editor, from 1992 to 2000.[1] Since 2003, Wroe has been the Obituaries editor at The Economist, which typically publishes one obituary in each print issue. Obituaries Wroe has written include subjects Hunter S. Thompson, Arthur Miller, Prince, Paul Newman, and Osama bin Laden.[8][9][10] Wroe also writes a column in The Economist's bi-monthly cultural magazine 1843 and has edited The Economist's style guide.[11]

A collection of obituaries written by Wroe and previous Obituaries editor Keith Colquhoun was published in 2008.[12]

Other writing

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Wroe has published several non-fiction books including biographies of Pontius Pilate, Percy Shelley, and Perkin Warbeck. Her biography of Pilate was shortlisted for the 1999 Samuel Johnson Prize.[13] Her 2011 book on the subject of the mythological figure of Orpheus, entitled Orpheus: The Song of Life, won the London Hellenic Prize (then called the Criticos Prize),[14] and was described by John Banville as "a book of wonders, learned, playful and passionate."[15] In 2016, her book Six Facets of Light, a collection of meditations on light as well as the observations of other writers and thinkers, was named a Spectator Book of the Year.[16] Wroe has also written book reviews for The Telegraph.[17][18] English author Hilary Mantel described Wroe as one of the "most underrated" contemporary writers.[19]

Wroe became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 2007.[20] She is also a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.[1]

Publications

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  • Lives, Lies, and the Iran-Contra Affair, I.B. Tauris (New York, NY), 1991[21]
  • A Fool and His Money: Life in a Partitioned Town in Fourteenth-Century France, Hill & Wang (New York, NY), 1995[22]
  • Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man, Vintage (London, England), 2000, also published as Pontius Pilate, Modern Library (New York, NY), 2000.[3]
  • Perkin: A Story of Deception, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2003, also published as The Perfect Prince: The Mystery of Perkin Warbeck and His Quest for the Throne of England, Random House (New York, NY), 2003[23]
  • Being Shelley: The Poet's Search for Himself, Pantheon Books (New York, NY), 2007[24]
  • The Economist Book of Obituaries (co-author with Keith Colquhoun), Profile (UK), 2008[25]
  • Orpheus: The Song of Life, Jonathan Cape (London), 2011
  • "Resolutions, Destinations: Shelley's Last Year" (book chapter) in The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley, eds. Michael O'Neill and Anthony Howe, Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2013[26]
  • Six Facets of Light, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2016[27]
  • Francis, A Life in Songs, Jonathan Cape (London, England), 2018[28]

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Ann Wroe". The Economist. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  2. ^ Vennard, Martin (7 April 2013). "How to write the perfect obituary". BBC World Service. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  3. ^ a b "Wroe, Ann (Contemporary Authors)". Encyclopedia.com. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  4. ^ "Ann Wroe". The Scotsman. 23 March 2003. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  5. ^ "Ann Wroe". Penguin Random House. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  6. ^ "Ann Wroe". The Economist. Retrieved 31 August 2021.
  7. ^ Plowright, Piers (12 July 2007). "A passion for human chaos". Camden New Journal. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  8. ^ "Obit Writing: Getting to the Heart of Things". NPR. 4 January 2008. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  9. ^ Mitchell, Charlotte (11 October 2017). "Capturing the essence: The art of the obituary". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  10. ^ Coletta, Amanda (5 June 2017). "The art of writing an obituary". The Economist. Medium. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  11. ^ Wroe, Ann (1 June 2018). "Why keeping The Economist's style guide up to date is a battle". The Economist. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  12. ^ Howard, Michael (26 November 2008). "The power of the evasive word". The Spectator. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  13. ^ "Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man | The Baillie Gifford Prize for Non-Fiction". The Baillie Gifford Prize. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  14. ^ "The 2011 Prize". London Hellenic Prize. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  15. ^ Banville, John (29 July 2011). "Orpheus: The Song of Life by Ann Wroe – review". The Guardian.
  16. ^ "The best and worst books of 2016, chosen by some of our regular contributors". The Spectator. 12 November 2016. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  17. ^ Wroe, Ann (17 November 2003). "Born into a world of ghosts". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  18. ^ Wroe, Ann (22 December 2001). "Quite contrary". The Telegraph. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  19. ^ "The TLS Interview: Twenty Questions with Hilary Mantel". The Times Literary Supplement. 30 September 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  20. ^ "Royal Society of Literature » Ann Wroe". The Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  21. ^ "Lives, Lies and the Iran-Contra Affair". Bloomsbury. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  22. ^ "A Fool and His Money by Ann Wroe". Kirkus Reviews. 15 September 1995. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  23. ^ "Books by Economist writers in 2004: Write books". The Economist. 25 November 2004. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  24. ^ Kirsch, Adam (20 August 2007). "Avenging Angel: Inside Shelley's Manichaean mind". The New Yorker. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  25. ^ Colqhoun, Keith; Wroe, Ann (2008). The Economist Book of Obituaries. Profile Books Limited. ISBN 9781846681073.
  26. ^ Callaghan, Madeleine (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Percy Bysshe Shelley. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780199558360. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  27. ^ Hughes, Kathryn (16 April 2016). "Six Facets of Light by Ann Wroe review – a mesmerising hybrid of biography, memoir and nature writing". The Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
  28. ^ Maltby, Kate (7 December 2018). "Francis by Ann Wroe — the rhythms of the saint". Financial Times. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
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