MIRANDA SEYMOUR, celebrated both as a novelist and a biographer, has been a visiting professor at Nottingham Trent University, is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. She reviews widely and her latest book CHAPLIN'S GIRL: The Life and Loves of Virginia Cherrill ('I loved Chaplin's Girl - a great read about someone I had absolutely no knowledge of. It was a delight from start to finish. What a life!' Derek Jacobi) was rapturously received when it was published in 2009. Based around Virginia's own wittily candid private interviews, it tells the gritty story of Hollywood and international society from the inside, by the girl who became Chaplin's star in City Lights, married Cary Grant until he beat her up, and left a titled and wealthy English husband, Lord Jersey, to marry, at last, for love, a handsome Polish pilot with whom she lived happily ever after. The paperback publication was released in May 2010.

MIRANDA lives and works in London, England, and is also the current owner of her ancestral home, THRUMPTON HALL - a beautiful and successful venue for weddings, corporate events and private parties - situated west of Nottingham in the English Midlands, it is open to the public by appointment.

Miranda Seymour's most recent previous work was IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE (published in the United States as Thrumpton Hall), which won the 2008 Pen Ackerley Memoir of the Year prize. The memoir was published as Thrumpton Hall by Harper Collins in the US, where it was widely reviewed and picked as a New York Times Book of the Year.

She also authored THE BUGATTI QUEEN - a beautifully written account of Hélène Delangle, also known as Hellé Nice, dancer, lover and record-breaking racing driver. She has also authored the widely-acclaimed LIFE OF MARY SHELLEY ('the most dazzling life of a female writer to have come my way for a decade' Financial Times), as well as the definitive account of the life of OTTOLINE MORRELL ('Magnificent: you have not read a better biography for years' Daily Telegraph).


Her biography of ROBERT GRAVES ('The best and most balanced account of his life is Miranda Seymour's excellent biography' Evening Standard) was reissued by Simon and Schuster in August 2003. Her LIFE OF HENRY JAMES ('Compulsively readable, like very good, deep gossip) was reissued by Simon and Schuster in 2004).

The bestselling A BRIEF HISTORY OF THYME, published in the US in March 2003 after publication in Britain by John Murray (2002) is an extraordinary and fascinating compendium of plant information: here you can discover what Homer's Greeks used as sleeping potions, why Henry VIII fined any farmer who refused to grow marijuana, and which herb the 72-year-old Queen of Hungary used to extract a proposal from the handsome King of Poland. This book will delight any cook or gardener, herbalist or lover of myths and folklore.

Her fictional account of Robert Graves's relationship with Laura Riding, THE TELLING is described by Pat Barker (The Regeneration Trilogy) as 'devastating. One of the most skilful depictions of the power of evil I have read.' Her novel, THE RELUCTANT DEVIL(out of print) was described as 'an enormous fun... an enchanting mix of fantasy and satire (Guardian).

Miranda Seymour has written many other works, including four children's books, five historical novels and A MADONNA OF THE ISLAND ('wonderfully evocative' William Golding), a collection of stories set at her former home on Corfu.

Miranda is currently working on a book, part memoir, part history, about England and Germany.