The London Library Ambassadors Programme
We are delighted to announce our London Library Ambassadors, who will help raise awareness of the Library and expand the Library's reach and impact.
The Ambassadors were chosen for their longstanding support in which each member has, on numerous occasions, voluntarily offered their time, expertise and platform for the Library. Their work spans genres, from historic writing to poetry and academia, reflecting our wonderfully creative and diverse community.
We are glad to publicly extend our gratitude for their valued, ongoing commitment to the Library.
Photo credit: Piers Allardyce
Photo credit: Amanda Ward
Raymond Antrobus MBE FRSL is a multi-award-winning poet, writer and educator. He is the author of Shapes & Disfigurements (Burning Eye, 2012) To Sweeten Bitter (Out-Spoken Press, 2017), The Perseverance (Penned In The Margins / Tin House, 2018) and All The Names Given (Picador / Tin House, 2021).
William Boyd is the author of 18 novels, including A Good Man in Africa, winner of the Whitbread Literary Award and the Somerset Maugham Award; An Ice Cream War, winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize and shortlisted for the Booker prize; Any Human Heart, winner of the Prix Jean Monnet; and Restless, winner of the Costa Novel of the Year, the Yorkshire Post Novel of the Year and a Richard & Judy selection. His second book in a trilogy, The Predicament will be published in 2025. He has written three plays and numerous screenplays.
Jessie Burton is the multi-million best-selling author of four novels: The Miniaturist, The Muse, The Confession and The House of Fortune – all instant Sunday Times bestsellers. The Miniaturist was the National Book Awards Book of the Year, and Waterstones Book of the Year 2014, and in 2017 it was adapted as a BBC One miniseries. Her books for young readers include The Restless Girls, Medusa (shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal) and Hidden Treasure. She has written essays and reviews for The New York Times, Harpers Bazaar UK, The Wall Street Journal, Vogue, Elle and The Independent.
Sarah Churchwell is a Professor in American Literature and Chair of Public Understanding of the Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. She is the author of four books. She was longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism in 2021 and has contributed to radio, television, and documentary film projects. She was co-winner of the 2015 Eccles British Library Writer’s Award.
Inua Ellams is a Nigerian-born, UK-based poet, playwright and performer who has written for the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre and the BBC. His latest play was an adaptation of Chekhov’s Three Sisters set in Nigeria, staged at the National Theatre. The Actual, his fifth poetry release and first full collection, was published in 2020 by Penned in the Margins.
Harriet Evans is the author of 15 bestselling novels. Formerly an editor in publishing, she now writes full time and lives in Bath, somewhat curtailing her physical time at the Library, though it remains her favourite place to write. Her latest novel, The Treasures, the first in the Sevenstones trilogy, was published in June 2025. She is on the management committee of the Society of Authors. In 2024, as Harriet F Townson, she published D is for Death, the first in a 1930s murder mystery series set in and around the Library – the perfect excuse to spend more time there.
Katy Hessel is an art historian, broadcaster and curator dedicated to celebrating women artists from all over the world, through projects including the Great Women Artists Instagram and podcast. Her bestselling recent book, The Story of Art Without Men, was the 2022 Waterstone’s Book of the Year.
Victoria Hislop is the author of eight bestselling novels mostly set in Greece. Her work has been translated into 40 languages and three have been adapted for Greek television. She became a Greek citizen in 2020 and when not travelling for research, Victoria writes in the London Library.
Rachel Holmes is the author of the biographies Sylvia Pankhurst: Natural Born Rebel, Eleanor Marx: A Life, The Secret Life of Dr James Barry and The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Death of Sarah Baartman. Rachel discovered Sylvia Pankhurst’s lost prison play, Between Two Fires, unknown for a century and performed for the first time at The London Library Lit Fest 2023. Instagram: @rachelholmeswriter
Suzannah Lipscomb FSA, FRHistS is an award-winning historian, author, and broadcaster. She is Professor Emerita of History at the University of Roehampton and Senior Member at St Cross College, Oxford. She is the author of five books on the sixteenth century and an established television presenter. She hosts the Not Just the Tudors podcast from History Hit.
Giles Milton is the million-copy, internationally bestselling author of thirteen works of narrative history. His books have been translated into twenty-five languages. Milton’s most recent book is The Stalin Affair: The Impossible Alliance that Won the War. It was a BBC Radio 4 “Book of the Week”.
John O’Farrell is the author of a dozen books including The Man Who Forgot His Wife, May Contain Nuts, Things Can Only Get Better and An Utterly Impartial History of Britain. Other writing credits include Spitting Image, Chicken Run (and its forthcoming sequel) and the Broadway musicals Something Rotten! and Mrs Doubtfire. As a broadcaster he has appeared on Have I Got News for You, Question Time and Newsnight Review and he co-hosts the podcast We Are History.
Neil Pearson is a BAFTA nominated actor, best known for his roles on Drop the Dead Donkey, Between the Lines, and the Bridget Jones films. He is also an author of Obelisk: A History of Jack Kahane and the Obelisk Press, a collector of rare books and a bibliophilic antiquarian book dealer who specialises in the expatriate literary movement of Paris between the World Wars.
Hallie Rubenhold is a bestselling author, social historian, broadcaster and historical consultant for TV and film. Her books include three works of non-fiction and two novels, of which, The Covent Garden Ladies and Lady Worlsey’s Whim, have inspired television dramas; Harlots and The Scandalous Lady W. Her most recent book, The Five; The Untold Lives of The Women Killed by Jack the Ripper is a Sunday Times Bestseller and won the Baillie Gifford Prize for Nonfiction.
Charles Saumarez Smith is a freelance writer, curator and art historian. He is an author of books and articles, a lecturer, and former academic. He has been Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy of Arts, chairman of The Royal Drawing School, and is currently a trustee of the Garden Museum, and an Emeritus Trustee of ArtUK and Charleston.
