Roger Scruton is a writer and philosopher who has held positions at the universities of London, Oxford, Boston, and St. Andrews and who has written widely on art, architecture, music, and aesthetics. His books include his now classic Short History of Modern Philosophy (1981), The Aesthetics of Music (1997), Death-Devoted Heart: Sex and the Sacred in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde (2004), and Fools, Frauds and Firebrands (1985, republished 2015). He is a fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Society of Literature.