Amanda Vickery

Amanda Jane Vickery (born 8 December 1962) is an English historian, writer, radio and television presenter, and professor of early modern history at Queen Mary, University of London.

Vickery was born in Preston, Lancashire, England, and attended Penwortham Girls' Grammar School. She graduated from the former Bedford College, London (now part of Royal Holloway, University of London), where she completed her PhD in Modern History.

Vickery is professor of early modern history at Queen Mary, University of London, and has held academic posts at Royal Holloway, University of London, and the University of York. Her academic interests encompass the Late Modern period from the seventeenth century to the present with a strong emphasis on the Georgian period in England.

Writing

She has written widely on social history, literature, the history of romance and the home, politics, law and crime with an emphasis on women's studies and feminism.

In 1998 she published her first book The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England, for which she received the Whitfield prize, the Wolfton History prize and the Longman-History Today prize.

In 2006 she co-edited Gender, Taste, and Material Culture in Britain and North America, 1700-1830.

In 2009 Vickery's Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England was published. The book was a well received work.

Television

Vickery has contributed to many Open University history programmes.

In November 2010 she presented At Home with the Georgians, a three-part television series produced by Matchlight for the BBC, based on her book Behind Closed Doors.

In December 2011 she presented The Many Lovers of Miss Jane Austen, again produced by Matchlight for BBC Two.

In May 2013 Vickery co-presented Pride and Prejudice: Having a Ball alongside Alistair Sooke. The one-off episode recreated a regency ball, the social event at the heart of Pride and Prejudice, to mark the 200th anniversary of the novel's release.

Radio

Vickery is a regular contributor to arts, history, and cultural review programmes broadcast by BBC Radio. She has appeared on BBC Radio 4's In Our Time, Saturday Review, and Start the Week.

In 2009 she wrote and presented the 30-part series A History of Private Life on BBC Radio 4, which received critical acclaim. It has since been made into a BBC CD.

Since 2010 she has presented the three series of the BBC Radio 4 history programme Voices from the Old Bailey. Vickery makes programmes for Radio 4 through independent production company Loftus Audio.

In March 2011 she was a guest on Private Passions, the biographical music discussion programme on BBC Radio 3.

• The Gentleman's Daughter: Women's Lives in Georgian England (1998) ISBN 0300102224
• Women, Privilege, and Power: British Politics, 1750 to the Present (2001) ISBN 0804742847
• [ed.] Gender, Taste, and Material Culture in Britain and North America, 1700-1830 (2006) ISBN 0300116594
• Behind Closed Doors: At Home in Georgian England (2009) ISBN 0300168969

On 30 January 2015 Vickery received an honorary doctorate from the Faculty of Arts at Uppsala University, Sweden.