Jane Ridley

Jane Ridley is a professor of history at the University of Buckingham, where she teaches an MA course on biography. Her books include The Young Disraeli, 1804–1846, acclaimed by Robert Blake as definitive; The Architect and His Wifem>, a highly praised study of the architect Edwin Lutyens and his relationship with his troubled wife, which won the Duff Cooper Prize; and Victoria, written for the Penguin Monarchs series. Her most recent full biography, The Heir Apparent: A Life of Edward VII, the Playboy Prince (published in the UK as Bertie: A Life of Edward VII), was a Sunday Times bestseller and one of the most critically acclaimed books of 2013. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, Ridley writes book reviews for the Spectator and other newspapers, and has also been featured on radio and appeared on several television documentaries. She lives in London and Scotland.