Ruth Scurr

Ruth Scurr FRSL
Alma mater	Oxford University; Cambridge University; Ecole Normale Supérieure
Employer	Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge
Notable work	Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (2006) John Aubrey: My Own Life (2015)
Spouse	Sir Peter Stothard (m. 2021)
Website	www.ruthscurr.co.uk

Dr Ruth Scurr FRSL, aka Lady Stothard, is a British writer, historian and literary critic. She is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.[1]

Education

Scurr was educated at St Bernard's Convent, Slough; Oxford University, Cambridge University and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris. She won a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2000.

Works

Scurr's first book, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (Chatto & Windus, 2006; Metropolitan Books, 2006),[2][3] won the Franco-British Society Literary Prize (2006),[4] was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize (2006), long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize (2007) and was listed among the 100 Best Books of the Decade in The Times in 2009.[5] It has been translated into five languages.

Her second book, John Aubrey: My Own Life (Chatto & Windus, 2015; New York Review of Books, 2016),[6] was shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Biography Award[7] and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Her third book, Napoleon: A Life in Gardens and Shadows (Chatto & Windus, 2021; Norton, 2021), was published to critical acclaim[8] on both sides of the Atlantic[9] to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's death. It won the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award for Biography (2022).[10]

Career

Scurr began reviewing regularly for The Times and The Times Literary Supplement in 1997.[11] Since then she has also written for The Daily Telegraph,[12] The Observer, New Statesman,[13] The London Review of Books,[14] The New York Review of Books, The Nation,[15] The New York Observer, The Guardian[16] and The Wall Street Journal.[17]

She was a judge on the Man Booker Prize panel in 2007, the Samuel Johnson Prize panel in 2014, and the Baillie Gifford Prize panel in 2023.[18][19][20] She is a member of the Folio Prize Academy.[21]

Scurr is Director of Studies in Human, Social and Political Sciences for Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she has been a Fellow since 2006. Her research interests include: 17th- and 18th-century history of ideas; biographical, autobiographical and life writing; the British and French Enlightenments; the French Revolution; Revolutionary Memoir; early Feminist Political Thought; and contemporary fiction in English.[22] Scurr is the Senior Treasurer of a Cambridge-based publication, Per Capita Media.[23][24]

Having served on the Council since 2020, Scurr became acting Chair of the council of the Royal Society of Literature in January, 2025.[25]

Bibliography

Books

• Scurr, Ruth (2006). Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution. London: Chatto & Windus.
• — (2015). John Aubrey: My Own Life. London: Chatto & Windus.
• — (2021). Napoleon: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows. London: Chatto & Windus.

Dissertations, theses

• Scurr, Ruth (2000). The social foundations of the modern republic : P.-L. Roederer's Cours d'organisation sociale (Ph.D.). University of Cambridge.

Critical studies and reviews

• Anon. (11 April 2015). "A man for all seasons". Books and Arts. The Economist. Vol. 415, no. 8933. pp. 74–75. Review of John Aubrey.

See also

• Maximilien Robespierre
• 2015 in literature

References

1. "Dr Ruth Scurr". Gonville & Cauis. February 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
2. Behr, Rafael (7 May 2006). "What a fully fledged head case". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
3. Gilmour, David (7 May 2006). "Liberty, Equality, Fratricide". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
4. "Literary Award". FRANCO-BRITISH SOCIETY. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
5. "The Times Online 100 Best Books of the Decade (2000-2009) (113 books)". www.goodreads.com. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
6. Lezard, Nicholas (5 April 2016). "John Aubrey: My Own Life by Ruth Scurr review – a 'diary' to rival Pepys's". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
7. "The Costa category shortlists 2015 – in pictures". the Guardian. 17 November 2015. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
8. "Simon Schama on Napoleon, the horticultural strategist". www.ft.com. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
9. Irmscher, Christoph (18 June 2021). "'Napoleon' Review: The General's Garden". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
10. |website=www.smh-hq.org/awards/books.html|
11. "Ruth Scurr | Search | TLS". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016.
12. "All articles by Ruth Scurr - journalisted.com". Archived from the original on 15 March 2014.
13. "NS Library - Ruth Scurr". Archived from the original on 21 November 2006.
14. "Ruth Scurr · LRB". lrb.co.uk. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
15. "Ruth Scurr". thenation.com. 2 April 2010. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
16. "Ruth Scurr". theguardian.com. Retrieved 24 June 2019.
17. Scurr, Ruth (7 March 2014). "Book Review: 'Whistler' by Daniel e. Sutherland". Wall Street Journal.
18. "Ruth Scurr | The Man Booker Prizes". Archived from the original on 22 September 2012.
19. "Ruth Scurr". The Times. 15 June 2007. Retrieved 30 December 2010.
20. "Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2007, BBC FOUR, The UK's most Prestigious non-fiction award , The UK's richest non-fiction prize". Archived from the original on 15 December 2007.
21. "The Rathbones Folio Prize | the Rathbones Folio Prize". Retrieved 19 December 2022.
22. "Dr Ruth Scurr | Gonville & Caius". www.cai.cam.ac.uk. Retrieved 30 January 2025.
23. "Per Capita Media". Retrieved 3 January 2024.
24. "Per Capita Media". Retrieved 10 January 2024.
25. Sanderson, David (18 January 2025). "Royal Society of Literature moves on from diversity and censorship row". www.thetimes.com. Retrieved 30 January 2025.

External links

• Official website