Iain Pears
Iain Pears at the 2015Edinburgh International Book Festival
Born	8 August 1955 Coventry, England
Nationality	British
Alma mater	Wadham College, Oxford,Wolfson College, Oxford
Occupations	Author Art Historian Journalist
Spouse	Ruth Harris
Children	2

Iain George Pears (born 8 August 1955^[1]) is an Englishart historian,novelist and journalist.^[2][3]

Pears was born on 8 August 1955 in Coventry, England. He was educated atWarwick School, an all-boyspublic school inWarwick. He studied atWadham College, Oxford, graduating with aBachelor of Arts (BA) degree, and atWolfson College, Oxford, graduating with aDoctor of Philosophy (DPhil) degree.^[1][4]

In 1985, Pears marriedRuth Harris, a historian and academic.^[1] Together they have two sons.^[1] He currently lives with his wife and children in Oxford.

Before writing, he worked as a reporter for the BBC, Channel 4 (UK) and ZDF (Germany) and correspondent forReuters from 1982 to 1990 in Italy, France, UK and US. In 1987 he became a Getty Fellow in the Arts and Humanities atYale University.

Pears first came to international prominence with his best selling bookAn Instance of the Fingerpost (1997), which was translated into several languages. He is known for experimenting with different narrative structures, presenting four consecutive versions of the same events inAn Instance of the Fingerpost, three stories interleaved inThe Dream of Scipio (2002), three stories told in reverse chronological order inStone's Fall (2009), and allowing the reader to switch between multiple narratives in the electronic book version ofArcadia (2015).^[5] He has also written a novel series featuring Jonathan Argyll, art historian.

This series presents detective art historian Jonathan Argyll who works with two members of the (fictitious) Italian Art Squad: Flavia di Stefano (deputy) and General Bottando (head of the squad).Pears published seven books in the series:

• The Raphael Affair (1991)
• The Titian Committee (1992)
• The Bernini Bust (1993)
• The Last Judgement (1994)
• Giotto's Hand (1995)
• Death and Restoration (1996)
• The Immaculate Deception (2000)

• An Instance of the Fingerpost (1997)
• The Dream of Scipio (2002)
• The Portrait (2005)
• Stone's Fall (2009)
• Arcadia (2015)

• The Discovery of Painting (1989)

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