Books by Kathryn Hughes
Kathryn Hughes is Professor of Life Writing at the University of East Anglia. She is the author of four books on 19th century cultural history, the most recent of which is Victorians Undone. She is also literary nonfiction critic for the Guardian.
The Short Life and Long Times of Mrs Beeton
by Kathryn Hughes
A very well researched biography, full of a lot of surprising things. It’s not known for instance, that Mrs Beeton probably died of syphilis, because her husband Sam was a philanderer… The whole nation has this picture of Mrs Beeton as being a rather portly lady with a pinny and flour on her hands, when in fact she was a young woman in her mid-20s when she started that book, with no real practical experience of cookery. The book is a very good read and has been put together by a scholar who really knows her subject.
Interviews with Kathryn Hughes
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1
Aftermath: Life in the Fallout of the Third Reich, 1945-1955
by Harald Jähner & Shaun Whiteside (translator) -
2
Empire of Pain: The Secret History of the Sackler Dynasty
by Patrick Radden Keefe -
3
Islands of Abandonment: Life in the Post-Human Landscape
by Cal Flyn -
4
Things I Have Withheld
by Kei Miller -
5
Fall: The Mysterious Life and Death of Robert Maxwell, Britain's Most Notorious Media Baron
by John Preston -
6
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History
by Lea Ypi
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Kathryn Hughes
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2021 Baillie Gifford Prize Shortlist, recommended by Kathryn Hughes
Every year the judges of the Baillie Gifford Prize pick out the very best nonfiction books, the shortlist they come up with a brilliant way to find gripping books to immerse yourself in. Here cultural historian Kathryn Hughes, one of this year’s judges, talks us through the six books they chose for the 2021 shortlist, books that will draw you in, whatever the subject.
Interviews where books by Kathryn Hughes were recommended
The best books on Historic Cooking, recommended by Ivan Day
Celebrated food historian selects five books on cooking that reveal much about our history. During the period that the French and English were at war, roast beef was all the rage and anything ‘Frenchified’ was suspect
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1
Italy Reborn: From Fascism to Democracy
by Mark Gilbert -
2
Catland: Feline Enchantment and the Making of the Modern World
by Kathryn Hughes -
3
The Scapegoat: The Brilliant Brief Life of the Duke of Buckingham
by Lucy Hughes-Hallett -
4
Forbidden Desire in Early Modern Europe: Male-Male Sexual Relations, 1400-1750
by Noel Malcolm -
5
Wild Thing: A Life of Paul Gauguin
by Sue Prideaux -
6
Impossible Monsters: Dinosaurs, Darwin, and the Battle Between Science and Religion
by Michael Taylor
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
The Best Nonfiction Books: The 2025 Duff Cooper Prize, recommended by Minoo Dinshaw
It’s a nonfiction book prize that values “style, rigour, argument, meatiness, readability, freshness, oddity and individuality,” says Minoo Dinshaw, author of Friends in Youth and one of this year’s judges. He introduces the six brilliant books that made the shortlist of this year’s Pol Roger Duff Cooper Prize, from the history of post-World War II Italy to the disputes caused by the discovery of dinosaur fossils.
