Saturday, September 5, 2009

My hero / Oscar Wilde by Michael Holroyd




My hero: 

Oscar Wilde by Michael Holroyd 


The Guardian, Saturday 5 September 2009




Hand-coloured photograph of Wilde circa 1890. Photograph: Roger Viollet

I first came to Oscar Wilde through reading his Life by Hesketh Pearson. This enthralling biography was first published in 1946, and I read it a few years later when I was in my early teens. It was less the tragedy of Wilde's last years that gripped me than the wit and humanity of the man, his generosity of spirit and radical ideas. 

I lived most of my early years with my grandparents. The atmosphere was one of eccentric conventionality. Wilde's startling paradoxes ("Work is the curse of the drinking classes") turned upside down the unthinking clichés I used to hear. The man who claimed that "a map of the world that does not include Utopia is not worth even glancing at" changed my view of the world. Wilde made me laugh, made me think and revealed to me the seriousness of imaginative humour. 

What I came to value was the charming way he arrived at deeply unpopular opinions. He upset much of what I had been encouraged to take for granted. I found myself warming to his revolutionary assault on the dictatorship of a political democracy which depended on that "monstrous and ignorant thing called Public Opinion". He was an extraordinarily brave writer. "One is absolutely sickened," he wrote in The Soul of Man Under Socialism, "not by the crimes that the wicked have committed, but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." I think of that whenever I hear the phrase "brought to justice" glibly used in the media. 

Wilde's epigrams and ideas float through all his work – his plays, fiction and essays. "Every great man has his disciples and it is always Judas who writes the biography," he said. And perhaps that was no bad thing while a Damocles sword of respectability hung, as Carlyle complained, over the poor English life-writer. Perhaps, too, Wilde had a more lasting influence on me than I realised. "To arrive at what one really believes," he wrote in The Critic as Artist, "one must speak through lips different from one's own." This is no less true for a biographer than for a playwright. 


THE GUARDIAN





2009
001 My hero / Oscar Wilde by Michael Holroyd
002 My hero / Harley Granville-Barker by Richard Eyre
003 My hero / Edward Goldsmith by Zac Goldsmith
004 My hero / Fridtjof Nansen by Sara Wheeler 
005 My hero / Mother Mercedes Lawler IBVM by Antonia Fraser
007 My hero / Ernest Shepard by Richard Holmes
008 My hero / JG Ballard by Will Self
009 My hero / Alan Ross by William Boyd
010 My hero / Ben the labrador by John Banville
011 My hero / Vicent van Gogh by Margaret Drabble
012 My hero / Franz Marek by Eric Hobsbawm

2010

017 My hero / Jack Yeats by Colm Tóibín
018 My hero / Francisco Goya by Diana Athill
019 My hero / Max Stafford-Clark by Sebastian Barry
020 My hero / Arthur Holmes by Richard Fortey

041 My hero / David Lynch by Paul Murray / Quotes
 042 My hero / Edwin Morgan by Robert Crawford
043 My hero / Anne Lister by Emma Donoghue
044 My hero / Jane Helen Harrinson by Mary Beard
045 My hero / Edmund Burke by David Marquand
046 My hero / Shelagh Deleaney by Jeanette Winterson
047 My hero / Christopher Marlowe by Val McDermid
048 My hero / Gwen John by Anne Enright
049 My hero / Michael Mayne by Susan Hill
050 My hero / Stanley Spencer by Howard Jacobson

051 My hero / William Beveridge by Will Hutton
052 My hero / Jean McConville by Amanda Foreman
053 My hero / Alexander Pushkin by Elaine Feinstein
054 My hero / Michael de Montaigne by Liyun Li
055 My hero / Michael Donaghy by Maggie O'Farrell
056 My hero / Richmal Crompton by Louise Crompton
057 My hero / Edward Thomas by David Constantine
058 My hero / Cy Twombly by Edmund de Waal
059 My hero / Sefton by Jilly Cooper

2011
060 My hero / Kate Bush by David Michell
061 My hero / Irom Chanu Sharmila by Kishwar Desai
062 My hero / John Gross by Victoria Glendinning
063 My hero / Constance Garnett by Edna O'Brien
064 My hero / The BBC World Service by Jeremy Paxman
065 My hero / Friedrich Nietzsche by Geoff Dyer
066 My hero / John Titchell RA by Tim Binding
067 My hero / Fast Waller by Michael Longley
068 My hero / Alfred Russell Wallace by Tim Flannery
069 My hero / Ivan Turgenev by Hisham Matar
070 My hero / Michael Jordan by Benjamin Markovitz

071 My hero / Ernest Lubitsch by Adam Thirlwell
072 My hero / Simone Veil by Mary Darrieussecq
073 My hero / John le Carré by Carlos Ruiz Safón
074 My hero / Janusz Korczak by Eva Hoffman
075 My hero / George Eliot by Lisa Appignanesi
076 My hero / John Cooke by Geoffrey Robertson (24 April)
077 My hero / Aung San by Aung San Suu Kyi
078 My hero / Charles James Fox by Stella Tillyard
079 My hero / Gene Wolfe by Neil Gaiman
080 My hero / Bertold Brecht Michael Hoffmann

081 My hero / Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain by Tahmima Anam
082 My hero / Emily Dickinson by Helen Oyeyemi
082 My hero / Stefan Obreht by Téa Obreht
084 My heros / John Berger, Gordon Banks and Sean McCann by Colum Mc Cann
085 My hero / Tony Benn by Jad Adams
086 Martina Navratilova by Patrick Ness
087 My hero / Alberto Moravia by John Burnside
088 Stanley Kubrick by Tom Rob Smith
089 Björk by Joe Dunthorne
090 James Joyce by Carol Birch

091 Paul Klee by Philip Hensher
092 John Boyd Orr by Alasdair Gray
093 Edmund Penning-Rowsell by Jancis Robinson
094 Amos Almond by David Almond
095 My hero / Les Murray by Daljit Nagra (2 september)
096 My hero / Isaac Babel by AD Miller
097 My hero / Lucian Freud by Esi Edugyan
098 Joan Maynard by Chris Mullin
099 Flann O'Brien by Ian Sansom
100 My hero / Thomas Tranströmer by Robin Robertson

101 My hero / Maureen Kelman by Stephen Kelman
102 My hero / David Hockney by Susan Hill
103 My hero / KM Peyton by Meg Rosoff
104 My hero / Ernest Shaskleton by Anthony Horowitz
105 My hero / Alan Turing by Alan Garner
106 My hero / Audre Lorde by Jackie Kay
107 My hero / WG Hoskins by Penelope Lively
108 My hero / Primo Levi by Siddartha Mukherjee
109 My hero / Christopher Logue by Craig Raine
110 My hero / Russell Hoban by Will Self
111 My hero / Arnold Lobell by Julia Donaldson (23 December)
112 My hero / Peter Scott by Louisa Yong  (30 December)

2012 (PAGE 9)
113 My hero / Ronald Searle by Quentin Blake (6 January)
114 My hero / Patrick Hamilton by Eoin Colfer (13 February)
115 My hero / Evariste Galois by Andrew Miller (20 January)
115 My hero / Nadime Gordimer by Tessa Hadley (27 January)
117 My hero / Charles Dickens by Simon Callow (4 February)
118 My hero / Jarvis Cooker by Jon McGregor (10 February)
119 My hero / Michael Ondaatje by Teju Cole (17 February)

121 My hero / Thomas Paine by Sue Townsend (2 March)
122 My hero / Raphael Lemkin by AL Kennedy (9 March)
123 My hero / Armistead Maupin by Patrick Gale (16 March)
124 My hero / Stephen Haff by Peter Carey (23 March)
125 My hero / Sigmund Freud by John Gray (30 March)
126 My hero / Adrienne Rich by Ensler (6 April)
127 My hero / John Keats by Andrew Motin (Kiss) (13 April)
128 My hero / George Eliot by Cynthia Ozick (20 April)
129 My hero / Walter Benjamin by Elif Shafak (27 April)
130 My hero / Edward St Aubyn by Ann Patchett (8 May)

131 My hero / Maurice Sendak by Neil Gaiman (11 May)
132 My hero / Carlos Fuentes by Alberto Manguel and Liz Calder (18 May)

(PAGE 8)
133 My hero / Dag Hammarskjöld by Timothy Mo (25 May)
134 My hero / Homer by Madeline Miller (1 June)
135 My hero / Robert Louis Stevenson by Ian Rankin (8 June)
136 My hero / Yannis Ritsos by David Harsent (15 June)
137 My hero / Thomas Merton by Nicole Barker (22 June)
138 My hero / Nora Ephron by Elaine Showalter (29 June)
139 My hero / Mandy Colleran by Jake Arnott (6 July)
140 My hero / Janice Gallowayn on Kenneth Hetherington (13 July)

141 My hero / Natayantara Sahgal by Hari Kunzru (20 July)
142 My hero / Usain Bolt by Ian Thomson (27 July)
143 My hero / Maeve Binchy by Marian Keyes (3 August)
144 My hero / Charlie Kaufman by Ned Beauman (17 August)
145 My hero / Paula Rego by Marina Warner (24 August)
146 My hero / Roald Dahl by Michael Rosen (31 August)
147 My hero / Joyce Carol Oates by Rose Tremain (7 September)
148 My hero / Saki by Naomi Alderman (14 September)
149 My hero / Lee Miller by Deborah Levy (21 September)
150 My hero / Nicholas Mosley on Fr Raymond Raynes (28 September)

151 My hero / Kurt Voneggut by Alison Moore (5 October)
152 My hero / Mo Yan by Howard Goldblatt (12 October)

(PAGE 7) 
153 My hero / Patrick Leig Fermor by Artemis Cooper (19 October)
154 My hero / Thomas Stamford Raffles by Victoria Glendinning (26 October)
155 My hero / Dorothy Hartley by Lucy Worsley (2 November)
156 My hero / Barack Obama by Lorrie Moore (8 November)
157 My hero / Beryl Markham by Maggie Shipstead (16 November)
158 My hero / Charles Howard Bury by Wade Davis (23 November)
159 My hero / Larry Levis by Kevin Powers (30 November)
160 My hero / Charles Baudelaire by Roberto Calasso (7 December)

161 My hero / Ravi Shankar by Amit Chaudhuri (12 December)

2013
162 My hero / Dennis O'Driscoll by Seamus Heaney (3 January)
163 My hero / My hero: Caitlin Moran by Annabel Pitcher (11 January)
164 My hero / My hero: George Orwell by Margaret Atwood (18 January)
165 My hero / Robert Burns by Liz Lockhead (25 January)
166 My hero / William Cowper by Alexandra Harris (1 February)
167 My hero / Oliver Sacks by Hilary Mantel ((February)
168 My hero / Agatha Christie by Sophia Hanah (15 February)

170 My hero / Betty Friedan by Lionel Shriver (1 March)
171 William Cobbett by Richard Ingrams (8 March)
172 Noam Chomsky by Charles Glass (15 March)

(PAGE 6)
173 My hero / Philip Roth by James Wood (22 March)
174 My hero / Alice Munro by Nell Freudenberger (29 March)
175 Maurice Druon by George RR Martin (5 April) 
176 My hero / Mae West by Kathy Lette (12 April)
177 My hero / Marie Colvin by Lindsey Hilsum (20 April)
178 My hero / Félix Nadar by Richard Holmes (26 April)
179 My hero / Ellsworth Kelly by AM Homes (3 May)
180 My hero/ Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz by Lee Smolin (10 May)

181 My hero / Lydia Davis by Ali Smith (24 May)
182 My hero: Emily Wilding Davison by Val McDermid  (31 May)
183 My hero / Judith Kerr by Michael Rosen (7 June)
184 My hero / Louise Bourgeois by Tracey Emin (28 June)


185 My hero / Albert Camus by David Constantine (5 July)
186 My hero / Andy Murray by Geoff Dyer (12 July)
187 My hero / Roddy Doyle by Kerry Hudson (19 July)
188 My hero / Bradley Manny by Chase Madar (1 August)
189 My hero: Rudy Hartono by Tash Aw (9 Augus)
190 My hero / Iris Murdoch by Charlotte Mendelson (16 August)

191 My hero: Elmore Leonard by Philip Hensher (23 August)
192 My hero: Nora Ephron by Gill Hornby (30 August)

(PAGE 5)
193 My hero / Gordon Burn by David Peace (7 September)
194 My hero / René Descartes by James Kelman (13 September)
195 My hero: Wilkie Collins by Andrew Lycett (21 September)
196 My hero: Kofi Awoonor by Nii Parkes (28 September)
197 My hero Fanny Trollope by Lucy Ellmann (5 October)
198 My hero / Asterix by Tom Holland (25 October)
199 My hero / Albert Camus by Geoff Dyer (1 November)
200 My hero: Giacomo Matteotti by Lucy Hughes-Hallett (8 November)

201 My hero / John Tavener by Steven Isserlis (15 Nov) 
202 My heroes / CS Lewis by Laura Miller and Aldoux Huxley and Nicholas Murray (22 November)
203 My hero / Doris Lessing by Margaret Drabble (23 November)
204 My hero / Mr Badger by Patrick Barkham (6 Dec)
205 My hero / John "Araucaria" Graham by Sandy Balfour (21 December)

2014
206 My hero / Sir John Tenniel by Chris Riddell (11 Jan)


(PAGE 4)



(PAGE 3)

245 My hero / Geoffrey Chaucer by Lavinie Greenlan (21 November)

2015
250 My hero John Bayley by Richard Eyre (22 January)
2016


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