

Lucy Hughes-Hallett is a biographer, critic and cultural historian. Her subject matter has ranged from ancient Egypt to modern dictatorships, but always with a focus on propaganda, the political uses of story-telling and the cult of personality. Her latest book, The Pike - about the poet, serial seducer and proto-fascist Gabriele d’Annunzio - won all three of Britain’s most prestigious literary awards for non-fiction, the Samuel Johnson Prize, the Duff Cooper Prize and the Costa Biography Award. Her other books are Heroes and Cleopatra.