James Knowlson is also the author of Damned to Fame: The Life of Samuel Beckett, among many others. He is professor emeritus at the University of Reading, and, in 2011, he was awarded the title of Officier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Acadmiques by former French president Sarkozy for ?his eminent career devoted to an understanding of European theatre, specifically for his numerous publications on the life and work of the Nobel Prize?winner Samuel Beckett, a friend of many years standing."
Elizabeth Knowlson lectured in French at the University of Glasgow from 1961 to 1969. After having three children, she resumed her university career as an administrator at the Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of Reading. She left her post in order to aid her husband with his biography of Beckett and his later books and essays.