Judith Flanders' Biography

Photograph by Jerry Bauer

Judith Flanders was born in London, England, in 1959. She moved to Montreal, Canada, when she was two, and spent her childhood there, apart from a year in Israel in 1972, where she signally failed to master Hebrew. She was educated in Montreal and in Lausanne, Switzerland. In 1980 she graduated with a degree in history from Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York.

After graduation, Judith returned to London and began working as an editor for various publishing houses, including Thames and Hudson, Penguin Books, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, and the publications department of the National Portrait Gallery.

After this 17-year detour, she began to write and in 2001 her first book, A Circle of Sisters, the biography of four Victorian sisters, was published to great acclaim, and nominated for the Guardian First Book Award.

In 2003 The Victorian House: Domestic Life from Childbirth to Deathbed (2004 in the USA, as Inside the Victorian Home) received widespread praise. Her most recent book (2006) is entitled Consuming Passions: Leisure and Pleasure in Victorian England. Judith also writes arts journalism and reviews for many publications. From 2003-2004 she was dance critic for the Evening Standard.

For synopses and reviews of Judith's books, please click on the appropriate cover below.

back to top