Lucy Hughes-Hallett's most recent book on the 17th century Duke of Buckingham, The Scapegoat, has won the Plutarch Award for Biography of the Year and the Randy Shilts Award for Non-Fiction. Her previous biography, The Pike: Gabriele d’Annunzio was described in The Sunday Times as ‘the biography of the decade’. It won the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her other non-fiction books include Cleopatra and Heroes. Her novel, Peculiar Ground, is largely set in the 17th century, and narrated by a landscape designer loosely based on the diarist John Evelyn. It was described as 'almost Tolstoyan in its sly wit and descriptive brilliance' (The Guardian) and 'full of drama, vivid characters, wit, gorgeous writing and fascinating detail’ (New York Times). A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and of the Historical Association, she is a widely respected critic. She was Chair of the Judges for the 2021 International Booker Prize. She lives in London and Suffolk.