Alexandra Harris, a past pupil of Farlington School near Horsham, has won the prestigious Guardian First Book Award for her book Romantic Moderns – English Writers, Artists and the Imagination from Virginia Woolf to John Piper. Her book was selected as the winner on 1 December by a celebrity judging panel, as well as by readers from five Waterstone's reading groups.
Alexandra grew up in West Chiltington, where her father still lives. After her win (which was accompanied by a cheque for £10,000), Alex said: ‘It's a huge surprise and a great honour. The book grew out of the passion for art and literature that I first discovered at Farlington School, and it was also inspired by the Sussex countryside I've always loved.’
From Farlington, Alexandra went to Christchurch College, Oxford, to study English, and after graduating with a first-class degree worked in the British Art Department at Christie’s. She studied for her MA in Modern European Art at the Courtauld Institute in London. Back at Oxford, she completed her doctorate, the thesis for which is the basis for this book, and then in 2007 moved to the University of Liverpool as a lecturer. She currently runs Liverpool's new MA in Contemporary Literature.
Guardian literary editor, Claire Armitstead, who chaired the judging panel, said: ‘Alex’s ground-breaking book is a reminder of how important higher education is to literature, and to culture as a whole, and how crucial it is that the finest young thinkers have the time and space to develop.’
Novelist and poet Adam Foulds described the book as ‘a brilliant piece of work that manages to be both comprehensive and coherent as it tells a compelling story about 20th century English art’ and said it was ‘a significant contribution to the history of English culture.’
Farlington’s Leader of English, Jane Lewis, commented: ‘Alex was a remarkable student when she was with us in the 1990s, and we have followed her subsequent career with great interest. We are immensely proud of her and thrilled at her success.’