Rupert Christiansen

Rupert Christiansen (born 1954) is an English writer, journalist and critic.

Life and career

Born in London, Christiansen is the grandson of Arthur Christiansen (editor of the Daily Express) and son of Kay and Michael Christiansen (editor of the Sunday and Daily Mirror). He was educated at Millfield and King's College, Cambridge, where he took a double first in English. As a Fulbright scholar, he also attended Columbia University from 1977 to 1978.

He has written a number of books, winning the Somerset Maugham Award in 1988 for Romantic Affinities.[1] His memoir I Know you're Going to be Happy won the Spear's Memoir of the Year prize in 2013.[2]

He has also written for many British and American newspapers and periodicals, including The Spectator, Harper's and Queen, Vanity Fair, Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review.[3] Formerly arts editor of Harper's and Queen and deputy arts editor of The Observer, he has been opera critic and arts columnist of the Daily Telegraph and dance critic of The Mail on Sunday since 1996. Christiansen also sits on the editorial board of Opera magazine. In 2010, he was appointed to the international jury of the Birgit Nilsson Prize.[4]

Christiansen was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1997.[5] Between 2014 and 2016, he was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at University of East Anglia,[6] and since 2016 he has been Collaborating Research Scholar at Keble College, Oxford, where he also teaches.

Formerly a board member of the Charleston Trust (1995-2010) and Gate Theatre (1993-2012), he was appointed to the boards of the Cambridge Arts Theatre and Shadwell Opera in 2016.

In 2009, he entered a civil partnership with the architectural critic Ellis Woodman.[7] He lives in London.

Books
  • The Complete Book of Aunts[8]
  • Faber Pocket Guide to Opera
  • Once More, with Feeling!: A Book of Classic Hymns
  • Romantic Affinities: Portraits From an Age, 1780-1830[9]
  • Paris Babylon: Grandeur, Decadence and Revolution 1869-75[10]
  • The Voice of Victorian Sex: Arthur H Clough 1819-1861
  • The Visitors: Culture Shock in 19th Century Britain
  • William Shakespeare: The Mystery of the World's Greatest Playwright
  • Prima Donna: A History
  • The Grand Obsession - An Anthology of Opera
  • I Know You’re Going to be Happy
  • City of Light

References
  1. The Somerset Maugham Award, List of winners Archived 2007-09-29 at the Wayback Machine
  2. Spear's Wealth Management Survey. "Spear's Book Awards 2013
  3. Faber and Faber, Author biography: Rupert Christiansen
  4. Christiansen, Rupert (16 March 2011). "'I was honoured to help pick Riccardo Muti'". Daily Telegraph
  5. Royal Society of Literature, List of Fellows Archived 2011-06-14 at the Wayback Machine
  6. Royal Literary Fund (2016). "Rupert Christiansen, Non-fiction writer, University of East Anglia"
  7. The Independent, "Nuptial bliss amid the ruins", 11 January 2009
  8. Hughes, Kathryn, "Aunts aren't just for Christmas", The Guardian, 21 October 2006 (review of The Complete Book of Aunts)
  9. Bevington, Helen, "When In Doubt, Duel", New York Times, 15 January 1989 (review of Romantic Affinities)
  10. Bernstein, Richard, "Unconventional History Of the Paris Commune", New York Times, 15 March 1995 (review of Paris Babylon: Grandeur, Decadence and Revolution)
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