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Born in South Wimbledon and now resident in Brighton, Rose Collis is a multi-media writer, alternative historian and performer. Her work includes biography, journalism, short fiction, websites, exhibitions, radio, literary talks and guided walks. Since 1985, her features, interviews and reviews have appeared in over 30 publications on both sides of the Atlantic, including The Mail On Sunday, The Independent, The Times, TV Times, The Bookseller, Time Out, City Limits and Tribune.
Her critically-acclaimed books include Colonel Barker’s Monstrous Regiment: A Tale of Female Husbandry (Virago 2000 & 2001); A Trouser-Wearing Character: The Life and Times of Nancy Spain (Cassell 1997 & 1999); and Portraits To The Wall (Cassell 1994).
PRAISE FOR COLONEL BARKER’S MONSTROUS REGIMENT
‘Excellent… treads a careful line between sensation and sentiment’ Daily Telegraph
‘Remarkably gripping and at times quite hilarious’ Val Hennessey, Daily Mail
‘Fascinating… Collis’s unpretentious, ribald, chatty style carries this ripping yarn’ Time Out
‘One of the oddest true stories ever told… film producers would be mad not to snap it up’ Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday
‘Collis has researched this book thoroughly, and she writes with a lively sense of humour.’ Anne Stevenson, Times Literary Supplement
(This book is currently being adapted into a stage play and a musical)
PRAISE FOR A TROUSER-WEARING CHARACTER
‘Rose Collis presents us with a character so warm and barmy and vivid that she bounces off the pages and into your heart…’ Val Hennessey, Daily Mail
‘Delightfully readable, with an unusually vivid sense of the recent past and its personalities, she is a young biographer to watch.’ The Spectator
‘Collis on Spain is scatty, readable and fun…’ Lynn Barber, Daily Telegraph
‘A vigorous, warm, fluent biography of a vigorous, warm, fluent woman.’ Francis King, Literary Review
‘Rose Collis has written a most conscientious biography of…the real first lady of Fleet Street’ Anthony Howard, Sunday Times
One of the ‘Books of the Year’ 1997, chosen by Shena McKay, The Independent, and Jonathan Cecil, The Spectator
