Virginia Rounding

I am an author and book critic, specialising in history - especially, ¬ though not exclusively - that of Russia and France. My last book was a biography of the Empress Catherine II (Catherine the Great: Love, Sex and Power, 2006, described by Frances Wilson in the Daily Telegraph as 'a thumping great triumph of a book'), and I will soon be presenting a programme for BBC Radio 3 about music and musicians at Catherine's court (to be broadcast on 29th October 2011).

Catherine the Great was preceded by a study of French courtesans (Grandes Horizontales, 2003, described by Christopher Hirst in the Independent as 'impeccably researched, a flirt of a book, enjoyable and sexy'). My new biography of Tsar Nicholas II and his wife Alexandra Fyodorovna will be published by St Martin's Press in February 2012.

I also review widely for a variety of newspapers and magazines, including the Daily Telegraph, FT Magazine, Independent, Daily Mail and Moscow Times. I live in the Hoxton area of London and am an elected councillor (known as a Common Councilman) for the Ward of Farringdon Within in the City of London.

In addition to being a writer, I have had a variety of jobs in order to keep body and soul together. I am currently part-time Clerk to the Guild of Public Relations Practitioners, and was for many years administrator of The Consort of Musicke. I am also currently setting up a writing consultancy, specialising in assisting post-graduate students with their writing of dissertations and theses, having enormously enjoyed my time doing precisely this as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at The Courtauld Institute of Art from 2008 to 2011.