Ruth Scurr

{{Infobox person

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| honorific_suffix = FRSL

| image = Ruth Scurr 2009.jpg

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| alma_mater = Oxford University; Cambridge University; Ecole Normale Supérieure

| employer = Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge

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| notable_works = {{plainlist|

Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (2006)
John Aubrey: My Own Life (2015)

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| spouse = Sir Peter Stothard (m. 2021)

| website = {{URL|http://www.ruthscurr.co.uk/}}

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Ruth Scurr , aka Lady Stothard{{fact|date=March 2025}}, is a British writer, historian and literary critic. She is a Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge.{{cite web|url=https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/people/ruth-scurr|title=Dr Ruth Scurr|website=Gonville & Cauis|date=February 2013|access-date=24 June 2019}}

Education

Scurr was educated at St Bernard's Convent, Slough; Oxford University, Cambridge University and the Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris. She won a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2000.

Works

Scurr's first book, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution (Chatto & Windus, 2006; Metropolitan Books, 2006),{{Cite news |last=Behr |first=Rafael |date=2006-05-07 |title=What a fully fledged head case |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/may/07/biography.features2 |access-date=2025-01-30 |work=The Observer |language=en-GB |issn=0029-7712}}{{Cite news |last=Gilmour |first=David |date=2006-05-07 |title=Liberty, Equality, Fratricide |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/books/review/07gilmour.html |access-date=2025-01-30 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331}} won the Franco-British Society Literary Prize (2006),{{Cite web |title=Literary Award |url=https://www.franco-british-society.org/literary-award.html |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=FRANCO-BRITISH SOCIETY |language=en}} was shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize (2006), long-listed for the Samuel Johnson Prize (2007) and was listed among the 100 Best Books of the Decade in The Times in 2009.{{cite web|url=https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/3738.The_Times_Online_100_Best_Books_of_the_Decade_2000_2009_|title=The Times Online 100 Best Books of the Decade (2000-2009) (113 books)|website=www.goodreads.com|access-date=24 June 2019}} It has been translated into five languages.

Her second book, John Aubrey: My Own Life (Chatto & Windus, 2015; New York Review of Books, 2016),{{Cite news |last=Lezard |first=Nicholas |date=2016-04-05 |title=John Aubrey: My Own Life by Ruth Scurr review – a 'diary' to rival Pepys's |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/05/john-aubrey-my-own-life-by-ruth-scurr-review-diary-rival-pepys |access-date=2025-01-30 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} was shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Biography Award{{Cite news |date=2015-11-17 |title=The Costa category shortlists 2015 – in pictures |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/gallery/2015/nov/17/the-costa-category-shortlists-2015-in-pictures |access-date=2025-01-30 |work=the Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}} and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize.

Her third book, Napoleon: A Life in Gardens and Shadows (Chatto & Windus, 2021; Norton, 2021), was published to critical acclaim{{Cite web |title=Simon Schama on Napoleon, the horticultural strategist |url=https://www.ft.com/content/dae7b6c2-bde8-4ca3-be77-ad8053299bdb |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=www.ft.com |date=25 May 2021 |language=en-GB |last1=Schama |first1=Simon }} on both sides of the Atlantic{{Cite news |last=Irmscher |first=Christoph |date=2021-06-18 |title='Napoleon' Review: The General's Garden |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/napoleon-review-the-generals-garden-11624028579 |access-date=2025-01-30 |work=Wall Street Journal |language=en-US |issn=0099-9660}} to mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon's death. It won the Society for Military History Distinguished Book Award for Biography (2022).|website=www.smh-hq.org/awards/books.html|

Career

Scurr began reviewing regularly for The Times and The Times Literary Supplement in 1997.{{cite web| url = http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/tlssearch.do?querystring=Ruth+Scurr§ionId=1797&p=tls| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160304113009/http://www.the-tls.co.uk/tls/public/tlssearch.do?querystring=Ruth+Scurr§ionId=1797&p=tls| archive-date = 2016-03-04| title = Ruth Scurr {{!}} Search {{!}} TLS}} Since then she has also written for The Daily Telegraph,{{cite web| url = http://journalisted.com/ruth-scurr?allarticles=yes| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140315012521/http://journalisted.com/ruth-scurr?allarticles=yes| archive-date = 2014-03-15| title = All articles by Ruth Scurr - journalisted.com}} The Observer, New Statesman,{{cite web| url = http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/ruth_scurr| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20061121193926/http://www.newstatesman.com/writers/Ruth_Scurr| archive-date = 21 November 2006| title = NS Library - Ruth Scurr}} The London Review of Books,{{cite web|url=https://www.lrb.co.uk/contributors/ruth-scurr|title=Ruth Scurr · LRB|website=lrb.co.uk|access-date=24 June 2019}} The New York Review of Books, The Nation,{{cite web|url=https://www.thenation.com/authors/ruth-scurr/|title=Ruth Scurr|website=thenation.com|date=2 April 2010|access-date=24 June 2019}} The New York Observer, The Guardian{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/profile/ruth-scurr|title=Ruth Scurr|website=theguardian.com|access-date=24 June 2019}} and The Wall Street Journal.{{Cite news|url=https://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304275304579397013452253126|title = Book Review: 'Whistler' by Daniel e. Sutherland|newspaper = Wall Street Journal|date = 7 March 2014|last1 = Scurr|first1 = Ruth}}

She was a judge on the Man Booker Prize panel in 2007, the Samuel Johnson Prize panel in 2014, and the Baillie Gifford Prize panel in 2023.{{cite web| url = http://www.themanbookerprize.com/people/ruth-scurr| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120922020417/http://themanbookerprize.com/people/ruth-scurr| archive-date = 2012-09-22| title = Ruth Scurr {{!}} The Man Booker Prizes}}{{cite news |title= Ruth Scurr|url= http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=209340 |newspaper= The Times |date= 15 June 2007 |access-date=30 December 2010}}{{cite web| url = http://www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk| url-status = dead| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071215025907/http://www.thesamueljohnsonprize.co.uk/| archive-date = 2007-12-15| title = Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-fiction 2007, BBC FOUR, The UK's most Prestigious non-fiction award , The UK's richest non-fiction prize}} She is a member of the Folio Prize Academy.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thefolioprize.com/the-academy/|title = The Rathbones Folio Prize | the Rathbones Folio Prize|accessdate=19 December 2022}}

Scurr is Director of Studies in Human, Social and Political Sciences for Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where she has been a Fellow since 2006. Her research interests include: 17th- and 18th-century history of ideas; biographical, autobiographical and life writing; the British and French Enlightenments; the French Revolution; Revolutionary Memoir; early Feminist Political Thought; and contemporary fiction in English.{{Cite web |title=Dr Ruth Scurr {{!}} Gonville & Caius |url=https://www.cai.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-ruth-scurr |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=www.cai.cam.ac.uk |language=en}} Scurr is the Senior Treasurer of a Cambridge-based publication, [https://per-capita.co.uk/ Per Capita Media].{{Cite web|url=https://www.cambridgesu.co.uk/organisation/percapitamedia/|title = Per Capita Media|accessdate=3 January 2024}}{{Cite web|url=https://per-capita.co.uk/society/|title = Per Capita Media|accessdate=10 January 2024}}

Having served on the Council since 2020, Scurr became acting Chair of the council of the Royal Society of Literature in January, 2025.{{Cite web |last=Sanderson |first=David |date=2025-01-18 |title=Royal Society of Literature moves on from diversity and censorship row |url=https://www.thetimes.com/uk/arts/article/royal-literature-society-moves-on-from-diversity-and-censorship-row-l0vz56hdt |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=www.thetimes.com |language=en}}

Bibliography

= Books =

{{cite book |author=Scurr, Ruth |title=Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution |location=London |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=2006}}
{{cite book |author=Scurr, Ruth |author-mask=1 |title=John Aubrey: My Own Life |location=London |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=2015}}
{{cite book |author=Scurr, Ruth |author-mask=1 |title=Napoleon: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows |location=London |publisher=Chatto & Windus |year=2021}}

= Dissertations, theses =

{{cite thesis |author=Scurr, Ruth |date=2000 |title=The social foundations of the modern republic : P.-L. Roederer's Cours d'organisation sociale |type=Ph.D. |publisher=University of Cambridge }}

=Critical studies and reviews=

{{cite news |author=Anon. |date=April 11, 2015 |title=A man for all seasons |department=Books and Arts |newspaper=The Economist |volume=415 |issue=8933 |pages=74–75 }} Review of John Aubrey.