Carola Hicks taught art history at Cambridge University, where she was a Fellow of Newnham College. Previous jobs included working on the Sutton Hoo publication at the British Museum, and being Curator of the Stained Glass Museum at Ely. She is now a full-time author and freelance lecturer.

Having written on aspects of medieval art, she turned to biography with ‘Improper Pursuits: the Scandalous Life of Lady Di Beauclerk’ (Macmillan 2001), the story of an eighteenth-century aristocrat, adultress and artist. This was followed by ‘biographies’ of works of art, looking at their histories through time, and examining the constantly changing responses to them. ‘The Bayeux Tapestry: Life Story of a Masterpiece’ (Chatto & Windus 2006) traced the Tapestry’s adventures and remarkable survival, despite the attentions of Napoleon Bonaparte and Heinrich Himmler, while ‘The King’s Glass: a Story of Tudor Power and Secret Art’ (Chatto & Windus 2007) looked at how Henry VII and Henry VIII were involved in the making and meaning of the famous stained glass windows of King’s College Chapel, Cambridge. This was selected as a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, read by Samuel West.

She is currently working on a history of Britain’s fourth most favourite painting, Jan van Eyck’s ‘Arnolfini’ portrait in the National Gallery, and the lives of its various owners from the sixteenth to nineteenth centuries.

Agent: Clare Alexander, of Aitken Alexander Associates Ltd

Email: cmh19@cam.ac.uk