Product Description
John Aubrey
Author: Ruth Scurr
Format: Paperback
Costa Biography Award 2016
Longman-History Today Book Prize 2015
James Tait Black Memorial Prize 2016
My Own Life
'A truly remarkable writer, one of the most gifted non-fiction authors alive' — Simon Schama, Financial Times
Shortlisted for the 2015 Costa Biography Award
This is the autobiography that John Aubrey never wrote.
You may not know his name. Aubrey was a modest man, a gentleman-scholar who cared far more for the preservation of history than for his own legacy. But he was a passionate collector, an early archaeologist and the inventor of modern biography.
With all the wit, charm and originality that characterises her subject, Ruth Scurr has seamlessly stitched together John Aubrey's own words to tell his life story and a captivating history of seventeenth-century England unlike any other.
'A game-changer in the world of biography' — Mary Beard
'Ingenious' — Hilary Mantel
'Irresistible' — Philip Pullman
About the Author
Ruth Scurr is an historian, biographer and literary critic. She teaches history and politics at Cambridge University, where she is a Lecturer and Fellow of Gonville & Caius College. Her first book, Fatal Purity: Robespierre and the French Revolution won the Franco-British Society Literary Prize, was longlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and was listed among the 100 Best Books of the Decade in The Times. She reviews regularly for the Times Literary Supplement, The Telegraph and the Wall Street Journal.
For custom orders and quotes: shop@schoolspace.co.za
© 2026 Schoolspace. This product description is the exclusive intellectual property of the publisher, protected under copyright law. Unauthorized use, adaption, or copying is strictly prohibited.
