Biographer Michael Holroyd was born in 1935 and was educated at Eton College. His first book was a biography of the writer Hugh Kingsmill, published in 1964. The publication in 1967 and 1968 of his biography of Lytton Strachey was hailed as a landmark in contemporary biography and, six years later, his biography of the painter Augustus John confirmed his place as one of the most influential modern biographers. His biography of Strachey was used as a basis for Christopher Hampton's film Carrington (1994). The four volumes of Holroyd's life of Bernard Shaw appeared between 1988 and 1992 to critical acclaim.

A prominent campaigner for the promotion of literature, Michael Holroyd is a former Chairman of The Society of Authors (1973-4) and the National Book League (1976-8, now Booktrust) and a past President of English PEN (1985-8). He was Chairman of the Strachey Trust between 1990 and 1995, and Chairman of the Literature Panel of the Arts Council of England until 1995. He was also, until recently, Chairman of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Public Lending Right Advisory Committee. He has written for radio and television and lectures for the British Council.

Michael Holroyd is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds honorary degrees from the universities of Ulster, Sheffield, Warwick, East Anglia and the London School of Economics. In 1989 he was awarded the CBE for services to literature. He is married to the novelist Margaret Drabble and lives in London and Somerset.

Basil Street Blues, a volume of memoir, was published in 1999. In 2001 he was awarded the Heywood Hill Literary Prize. His most recent book is Works on Paper: The Craft of Biography and Autobiography (2002), a collection of essays and articles about biography and literature. Mosaic (2004), written partly in response to the reactions and discoveries of readers of Basil Street Blues, combines elements of a love story and a detective story and further explores some family secrets which the first book left unresolved.

Michael Holroyd was awarded the 2005 David Cohen British Literature Prize. His latest book, A Strange Eventful History (2008), tells the story of two theatrical dynasties - those of Ellen Terry and Henry Irving.