D. J. Taylor is a writer and critic. He is the author of the acclaimed biography Orwell: The Life, published in 2003 to coincide with the centenary of Orwell's birth. This book won the 2003 Whitbread Biography Award. His other books of non-fiction include A Vain Conceit: British fiction in the 1980s; Bright Young People: The Rise and Fall of a Generation 1918-1940 and, most recently, Lost Girls: Love, War and Literature: 1939-51. He is also the author of seven novels.