Mary Wellesley’s HIDDEN HANDS: THE LIVES OF MANUSCRIPTS AND THEIR MAKERS is out with Quercus in the UK and with Basic Books in the US, as THE GILDED PAGE: THE SECRET LIVES OF MANUSCRIPTS. Mary studied English Language and Literature at Lincoln College, Oxford, before gaining a PhD from University College London in 2017. She has published academic articles and book chapters on Middle English literature and codicology and co-edited Stasis in the Medieval West: Questioning Continuity and Change, for Palgrave. From 2016 to 2018 she worked in the department of Ancient, Medieval and Early Modern Manuscripts at the British Library. She was later appointed a Research Affiliate at the library where she teaches courses on medieval language and literature for the library’s adult learning programme. She writes widely for a non-academic readership. She is a regular contributor to The London Review of Books, The New York Review of Books and The Times Literary Supplement, as well as a number of newspapers including the Sunday Times, Guardian and Telegraph, amongst others. She is the co-host of a London Review of Books podcast series called ‘Close Readings: Encounters with Medieval Women'. Her essays have appeared most recently in Eliot Weinberger’s ANGELS AND SAINTS (New Directions) and in ARCHIPELAGO: A READER, edited by Nicholas Allen and Fiona Stafford (Lilliput Press).

Author photo © Francesca McCafferty