Award-winning biographer Jacqueline Kent returns to the podcast to discuss her latest work, coauthored with historian Tom Roberts, about the iconic transgender model and activist April Ashley.

A Life Reimagined – Born George Jamieson in Liverpool, April Ashley transitioned in 1960 and became one of the first Britons to undergo gender-affirming surgery. Jacqueline explores April’s remarkable transformation with insight and compassion.

The biography traces April’s journey from a tough childhood to the glamour of 1960s high society, detailing both her rise as a fashion icon and the tabloid fallout that followed her outing.

Jacqueline shares what led her to co-write the biography with Tom Roberts and how they combined historical research with intimate narrative storytelling.

Learn why the biography opens with April’s reflective 80th birthday visit to Liverpool and how the authors balanced chronology with thematic exploration.

Jacqueline discusses April’s fierce advocacy for transgender rights and her lasting influence, culminating in honours like her 2012 MBE and the passing of the UK Equality Act in 2010.

Jacqueline reflects on the ethical responsibilities of biographers writing about living memory.

Jacqueline offers thoughtful insights into how biographers navigate memory, voice and truth while honouring their subject’s humanity and legacy.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the intellectual historian Dr Robert Zaretsky chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about his choices while crafting The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas. Known as the ‘patron saint of all outsiders’, Simone Weil was one of the 20th century’s most remarkable thinkers, a philosopher who truly lived by her political and ethical ideals.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Why Robert Zaretsky chose the title: The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five Ideas
• Why Simone’s ideals and philosophies are so relevant today, 80 years after her death
• How Robert grasped Simone’s thinking and behaviour given her contradictory, paradoxical character that baffled her many biographers
• Why Robert crafted a hybrid of biography and philosophy
• Why he explored Simone’s philosophies and search for truth through the prism of her life rather than crafting a traditional biography
• Why he structured the book around five chapters that present Simone’s core philosophies
• How he portrayed Simone’s ideas with clarity and grace, given her enigmatic character, behaviour and philosophies
• The literary devices he employed to craft sensitive, compelling and lyrical narrative
• How Robert challenged the myths surrounding Simone Weil.

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, the historian Dr Kiera Lindsey chats with Dr Gabriella Kelly-Davies about her choices while crafting Wild Love: The Ambitions of Adelaide Ironside, the First Australian Artist to Astonish the World.

Here’s what you’ll discover in this episode:

• Adelaide Eliza Scott Ironside was a trailblazing Australian artist known for her passion, ambition and extraordinary talent. Born in Sydney in 1831, she challenged artistic boundaries by exploring themes such as identity, sexuality and spirituality
• Why Kiera Lindsey challenged the traditional narrative of Australian art history
• Why Adelaide Ironside’s story is still so relevant today
• How Kiera painstakingly pieced together tiny scraps of evidence from 19th-century historical records in which women were mostly invisible
• How following in Adelaide’s footsteps in colonial Sydney, London, Rome, Florence and Scotland from 200 years ago contributed to the narrative
• The limits Kiera placed on her imagination when speculating to fill gaps in the fragmentary historical record
• How Kiera portrayed the cultural norms, societal values and prevailing ideologies in which Adelaide successfully pursued her artistic ambitions
• How Kiera interpreted Adelaide’s romantic mysticism, which appeared in her poetry and paintings
• The art and craft of speculative biography, as well as its relevance and impacts.