Painter
Jerwood Prize winner Adam Dant’s work has earned him comparisons to Hogarth. He is known for his elaborate and intricate drawings, which frequently include maps and pictorial social commentaries. He was the official artist of the UK’s 2015 general election and his work has been displayed in the V&A, London and MoMA in New York.
Screenwriter
Julian Fellowes is the author of novels including Belgravia and Snobs, and the screenplay for Gosford Park. He wrote and produced Downton Abbey, which won him a Primetime Emmy. He attends the Traditional Latin Mass.
Director, National Gallery
Gabriele Finaldi was born in London to an Italian father and a half-Polish, half-English mother. A former director of the Prado in Madrid, he was made director of the National Gallery in London in 2015. He has said his faith gives him “a sense of the sacramental nature of imagery”. He is raising his six children as Catholics.
CEO, Catholic Truth Society
Pierpaolo Finaldi starting working for the Catholic Truth Society in the 1990s, helping to relaunch it after a quiet period. He left for a brief stint to teach Christology and train RE teachers for the Archdiocese of Southwark, before returning to CTS as chief executive. Traditionally set up as a Victorian pamphleteering society, CTS now publishes a range of religious literature. A father of seven, he is passionate about passing on the faith to children and has written a number of books to this end, including My Simple Prayer Book.
Pianist
The recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant”, Stephen Hough is one of the world’s leading concert pianists, as well as a renowned composer, writer and painter. A convert at 19, he once thought about becoming a Franciscan friar.
Composer
Originally from Cumnock, Ayrshire, classical composer and conductor James MacMillan returns there to organise an annual music festival. His music is a fusion of influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience, and close connection with Celtic folk music. He was chosen to write a piece for Pope Benedict XVI’s UK visit in 2010, and (with his wife, Lynne) is a lay Dominican.
Architectural historian
A consultant on many important restoration projects throughout his career, including the conservation of the Ashmolean Museum, Covent Garden and Christ Church, Spitalfields, John Martin Robinson has always been an outspoken conservative voice in a trade dominated by modernism. He is chairman of the art and architecture committee of Westminster Cathedral and has overseen the completion of the mosaics in St George’s and St Joseph’s chapels, the Vaughan Chantry and several individual panels. He has been an architectural writer for Country Life for over 40 years. An officer of arms, in 1978 he was appointed librarian to the Duke of Norfolk Earl Marshal
Art dealer, TV presenter
Philip Mould is considered to be the world’s leading expert on British portraiture and has been art adviser to the Palace of Westminster for 20 years. He presents BBC One’s Fake or Fortune? with Fiona Bruce. He has uncovered some of Gainsborough’s earliest known pieces and lost Van Dycks. He is also the president of the wild plant conservation charity Plant Life.
Author and scholar; diplomat and parliamentarian
Clare Asquith’s 2005 work Shadowplay: the Hidden Beliefs and Coded Politics of William Shakespeare was one of the first to posit that Shakespeare was a covert Catholic whose work is steeped in political commentary. Deemed radical at the time of publication, the book focuses on the playwright’s early epic poem “The Rape of Lucrece”, which, she says, is neither a poem nor about the rape of a Roman noblewoman, but rather a political pamphlet decrying the country’s Catholics. Her husband, Raymond, served as a career diplomat and then as MI6 station commander in Moscow. He sits in the House of Lords.
Children’s author and screenwriter
Frank Cottrell-Boyce credits his local church and cinema while growing up in Liverpool with making him the man he is today. In 2010, he compèred the Hyde Park prayer vigil during Pope Benedict XVI’s UK visit. Cottrell-Boyce is the author of multiple books for children and the creator of films such as Millions, an accessible family film with a Catholic moral message. In May 2022 he revealed to the Catholic Herald that he had been moved by the Marian devotion of his mother.
Historian
Born to a Croatian father and Swedish mother, Peter Frankopan is Professor of Global History at Oxford, specialising in Byzantine History. He is the author of The Silk Roads books.
Historian and barrister
Biographer, historian and detective novelist Antonia Fraser was born into a Protestant family who converted to Catholicism in the 1950s; she is the daughter of Frank Longford, the prison reformer. Her book Marie Antoinette was made into Sofia Coppola’s 2006 film of the same name; she was appointed DBE in 2011 and made a Companion of Honour in 2018. Her son, Orlando Fraser, a barrister, became the new head of the governmental Charity Commission in April this year.
Chief executive, Bloomsbury Publishing
Born in San Francisco to an English father and an American mother, Nigel Newton founded Bloomsbury Publishing in 1986 after working for Macmilllan. The publisher gained rapid growth attributable to the Harry Potter series. He is a member of the lay community at Worth Abbey and a trustee of the Catholic Trust for England and Wales.
Historian and novelist
Piers Paul Reid is the author of multiple acclaimed novels, biographies, histories and journalism, notably Alive, his account of the Uruguayan rugby team whose plane crashed in the Andes in 1972. He has served on the boards of many Catholic charities and is a former master of the Catholic Writers’ Guild.
Television chef
A convert in her early twenties, Delia Smith is best known for her world-famous cookery programmes and cookery books. She is on the board of directors of Norwich City Football Club. Smith is an outspoken Catholic and has criticised the dominance of atheism and secularism in the public forum. She was made a Companion of Honour in 2017.
Author and historian
Alexander Waugh is a writer and journalist; he is the author of God: The Biography. He is president of the De Vere Society, which seeks to substantiate the theory that the 17th Earl of Oxford was the author of Shakespeare’s works. He was the chief opera critic of the Evening Standard for most of the 1990s.
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