Roger Lewis was born in Caerphilly, raised in Bedwas, and educated at Bassaleg Comprehensive. He went to St Andrews University, graduating with a First in 1982. He proceeded to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he won the Charles Oldham Shakespeare Prize, the Matthew Arnold Prize, and the Chancellor’s English Essay Prize. He was made a Junior Research Fellow of Wolfson College at the age of twenty-four. He then left academic life to be a full-time writer. His books include The Life and Death of Peter Sellers (filmed by HBO), recently reissued with a preface by Steve Coogan, The Real Life of Laurence Olivier, Anthony Burgess, and a biography of Charles Hawtrey, which is to be reissued in 2026 with a preface by Stephen Fry. His book Erotic Vagrancy: Everything About Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor was published to acclaim in 2023 and is being adapted by for a mini-series by the ITV company behind Jilly Cooper’s Rivals. His two memoirs Seasonal Suicide Notes and What Am I Still Doing Here? were huge bestsellers. Lewis is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. He divides his time between homes in Hastings and Normandy.
