Kathryn Hughes is a highly-regarded social historian and biographer whose work has won major awards, including the James Tait Black Prize (1999). Her two most recent books, the best-selling The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton and George Eliot: The Last Victorian, were turned into major dramas by the BBC. She was educated at Oxford, holds a PhD in Victorian History and is currently Professor of Biographical Studies at the University of East Anglia. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Historical Society. For the last twelve years Kathryn has been under contract to the Guardian newspaper, producing fortnightly book and arts reviews and comment pieces. She also writes regularly for the TLS and is a former Contributing Editor to Prospect. Kathryn is very media-friendly and routinely presents arts programmes for the BBC on both radio and television.