ROSE COLLIS
Born in Wimbledon and now living in West Sussex, Rose Collis is the author of a number of critically-acclaimed books, including:
- Colonel Barker's Monstrous Regiment: A Tale of Female Husbandry (Virago 2000 & 2001):
'Rose Collis has delved meticulously…and produced a remarkably gripping and, at times, quite hilarious story', Val Hennessy, Daily Mail
- A Trouser-Wearing Character: The Life and Times of Nancy Spain (Cassell 1997 & 1999):
'Delightfully readable, with an unusually vivid sense of the past and its personalities, she is a young biographer to watch', The Spectator
'A vigorous, warm, fluent biography of a vigorous, warm, fluent woman', Francis King, Literary Review
- Portraits To The Wall (Cassell 1994):
'An enlightening book - a useful tool for both committed historians and those with an idle interest in the affairs of the past', Time Out
Since 1985, her features, celebrity interviews and reviews on politics, literature, film, television, theatre and history have appeared in over 30 publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including: The Mail On Sunday, The Independent, The Times, The Bookseller, Time Out, City Limits, Diva, Gay Times and Tribune.
She was the writer and principal researcher for the Brighton Boozers exhibition at the Brighton Museum & Art Gallery Jan 11 2005-11 February 2006. Her book Brighton Boozers was published in summer 2005 and has been nominated for a 2006 Library Services Trust Alan Ball Local History Award.
In 2006, she has been writing and researching online content for The Icons Project, a national web project on British culture, commissioned by Culture Online, launched at the Globe Theatre on in January 2006 (http://www.icons.org.uk/).
Colonel Barker's Monstrous Regiment has recently been optioned for separate radio, stage and musical adaptations. She continues to work on her own screen adaptation of the book.
She is working on the biography That Effing Lady: The Life And Lines Of Coral Browne, for which she received the Society Of Authors, 2004 Michael Meyer Award for her research. She is also working in conjunction with Peter Quilter, Olivier Award-nominated writer of the West End hit Glorious!, who is writing a stage play about Coral Browne.
Other works-in-progress include Proof Of Identity, a full-length novel developed from her Necrologue short story of the same name, published in Necrologue: 3rd Diva Book Of Short Stories (Diva Books 2003), winner of the 2004 Lambda Award (US) for Best Sci-Fi/Mystery Anthology; and Necropolis, a wry social history of death in Brighton.
Occasionally, she gets some sleep.
Rose Collis is a member of the Society of Authors and English PEN.
rose.austincollis@btinternet.com
www.virago.co.uk/virago/meet/index.asp
