Gareth Russell | |
|---|---|
| Born | Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Occupation | Author |
| Nationality | British |
| Education | |
| Genre | History, historical fiction, young-adult fiction |
| Notable works | Do Let's Have Another Drink The Ship of Dreams Young and Damned and Fair |
Gareth Russell is a Northern Irish historian, author, and broadcaster.
Gareth Russell was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland. He attended Down High Grammar School, and later graduated from St Peter's College, Oxford, where he studied modern history.[1] Russell completed a Master's degree in medieval history at Queen's University, Belfast. He currently divides his time between Belfast, London and New York.[2]
Russell is the author of a series of plays.[3] In July 2011, his first novel Popular was published by Penguin, as the first in a new series of novels following the lives of a group of Belfast teenagers. It was published in German in 2014.[4] A sequel to Popular, titled The Immaculate Deception, was published in November 2012. Both novels were subsequently adapted for the stage in Northern Ireland, followed by a final theatrical sequel, Say You'll Remember Me, which received its first performance in 2016.[5]
In August 2014, Russell's first non-fiction book, The Emperors: How Europe's Rulers were Destroyed by World War One, was published by Amberley Publishing.[6] In 2017, his biography of English queen consort Catherine Howard was published, based on research undertaken between 2010 and 2016.[7] It was published by Simon & Schuster in the US and Canada, and HarperCollins in the UK, Ireland, and most of the Commonwealth. It was a finalist for the Slightly Foxed Best First Biography award in 2017, which was won that year by Edmund Gordon's biography of Angela Carter.[8] In 2019, his account of the Titanic disaster was published.[9] It was named a Book of the Year by The Times[10] and a Best History Book of 2019 by The Daily Telegraph.[11]
In 2022, his biography of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother was published.[12] It was his second book to become a Times Book of the Year.[13] In the same year, he was a main contributor to BBC Northern Ireland's and Al Jazeera's coverage for the death and funeral of Queen Elizabeth II and accession of Charles III.
In 2023, Russell's The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of History at Hampton Court was published.[14][15] It was named a BBC History Book of the Year.[16]