Daisy Dunn

Dr Daisy Dunn is an award-winning classicist and author of six books. Her most recent, Not Far From Brideshead: Oxford Between the Wars (2022), was selected for Radio 4’s Open Book and longlisted for the Runciman Award. Her previous book, In The Shadow of Vesuvius, was an Editor’s Choice in the New York Times and a Waterstones Best History Book of 2019. The publication of her debut books, Catullus’ Bedspread: The Life of Rome’s Most Erotic Poet and The Poems of Catullus: A New Translation, earned her a place in The Guardian’s list of leading female historians in 2016.

Daisy is an experienced critic and cultural commentator, with columns in The Spectator and Spear’s, and regular bylines in The Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph and Literary Review, among others. She is Editor of ARGO: A Hellenic Review, an international journal of Greek culture published by the Hellenic Society.

Daisy has consulted and participated in interviews on documentaries for the BBC, Channel 5, Sky, Netflix, Discovery, Glyndebourne Opera and American television networks, and in 2016 she played for the winning team on BBC 2’s University Challenge Christmas Special. She has written and presented two short films on the classical world for BBC Ideas, and on radio she has contributed to BBC Radio 4, the World Service, Times Radio, TalkRadio, LBC, Monocle and RTÉ’s Arena.

Born in London, Daisy read Classics at the University of Oxford, before winning a scholarship to study for a Master’s in the History of Art at the Courtauld Institute in London, specialising in Titian, Venice and Renaissance Europe. In 2013 she was awarded her PhD in Classics at University College London, where she was recipient of the AHRC doctoral award, the Gay Clifford Award for Outstanding Women Scholars, and an Italian Cultural Society scholarship.

In 2015 her essay ‘An Unlikely Friendship: Oscar Wilde and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’ was longlisted for the international Notting Hill Editions Essay Prize. In 2020 she was awarded the Classical Association Prize in recognition of her work to bring Classics into the public eye. She has spoken at Hay, Cheltenham, Bath and many other literary festivals.

Her website is www.daisydunn.co.uk and she tweets at @Daisyfdunn