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Dr Linda Porter has a B.A. and a D.Phil from the University of York, where she studied under the direction of two inspirational professors, Gerald Aylmer and Gwyn A. Williams.
She spent nearly ten years lecturing in New York, at Fordham and City Universities among others, before returning with her American husband and daughter to England, where she embarked on a complete change of career. For more than twenty years she worked as a senior public relations practitioner in BT, introducing a ground-breaking international public relations programme during the years of BT’s international expansion.
The attractions of early retirement were too good to miss and she has gone back to historical writing, reviewing for the BBC History magazine and History Today. Linda’s first book, Mary Tudor: The First Queen, was published by Portrait in September 2007. This is a personal history of Mary I (Mary Tudor), the eldest of Henry VIII’s three children. The book reveals that the popular image of Bloody Mary, the evil queen who sent hundreds of Protestant martyrs to the stake and effectively sold her realm to Spain, is an invention of Elizabethan propagandists. It was deliberately fostered to contrast the supposed dark night of Mary’s short reign with the golden dawn of the Elizabethan era. The real Mary suffered much in her tragic life but her memory has suffered even more. A determined and courageous survivor, Mary’s life and reign have been comprehensively re-appraised in this critically acclaimed biography.
Linda is the winner of the 2004-2005 Biographers Club prize.
external links
Linda Porter's website: www.lindaporter.net
how I found the agency
"I was first put in touch with Andrew Lownie by Jonathan Trace, an indie film producer from the Midlands who had done a lot of corporate work for me when I was in charge of BT's European public relations programme. When I decided to leave BT and go back to my roots in writing and historical research, I asked Jonathan if he happened to know any literary agents in London. To my surprise, he said that he did – and Andrew's was the name he gave me. I got in touch and, with Andrew's valiant support, it was a case of third time lucky when, after two other ideas were rejected, Piatkus offered for the new biography of Mary Tudor that I had proposed."subscribe to agency's newsletter
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