Henry Oliver

In 2022, I was given an Emergent Ventures grant to write a book about Late Bloomers.

I write The Common Reader, a weekly essay about literature, biography, history, or whatever I want to know about that I can't find somewhere else. The Common Reader is one of Helen Lewis' favourite Substacks.

I have also written for CapX and The Critic and UnHerd.

I studied Biography at the University of Buckingham with Jane Ridley. My dissertation was about the life and work of the under rated novelist and biographer Elizabeth Jenkins. 

Some of my essays have been promoted in Marginal Revolution, HackerNews, The Browser, and The Atlantic. You can read my most popular essays on this site. 

The background image for this site is part of a picture made by my daughter.