Norma Clarke is Professor of English Literature at Kingston University. She is the author of Ambitious Heights, Dr Johnson’s Women and The Rise and Fall of the Woman of Letters. Kathryn Hughes in the Daily Telegraph described Dr Johnson’s Women as ‘the best kind of popular history being produced at the moment: scholarly, fluent and supremely human.’ She has published several novels for children, including Patrick and the Rotten Roman Rubbish. She lives in London.