Kathryn Hughes

For those of a similar name, see Katherine Hughes (disambiguation).

Kathryn Hughes FRSL (born 1959) is a British historian, biographer and journalist. Educated at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford University and the University of East Anglia; her doctorate in Victorian history was developed into her first book, The Victorian Governess. She is the Director of Creative Non-Fiction at the University of East Anglia, despite neither being based in Norwich nor writing Creative Non-Fiction herself, instead dedicating her time to writing history books and more conservative, traditional biography.

Hughes' book George Eliot: The Last Victorian was awarded the 1999 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for biography, and her 2005 biography of Isabella Beeton, The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton was also well-received, and made the long list for the Samuel Johnson Prize. Reviewing the latter book in the UK daily newspaper The Independent, Frances Spalding wrote: "There is seemingly no aspect of Victorian life that Kathryn Hughes cannot assimilate and understand from the inside. This is living history, in which massive research and impeccable scholarship is handled with invigorating panache".

A contributing editor to Prospect magazine, she has also reviewed and written for The Guardian, The Economist and The Times Literary Supplement. An occasional presenter of Open Book on BBC Radio 4, she also contributes to the same network's Saturday Review. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Royal Society of Literature.

Bibliography

• The Victorian Governess, 1993, ISBN 978-1852850029
• George Eliot: The Last Victorian, 1999, ISBN 978-1857028911
• The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton, 2005, ISBN 978-1841153735