Dame Marina Warner CH DBE FRSL FBA
Warner in 2017
Born	Marina Sarah Warner (1946-11-09)9 November 1946 (age 79) Paddington,Middlesex, England
Occupation	Historian,mythographer, novelist, lecturer, professor
Alma mater	Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Notable awards	Mythopoeic Award Rose Mary Crawshay Prize National Book Critics Circle Award (Criticism) Holberg Prize British Academy Medal
Spouse	William Shawcross ​ ​ (m. 1971; div. 1980)​ Johnny Dewe Mathews ​ ​ (m. 1981; div. 1997)​ Graeme Segal
Website
marinawarner.com

Dame Marina Sarah Warner (born 9 November 1946) is an English historian,mythographer, art critic, novelist and short story writer. She is known for her many non-fiction books relating tofeminism and myth. She has written for many publications, includingThe London Review of Books, theNew Statesman,Sunday Times, andVogue.^[1] She has been a visiting professor, given lectures and taught on the faculties of many universities.^[2]

She resigned from her position as professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at theUniversity of Essex in 2014, sharply criticising moves towards "for-profit business model" universities in the UK,^[3][4][5] and is now Professor of English and Creative Writing atBirkbeck, University of London.^[6] In 2017, she was elected president of theRoyal Society of Literature (RSL), the first time the role has been held by a woman since the founding of the RSL in 1820.^[7][8][9] She has been a Distinguished Fellow ofAll Souls College, Oxford, since 2019.^[10]

In 2015, having received theHolberg Prize, Warner used the award to start the Stories in Transit project, a series of workshops bringing international artists, writers and other creatives together with young migrants living inPalermo, Sicily.^[11][12]

Warner is a member of the editorial advisory board of the website EXPeditions.^[13]

Marina Warner was born in London to an English father, Esmond Warner (died 1982), and Ilia (née Emilia Terzulli, died 2008), an Italian whom he had met during the Second World War inBari,Apulia.^[14] Her paternal grandfather was the cricketer SirPelham Warner.^[15] She has one sister, Laura Gascoigne, who is an art critic.

Marina was brought up initially inCairo, where her father ran a bookshop, until it was set on fire duringattacks on foreign businesses in January 1952, a precursor to theEgyptian revolution.^[14] The family then moved toBrussels and toCambridge andBerkshire, England, where Marina studied atSt Mary's School, Ascot. She studied French and Italian atLady Margaret Hall, Oxford.^[16] While at Oxford she was the editor ofThe Isis magazine (published byRobert Maxwell).^[17]

In 1971, she marriedWilliam Shawcross, with whom she has a son, the sculptorConrad.^[18] The couple divorced in 1980.^[19] She was married to the painter Johnny Dewe Mathews from 1981 to 1997.^[20] Her third husband is mathematicianGraeme Segal.^[14]

Warner has been identified as the "lady writer" of theDire Straits song "Lady Writer" (1979), whom the singer sees on television "talking about the Virgin Mary" and who reminds him of his former lover.^[21]

Warner began her career as astaff writer forThe Daily Telegraph, before working asVogue's features editor from 1969 until 1972.^[12]

Her first book wasThe Dragon Empress: The Life and Times ofTz'u-hsi, Empress Dowager of China, 1835–1908 (1972), followed by the controversialAlone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976), a provocative study of Roman Catholicveneration of the Virgin Mary. These were followed byJoan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (1981) andMonuments & Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (1985).^[22]

Warner's novelThe Lost Father was on theBooker Prize shortlist in 1988. Her non-fiction bookFrom the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers won aMythopoeic Award in 1996. The companion study of the male terror figure (from ancient myth and folklore to modern obsessions),No Go the Bogeyman: On Scaring, Lulling, and Making Mock, was published in October 1998 and won theBritish Academy'sRose Mary Crawshay Prize in 2000. Warner's other novels includeThe Leto Bundle (2001) andIndigo (1992).^[16] Her bookPhantasmagoria (2006) traces the ways in which "the spirit" has been represented across different mediums, from waxworks to cinema.

In December 2012, she presented a programme onBBC Radio Four about theBrothers Grimm. She was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature in 1984.^[23] In 1994 she became only the second woman to deliver the BBC'sReith Lectures, published asManaging Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time, in which she gave an analysis of the workings ofmyth in contemporary society, with emphasis on politics and entertainment.^[24]

Warner received anhonorary doctorate (DLitt) from theUniversity of Oxford on 21 June 2006, and also holds honorary degrees from the universities ofExeter (1995),York (1997) andSt Andrews (1998), and honorary doctorates fromSheffield Hallam University (1995), theUniversity of North London (1997), theTavistock Institute (University of East London; 1999), Oxford University (2002), theRoyal College of Art (2004),University of Kent (2005), theUniversity of Leicester (2006), andKing's College London (2009).^[16][25]

She was appointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the2008 Queen's Birthday Honours for services to literature.^[26]

She was a professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at theUniversity of Essex from 2004 until her resignation in 2014.^[27] She took up a chair in English and Creative Writing atBirkbeck College, University of London, in September 2014. She is a quondam fellow ofAll Souls College, Oxford, and was chair of the judges of theMan Booker International Prize 2015.^[28]

Warner was appointedDame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the2015 New Year Honours for services to higher education and literary scholarship.^[29][30]

In 2015–16, she was theWeidenfeld Visiting Professor of EuropeanComparative Literature inSt Anne's College, Oxford, part of theHumanitas Programme.^[31]

In March 2017, Warner was elected as the 19th—and first female—president of theRoyal Society of Literature (RSL), succeedingColin Thubron in the post.^[8] On Warner's retirement from the role at the end of 2021,Bernardine Evaristo became the new president,^[32] with Warner subsequently becoming RSL President Emerita.^[33]

In 2019, Warner chaired the judges of theOCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.^[34][35]

She was appointedMember of the Order of the Companions of Honour (CH) in the2022 Birthday Honours for services to the humanities.^[36]

Warner is a member of the editorial advisory board of the website EXPeditions.^[13]

• 1984: Elected Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature^[37]
• 1986:Fawcett Society Book Prize forMonuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form
• 1988:Booker Prize for Fiction (shortlist) forThe Lost Father^[38]
• 1988:PEN/Macmillan Silver Pen Award forThe Lost Father^[39]
• 1989:Commonwealth Writers Prize (Eurasia Region, Best Book) forThe Lost Father^[40]
• 1996:Mythopoeic Award forFrom the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers
• 1999:Katharine Briggs Folklore Award forNo Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock
• 2000:Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (France)^[40]
• 2000:Rose Mary Crawshay Prize for English Literature forNo Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock
• 2005: Commendatore dell'Ordine della Stella di Solidarieta (Italy)^[40]
• 2005: Elected Fellow of theBritish Academy
• 2008: AppointedCommander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
• 2012:National Book Critics Circle Award (Criticism) forStranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights^[41][42]
• 2013:Truman Capote Award for Literary Criticism forStranger Magic^[40]
• 2013:Sheikh Zayed Book Award for Arab Culture in Non-Arabic Languages forStranger Magic^[43][44]
• 2013:All Souls College, Oxford Two-Year Fellowship
• 2013:Mansfield College, Oxford, Honorary Fellow
• 2013:St Cross College, Oxford, Honorary Fellow
• 2015:Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE), for services to higher education and literary scholarship
• 2015:Holberg Prize, for "her work on the analysis of stories and myths and how they reflect their time and place"^[45]
• 2017–2021: Elected president of theRoyal Society of Literature
• 2017:British Academy Medal "for lifetime achievement"^[46]
• 2017:World Fantasy Award "for lifetime achievement"^[47]
• 2022:Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour, for services to the humanities.^[36]

• The Dragon Empress: Life and Times of Tz'u-hsi 1835–1908 (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1972)
• Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976)ISBN 0-330-28771-0
• In a Dark Wood (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977)
• Queen Victoria Sketch Book (Macmillan, 1979)
• The Crack in the Tea-Cup: Britain in the 20th Century (André Deutsch, 1979)
• Joan of Arc: The Image of Female Heroism (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1981)
• The Impossible Day (Methuen, 1981)
• The Impossible Night (Methuen, 1981)
• The Impossible Bath (Methuen, 1982)
• The Impossible Rocket (Methuen, 1982)
• The Skating Party (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1982)
• The Wobbly Tooth (André Deutsch, 1984)
• Monuments and Maidens: The Allegory of the Female Form (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1985)
• The Lost Father (Chatto & Windus, 1988)
• Into the Dangerous World (Chatto & Windus, 1989)
• Imagining a Democratic Culture (Charter 88, 1991)
• Indigo (Chatto & Windus, 1992)
• L'Atalante (British Film Institute, 1993)
• Mermaids in the Basement (Chatto & Windus, 1993)
• Richard Wentworth (Thames & Hudson, 1993)
• From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers (Chatto & Windus, 1994)
• Managing Monsters: Six Myths of Our Time (Reith Lectures) (Vintage, 1994)
• Wonder Tales: Six Stories of Enchantment (editor) (Chatto & Windus, 1994)
• Six Myths Of Our Time: Little Angels, Little Monsters, Beautiful Beasts, and More (New York:Vintage, 1995)
• Donkey Business Donkey Work: Magic and Metamorphoses in Contemporary Opera (University of Wales, 1996)
• The Inner Eye: Art beyond the Visible (National Touring Exhibitions, 1996)
• No Go the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling and Making Mock (Chatto & Windus, 1998)
• The Leto Bundle (Chatto & Windus, 2001) Long listed for the Man Booker Prize.
• Fantastic Metamorphoses, Other Worlds (Oxford University Press, 2002)
• Murderers I Have Known and Other Stories (Chatto & Windus, 2002)
• Collected Poems bySally Purcell – preface (Anvil, 2002)
• Signs & Wonders: Essays on Literature and Culture (Chatto & Windus, 2003)
• Phantasmagoria (Oxford University Press, 2006)
• Stranger Magic: Charmed States & The Arabian Nights (Chatto & Windus, 2011)
• Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale (Oxford University Press, 2014)
• Fly Away Home (Salt Publishing, 2015)
• Fairy Tale: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2018)
• Forms of Enchantment: Writings on Art and Artists (Thames & Hudson, 2018)
• Inventory of a Life Mislaid: An Unreliable Memoir (Collins, 2021)
• Helen Chadwick: The Oval Court (Afterall Books, 2022)
• Temporale (Sylph Editions, 2023)
• Sanctuary: Ways of Telling, Ways of Dwelling (William Collins, 2025)

Wikiquote has quotations related toMarina Warner.

• Official website
• Stanford Presidential Lecture by Warner (excerpts)
• Managing Monsters, 1994 Reith Lectures atBBC4 (audio)
• Marina Warner as contributor toThe Guardian
• Elizabeth Dearner,"Interview with Marina Warner",The White Review, July 2013.
• Leo Robson,"Marina Warner: 'I've always found it very hard to know what I’m like'",The New Statesman, 5 July 2021.

• Marina Warner atLibrary of Congress, with 59 library catalogue records
• Marina Warner onEXPeditions – The Living Library of Knowledge

• 1946 births
• 20th-century English short story writers
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