Irish playwright and poet Oscar Wilde was BOTD in 1854. Born to an eccentric Anglo-Irish family, he studied at Trinity College Dublin and Oxford University, publishing poetry and becoming well-known as a wit, aesthete and socialite. He became a national celebrity with his 1891 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray, a Gothic tale of a dissolute artist whose self-portrait ages over time while he stays young and beautiful. The novel’s homoerotic subtext scandalised Victorian society, as did his much-quoted foreword, in which he set out his art-for-art’s-sake philosophy (“There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written. That is all.”) He became the toast of London with a string of successful comic plays, including An Ideal Husband, Lady Windermere’s Fan and The Importance of Being Earnest, crackling with witty epigrams and queer subtext. In 1884, he married Constance Lloyd, with whom he had two sons, writing them one of his best-loved stories The Selfish Giant. He had a brief affair with his friend Robbie Ross before falling passionately in love with evil twink Lord Alfred Douglas, whom he nicknamed Bosie. Their relationship became a social scandal, enraging Bosie’s homophobic father the Marquis of Queensberry. In 1895, Queensbury left a note for Wilde at a hotel, describing Wilde as “posing as a somdomite”. Wilde corrected the spelling mistake and, at Bosie’s insistence, sued Queensbury for libel. He lost the case when evidence was produced in court of his penchant for rent boys. He was later tried for gross indecency in 1896, speaking eloquently in his defence about “The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name”, quoting a poem written by Bosie. He was found guilty and imprisoned for two years with hard labour. While in prison, he wrote two of his finest poems, The Ballad of Reading Gaol (memorably stating “each man kills the thing he loves”) and De Profundis. Released in 1898, he lived in exile in France and Italy, atempting a brief and unsuccessful reunion with Bosie. Estranged from his family and dependent on Ross and other friends for financial support. He died in 1900 in a hotel in Paris, aged 46, reportedly quipping “This wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. Either it goes or I do.” The scandal of his trial cast a long shadow over gay liberation for nearly 70 years, and his name became a byword for an underground, criminal queer identity. His work and reputation was revived during the 1970s, when he was adopted as a martyr by the gay liberation movement. Now hailed as a literary genius and the spiritual grandfather of queer, his plays continue to be performed worldwide. He has been portrayed multiple times onscreen, notably by Peter Finch in The Trials of Oscar Wilde, Stephen Fry in Wilde and by Rupert Everett in The Selfish Giant.