Roger Lewis (biographer)

For the architect, see Roger K. Lewis.

Roger Lewis (born 26 February 1960) is a Welsh academic, biographer and journalist. He has written a biography of Anthony Burgess, which prolific author and essayist Tim Conley described thus: "Lewis at work here is like nothing so much as an adolescent publicly masturbating on the exhumed corpse of his father, and thinking this performance the acme of wit."

Lewis was raised in Bedwas, Monmouthshire, where he was educated at Bassaleg School. He then attended the University of St Andrews (MA) before studying further at Magdalen College, Oxford (MLitt). He became a Fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford, in 1984.

Lewis has also published books on Laurence Olivier, Peter Sellers and the Carry On actor Charles Hawtrey (Charles Hawtrey: the man who was Private Widdle, 2001).

Lewis was sacked by his publisher, Biteback, for saying "that you can always spot a lesbian by her big thrusting chin. Celebrity Eskimo Sandi Toksvig, Ellen DeGeneres, Jodie Foster, Clare Balding, Vita Sackville-West, God love them: there’s a touch of Desperate Dan in the jaw-bone area, no doubt the better to go bobbing for apples."

List of publications

• Lewis, Roger (2011). What Am I Still Doing Here?. London: Coronet. ISBN 978-1-444-70868-4.
• Lewis, Roger (2010). Growing Up with Comedians. London: Century. ISBN 978-1-84413-808-1.
• Lewis, Roger (2009). Seasonal Suicide Notes: My Life as it is Lived. London: Short Books. ISBN 978-1-907595-00-4.
• Lewis, Roger (2007). The Real Life of Laurence Olivier. London: Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0-09-951366-7.
• Lewis, Roger (2003). Anthony Burgess. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-21721-2.
• Lewis, Roger (2002). Charles Hawtrey 1914-1988: The Man Who Was Private Widdle. London: Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-21089-3.
• Lewis, Roger (1995). The Life and Death of Peter Sellers. London: Arrow Books. ISBN 978-0-09-974700-0. 1108 pages.

External links

• www.telegraph.co.uk