Peter Parker | |
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 Parker in 2019 | |
| Born | Peter Robert Nevill Parker (1954-06-02)2 June 1954 (age 70) Herefordshire, England |
| Occupation |
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| Education | English Literature,University College, London |
| Period | 1980–present |
| Genre | Biography, history, gardening, architecture, non-fiction |
| Website | |
| www | |
Peter Parker (born 2 June 1954) is a British biographer, historian, journalist and editor.[1] He was elected a Fellow of theRoyal Society of Literature in 1997.[2]
Parker was born to Edward Parker and Patricia Sturridge[3] on 2 June 1954 inHerefordshire in theWest Midlands of England. He attended theDowns Malvern inColwall andCanford School inDorset, and readEnglish literature atUniversity College London. He began a career inliterary journalism while working in the Design Centre's bookshop in the 1980s, contributing regular book reviews toGay News andThe London Magazine. He published a number of short stories inThe London Magazine,Fiction,Critical Quarterly and three PEN/Arts Council anthologies.
Parker subsequently turned to writing non-fiction, and his first book,The Old Lie: The Great War and the Public-School Ethos[4][5] was published byConstable in 1987. A paperback edition, with a new introduction, was published byBloomsbury in 2007.[6][7]
Parker's second bookAckerley: The Life of J. R. Ackerley was also published by Constable in the UK in 1989[8] and byFarrar, Straus and Giroux inAmerica.[9][10][11][12]
He edited (and wrote much of) two literary encyclopaedias:A Reader's Guide to the Twentieth-Century Novel[13][14] published in the UK by Fourth Estate and Helicon in 1994[15] and in America byOxford University Press in 1995, andA Reader's Guide to Twentieth-Century Writers[16] published in the UK by Fourth Estate and Helicon in 1995[15][17] and in America byOxford University Press in 1996.
Parker then wrote the "definitive" biography ofChristopher Isherwood. The book was published in 2004, on thecentenary of Isherwood's birth, by PanMacmillan in the UK under the titleIsherwood[18] and byRandom House in America under the titleIsherwood: A Life Revealed.[19]David Thomson, inThe New Republic described it as, "Immense and magnificent …A Life Revealed is a modest subtitle for such a daunting process of reconstruction and re-appraisal."[20]
The Last Veteran: Harry Patch and the Legacy of War[21] was published byFourth Estate onArmistice Day in 2009.Simon Heffer inThe Daily Telegraph wrote, "A fine work of research and of history. Parker tells the story of how the War came to an end and how the aftermath was coped with."[22]
Parker'sHousman Country: Into the Heart of England, is cultural history ofA Shropshire Lad, was published byLittle, Brown in 2016.[23][24] It was among theFinancial Times',The Spectator's, theEvening Standard's andThe Sunday Times' Best Books of 2016. The book was published in the US in 2017 byFarrar, Straus and Giroux[23][25] and was aThe New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice and nominated for the 2017PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography.[26]
Parker wrote a discursive account of the history and origins of plant names in his bookA Little Book of Latin for Gardeners[27] published byLittle, Brown in 2018.[28][29]
Parker has editedSome Men in London: Queer Life, 1945–1969[30], a major anthology which uncovers the rich reality of life for queer men in London.[31] The book, published byPenguin Classics, is divided in two volumes, 1945–1959 and 1960–1967 respectively.Matthew Parris, writing for theSpectator, described it as 'quite simply, a work of genius.'[32] The anthology wasThe Times and The Sunday Times History Book of the Year 2024.[33]
Parker was an associate editor of theOxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004) and remains an advisory editor for the regular updates to the project.
Among the books to which Parker has contributed areScribner'sBritish Writers (onL. P. Hartley, 2002), the seventh edition ofThe Oxford Companion to English Literature (2009),[34]Fifty Gay and Lesbian Books Everybody Must Read (2009)[35] andBritten's Century, published in 2013 to mark the centenary of the composerBenjamin Britten.[36] His edition ofG. F. Green's 1952 novelIn the Making was published as aPenguin Modern Classic in 2012,[37] and in 2016 he wrote an introduction to theSlightly Foxed edition of Diana Petre's 1975 memoirThe Secret Orchard of Roger Ackerley.[38] A full-length animated feature film of J. R. Ackerley's bookMy Dog Tulip, for which he collaborated on the script and acted as advisor to the producers, was released in 2010.[39]
Parker was a member of the executive committee ofEnglish PEN from 1993 to 1997 and a trustee of the PEN Literary Foundation, acting as chair from 1999 to 2000.[40] He was on the committee of theLondon Library from 1999 to 2002, subsequently becoming a trustee (2004–07); chair of theRoyal Horticultural Society'sLindley Library Advisory Committee (2009–2013); and vice-chair of the Council of theRoyal Society of Literature (2008–14).[2] From 2014 until 2017 he was a visiting fellow in the School of Arts at theUniversity of Northampton.
Since 1979 Parker has been a frequent contributor of reviews and features to numerous newspapers and magazines, includingThe Listener,The Independent,The Daily Telegraph,[41]The Sunday Times,[42]The Spectator,[43]The Times Literary Supplement,[44] theNew Statesman,[45]The Oldie,Slightly Foxed,[46]Apollo[47] and the gardening quarterlyHortus.[48][49] He was on the editorial board of theLondon Library Magazine[50][51] (2008–2019) while he continues to serve on the editorial board ofRIBA'sA Magazine.[52][53] Since 1990 he has been one of the judges of the annualAckerley Prize for literary autobiography, becoming chair in 2007,[40] and he was for several years one of the judges of theEncore Award for a second novel.
a readers guide to 20th century novel peter parker.
isherwood peter parker review.
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