Oscar Wilde: the Legacy of a Scandal

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Oscar Wilde: the Legacy of a Scandal
Livestream from the British Library

Oscar Wilde died in November 1900, exiled in Paris and exhausted by scandal and prison life. The details of his life in the limelight are well known; what has regularly been ignored are the reverberations of the scandal for decades after his death: the challenges his descendants faced, the myths and legends, the quarrels between his friends and enemies and the court cases.

Following an introduction by Gyles Brandreth, Wilde’s only grandson, Merlin Holland talks to actor and writer Rupert Everett about his new book After Oscar: the Legacy of a Scandal, which details the remarkable posthumous life of one of our most celebrated literary and cultural figures.

Speakers

  • Merlin Holland

    Merlin Holland, the only grandson of Oscar Wilde, is an author living in France.

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  • Rupert Everett

    Rupert Everett is a film, television and stage actor and author.

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Merlin Holland

Merlin Holland, the only grandson of Oscar Wilde, is an author living in France.

For the last 40 years he has been researching his grandfather’s life and works. His publications include Irish Peacock and Scarlet Marquess, the first complete, verbatim record of the libel trial which ultimately brought Oscar Wilde to ruin and The Wilde Album, a pictorial biography of Oscar Wilde. After Oscar’s conviction in 1895, his wife, Constance, and their two sons were forced to move abroad and change their name to Holland. The family has never reverted to the name Wilde.

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Rupert Everett

Rupert Everett is a film, television and stage actor and author.

He is known for his roles in films Another Country, My Best Friend's Wedding, the Shrek sequels and many others. Theatre includes playing Oscar Wilde in David Hare's The Judas Kiss. His film directorial debut The Happy Prince (2018) recounted the brutal story of Wilde’s final years. Everett has also written two novels, the memoirs, Red Carpets and Other Banana Skins and Vanished Years and To the End of the World: Travels with Oscar Wilde (2021).

Headshot of Rupert Everett