Roy Strong

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Sir Roy Strong (born August 23, 1935) is an English art and cultural historian, writer, broadcaster and landscape designer.

Roy Strong was born in Winchmore Hill, North London and attended Edmonton Grammar School.

He earned a First class honours degree in History at Queen Mary College, University of London. He then earned his Ph.D from the Warburg Institute, University of London.

He was the Director of the National Portrait Gallery, London from 1967 to 1973, and the youngest ever Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), London from 1973 to 1987.

Sir Roy lives in Hereford, where, with his late wife, Julia Trevelyan Oman, who died in 2003, he designed one of England's largest post-war formal gardens. He now works full-time as a writer and broadcaster and serves as High Steward of Westminster Abbey.

In 1999, he published The Spirit of Britain: A Narrative History of the Arts, a widely-acclaimed 700-page study of the arts of the British Isles through two millennia. In 2005, he published Coronation: A History of Kingship and the British Monarchy.

After leaving the V&A, Sir Roy published a set of diaries that became infamous for its often critical assessments of figures in the art and political worlds. It has been rumoured that he has retained a set for posthumous publication.

[edit] Selected books

The Renaissance Garden in England, Roy Strong (1984)
The Roy Strong Diaries 1967–1987, Roy Strong (1997), Weidenfeld & Nicolson, ISBN 0-297-81841-4
The Story of Britain: A People's History, Roy Strong (1998)
The Cult of Elizabeth: Elizabethan Portraiture and Pageantry, Roy Strong (1999)
The Spirit of Britain: A Narrative History of the Arts, Roy Strong (1999)
Gardens Through the Ages, Roy Strong (2000)
Feast: A History of Grand Eating, Roy Strong (2003)
Gloriana: The Portraits of Queen Elizabeth I, Roy Strong (2003)
The Arts in Britain: A History, Roy Strong (2004)
Beaton Portraits, Roy Strong and Terence Pepper (2004)
Coronation: A History of Kingship and the British Monarchy, Roy Strong (2005)
Passions Past and Present, Roy Strong (2005)
The Diary of John Evelyn, John Evelyn and Roy Strong (2006)