Frances Spalding

Frances Spalding is the Professor of Art History at Newcastle University. She has published fifteen books, including biographies of Roger Fry (1980), Vanessa Bell (1983), Stevie Smith (1988), and Duncan Grant (1997). Her most recent publication is John Piper, Myfanwy Piuper: Lives in Art (2009). In 2010 she delivered the Seymour Biography Lecture. We published this paper, titled ‘The Biographer’s Contract’, in the February 2011 issue.

Frances Spalding reviews 'Romantic Moderns: English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper' by Alexandra Harris

June 2011, no. 332 • 24 May 2011

Romantic Moderns,like this year’s wisteria in England, is catching the attention of many. Both are very English phenomena; and while Oxbridge colleges and London’s residential streets drip purple blossom, this new title has won the Guardian newspaper’s first book award and been shortlisted for two other eminent prizes. Public interest has been further stimulated by word of mouth, while excel ... (read more)

'The Biographer's Contract' by Frances Spalding | 2010 Seymour Biography Lecture

February 2011, no. 328 • 06 May 2011

This is an edited version of the 2010 Seymour Biography Lecture, which Professor Spalding delivered in Canberra on 16 September 2010. The Seymour Lecture is supported by John and Heather Seymour, the National Library of Australia, and Australian Book Review. The business of authoring another person’s life is problematic and potentially dangerous. You need to be brave to write biography. ... (read more)