Elizabeth Speller

Elizabeth Speller is a poet and author of four non-fiction books including a biography of Emperor Hadrian, companion guides to Rome and to Athens, and a memoir. She has contributed to publications as varied as the Financial Times, Big Issue and Vogue, and produced the libretto for a requiem for Linda McCartney, Farewell, composed by Michael Berkeley (OUP). She was a prize-winner in both the Ledbury and Bridport poetry competitions in 2008. More profitably, she is also a ghost blogger. Elizabeth’s first novel was published by Virago in 2010 and she is working on a second. A Hosking Houses residency enabled her to complete the first of these and she has also held a visiting scholarship at Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge, to write a family memoir, Sunlight on the Garden (Granta, 2006). Of this book a Times Literary Supplement reviewer said: There are echoes of Sylvia Plath’s ability to combine beauty with irony, and suffering with comedy. Elizabeth read Classics at Cambridge as a mature student and has a post-graduate degree. She has taught at the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and Birmingham, has run open poetry workshops at Lucy Cavendish College, and is a judge for the Criticos Prize.