Biography

Ann Wroe is the Obituaries Editor of The Economist.

After taking a first-class degree in History and a doctorate in medieval history (Oxford, 1975) she worked at the BBC World Service, covering French and Italian politics.

She joined The Economist in 1976 to cover American politics, and has held the posts of Books and Arts editor (1988-1992) and US editor (1992-2000). She has edited the Obituaries page, usually writing the obituaries herself, since October 2003.

She has written six books: “Lives, Lies and the Iran-Contra Affair” (I.B. Tauris, 1991); “A Fool and His Money: Life in a Partitioned Medieval Town” (Cape/Farrar Strauss, 1995; based on her Oxford thesis), “Pilate: The Biography of an Invented Man” (Cape, Random House, 1999; published in America as “Pontius Pilate”; shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson prize and the W.H. Smith award); “Perkin: A Story of Deception” (published in America as “The Perfect Prince”) (Cape/Random House, 2003); “Being Shelley: The Poet’s Search for Himself” (Cape/ Pantheon, 2007) and “Orpheus: The Song of Life” (Cape/ Overlook Press, 2011), which won the 2012 Criticos prize.

She is the co-author, with the late Keith Colquhoun, of “The Economist Book of Obituaries”, published in 2008 by Profile (UK) and Bloomberg (US).

She was chairman of the judges of the Keats-Shelley Prize in 2008, and is a contributor to the forthcoming Oxford Handbook of Shelley Studies.

She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, the Royal Society of Literature and the English Association.

She is married with three sons and lives in London.