Gillian Tindall is the virtuoso of history in microcosm, celebrated for the quality of her writing and scrupulousness of her research. She employs a single location, a dramatic event, a collection of objects or a handful of characters and reveals how they stand for the larger picture, as in her seminal books The Fields Beneath on the history of Kentish Town and The House by the Thames on the history of the South Bank. Living in the same London house for over 50 years, she has written social history, biography and prizewinning novels.
