Lucy Worsley


Lucy Worsley is an English historian, author, curator, television presenter and podcaster. She was the joint chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces from 2003 to 2024, but is best known amongst UK television viewers as a presenter of BBC Television and Channel 5 series on historical topics.
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Early life and education

Worsley was born on 18 December 1973 in Reading, Berkshire, to Peter and Enid Worsley. Her father taught Geology at Reading University, while her mother was a consultant in educational policy and practice.
Worsley attended The Abbey School, Reading; St Bartholomew's School, Newbury; and West Bridgford School, Nottingham. A history teacher 'fired up her brain' by teaching about the Industrial Revolution through a political lens.
She studied Ancient and Modern History at New College, Oxford, graduating in 1995 with a BA First-class honours degree. In 2001, she was awarded a DPhil degree from the University of Sussex.
Worsley played piano from the age of four, took lessons for 15 years and passed all of her piano grades. Of her teacher, Miss Beaumont, she later said: "At the time I was terrified of her but in retrospect she gave me a great gift of self-discipline and self-reliance. She made me strive for excellence and work hard. To help somebody to get better and really to challenge them, that's a rare and valuable thing."

Career

Curator and academic

Worsley began her career as a historic house curator at Milton Manor, near Abingdon, in the summer of 1995, before working for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings. From 1996 to 2002, she was an inspector of historic buildings for English Heritage in the East Midlands region. During that time, she studied the life of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle and wrote the English Heritage guide to his home, Bolsover Castle in Derbyshire. In 2001, she was awarded a DPhil degree from the University of Sussex for a thesis on The Architectural Patronage of William Cavendish, first Duke of Newcastle, 1593–1676. The thesis was later developed into Worsley's book Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses, published in 2007.
During 2002–2003, she was the major projects and research manager for Glasgow Museums before becoming chief curator at Historic Royal Palaces, the independent charity responsible for maintaining the Tower of London, Hampton Court Palace, Kensington Palace State Apartments, the Banqueting House in Whitehall and Kew Palace in Kew Gardens. She oversaw the £12 million refurbishment of the Kensington Palace state apartments and gardens, completed in 2012.
In 2005, she was elected a senior research fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London; she was also appointed visiting professor at Kingston University in west London.
In October 2024, Worsley announced that she would be stepping down from her role at Historic Royal Palaces at the end of the year to focus on her Lady Killers podcast.

Television

In 2011, Worsley presented the four-part television series If Walls Could Talk, exploring the history of British homes, from peasants' cottages to palaces; and the three-part series Elegance and Decadence: The Age of the Regency. In 2012 she co-presented the three-part television series Antiques Uncovered, with antiques and collectibles expert Mark Hill, and Harlots, Housewives and Heroines, a three-part series on the lives of women after the Civil War and the Restoration of Charles II. Later that year she presented a documentary on Dorothy Hartley's Food in England as part of the BBC Four "Food and Drink" strand.
Her BBC series A Very British Murder examined the "morbid national obsession" with murder. The series looked at a number of cases from the 19th century, beginning with the Ratcliff Highway murders which gained national attention in 1811, the Red Barn Murder of 1826 and the "Bermondsey Horror" case of Frederick and Maria Manning in 1849.
In 2014, the three-part series The First Georgians: The German Kings Who Made Britain explored the contributions of the German-born kings George I and George II. The series explained why the Hanoverian George I came to be chosen as a British monarch, how he was succeeded by his very different son George II and why, without either, the current United Kingdom would likely be a very different place. The series emphasises the positive influence of these kings whilst showing the flaws in each. A Very British Romance, a three-part series for BBC Four, was based on the romantic novels and sought to uncover the forces shaping the very British idea of 'happily ever after' and how Britons' feelings have been affected by social, political and cultural ideas.
In 2016, Worsley presented the three-part documentary Empire of the Tsars: Romanov Russia with Lucy Worsley in January and Lucy Worsley: Mozart's London Odyssey in June. In September 2016, she was filming an upcoming series A Very British History for BBC Four. In December she presented and appeared in dramatised accounts of the three-part BBC series Six Wives with Lucy Worsley. In 2017, she presented a three-part series titled British History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley, debunking historical views of the Wars of the Roses, the Glorious Revolution and the British occupation of India.
In 2019, Worsley presented American History's Biggest Fibs, looking at the nation's founding story and American Revolution, the American Civil War, and the Cold War.
During February and March 2020, the first series of Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley was shown on BBC Four; the three-part series discovers how the history of The Reformation, The Spanish Armada and Queen Anne and the Union have been manipulated and mythologised.
In November 2020, the second series of Royal History's Biggest Fibs with Lucy Worsley aired on BBC2, covering the myths behind the French Revolution, George IV and the Russian Revolution.
In 2022, Lucy Worsley Investigates began running. The one-hour programme investigates major events in British History, including The Black Death, The Madness of King George, and The Princes in the Tower.
On 22 June 2023, she presented The Krypton Factor-style quiz show Puzzling, which made its debut on Channel 5, and of which there are 13 episodes.

Writing

Worsley has published a number of books, many guides to houses and the like. Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court is her most recent work on history. In 2014, BBC Books published her book, A Very British Murder, which was based on the series.
In April 2016, Worsley published her debut children's novel, Eliza Rose, about a young noble girl in a Tudor Court. In 2017, Worsley published a biography of Jane Austen titled Jane Austen at Home: A Biography.
Worsley also wrote the young-adult book Lady Mary, a history-based book that details the life of Mary I, daughter of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon; it follows her as a young Princess Mary during the time of the divorce of Mary's parents.

Personal life

Worsley lives in Southwark by the River Thames in south London with her husband, architect Mark Hines, whom she married in November 2011. Their home is "a minimalist loft-style flat". With reference to having children, Worsley once said she has been "educated out of normal reproductive function"; however, she later said her statement had been "misinterpreted and sounded darker than I'd intended." She has said that she is "childless-by-choice".
As a television presenter, she is known for having a rhotacism, a minor speech impairment which affects her pronunciation of "r". When she made the move from BBC Four to BBC Two for the series Fit to Rule: How Royal Illness Changed History, she worked with a speech and language therapist to help with her pronunciation, but to no avail.
In her teens, Worsley represented Berkshire at cross country running, and is still a runner.

Awards and honours

Credits

Podcasts

Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
  • ''Lady Swindlers with Lucy Worsley''

Guidebooks

Other non-fiction

Cavalier: A Tale of Chivalry, Passion and Great Houses
  • * Cavalier: The Story of a 17th Century Playboy Henry VIII: 500 Facts, with Brett Dolman, Suzannah Lipscomb and Lee Prosser Courtiers: The Secret History of the Georgian Court
  • * The Courtiers: Splendor and Intrigue in the Georgian Court at Kensington Palace If Walls Could Talk: An Intimate History of the Home A Very British Murder: The Story of a National Obsession
  • * The Art of the English Murder: From Jack the Ripper and Sherlock Holmes to Agatha Christie and Alfred Hitchcock Jane Austen at Home Queen Victoria: Daughter, Wife, Mother, Widow
  • * Queen Victoria: Twenty-Four Days That Changed Her Life Agatha Christie: A Very Elusive Woman
  • ''Queens and Kings: An Unusually Personal History''

Young adult fiction

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Forewords and introductions

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Tours

  • Lucy Worsley: A Very British Murder
  • An Audience with Lucy Worsley on Agatha Christie
  • ''An Audience with Lucy Worsley on Jane Austen''