Alice Thomas Ellis was born on June 12, 1922, in London. He is the only child of an English mother and a French father, both of whom were writers. He was brought up in England until he was fourteen years old. He then went to boarding school in France where he read widely in French literature and spoke fluent French at home
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At sixteen he began his first novel, which he did not finish before he went to Oxford to study history and English literature. The war interrupted his education and he joined the Royal Air Force for three years. The war ended and he returned to Oxford to complete his degree.
After graduating from Oxford University, Ellis spent a year travelling around Europe before starting postgraduate studies at Balliol College, Oxford, and completing a doctorate in English literature after two years. This degree was followed by a fellowship at All Souls College, Oxford, where he studied under T. S.
Eliot and F. R. Leavis.
Shortly after this, Ellis married his student girlfriend and moved with her to Buenos Aires where they lived for two years while she completed her degree in economic geography at Columbia University. Upon returning to London in 1954, Ellis began teaching at the University of London’s School of Oriental Studies (SOAS). One year later he became the Librarian of the British Museum; ten years later began editing the Dictionary of National Biography (DNB) in conjunction with Sir Leslie Stephen and Sir Sidney Lee; and in 1975 took over editing the DNB from Sir Sidney Lee in preparation for its publication as an electronic database known as The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OED).
This work continued until 1986 when Ellis retired from SOAS after forty-two years service there as Professor of Modern History and Professor of English Literature. In retirement Ellis lives alone in London but visits France regularly where his wife died six years ago this November.