Hermione Lee grew up in London and was educated at Oxford. She began her academic career as a lecturer in Williamsburg, Virginia (Instructor, 1970-1971) and at Liverpool University (Lecturer, 1971-1977). She taught at the University of York from 1977, where over twenty years she was Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Reader, and Professor of English Literature. She was appointed in 1998 to the Goldsmiths' Chair of English Literature and Fellow of New College at the University of Oxford. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, a Fellow of the British Academy and of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's and St Cross Colleges, Oxford. She has Honorary Doctorates from Liverpool and York Universities. In 2003 she was made a Companion of the British Empire for Services to Literature. Her new biography of Edith Wharton is now available in paperback from Vintage. Order online via Vintage, Chatto & Windus, Alfred A. Knopf, Random House Canada, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, or from a variety of quality independent booksellers through localbookshops.co.uk or Book Sense.

Additional News: Misfits in France, a three-part series presented by Julian Barnes and Hermione Lee, will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 11.30am on Thursdays October 23 and 30 and November 6. Visit the Radio 4 website for more information: www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/misfitsinfrance/ Lee reviews Disguise by Hugo Hamilton -- 'The wounded heart of Europe.' The Guardian, 28 June 2008. Proms Literary Festival: Hermione Lee discusses English Romanticism from William Wordsworth to Thomas Hardy with Duncan Wu and Kate Kennedy [Saturday 19 July, 4.45 pm -- visit the Proms website] Hermione Lee is a judge on the Hawthornden Prize which is being announced on 17 July. Lee's Edith Wharton was shortlisted in the biography section of the 2008 James Tait Black Award. Hermione Lee has been given an Honorary Doctorate from the University of York. Lee was presented her honorary degree by Hugh Haughton, of the Department of English and Related Literature, on 12 July. Hermione Lee on being elected to the Presidency: 'I am delighted and honoured to have been elected to the Presidency of Wolfson College, an institution which since its foundation by Sir Isaiah Berlin in the 1960s has represented some of the best and most forward-looking aspects of Oxford education. It is a non-hierarchical, friendly, international and lively graduate college, a striking modern building in a beautiful riverside setting. Though I shall be sad to stand down from the Goldsmiths Chair, a post in which I have had ten rewarding and fruitful years, and though I hope to maintain my links with the Oxford English Faculty and to keep up my activities as a writer and critic, I look forward to taking on the new challenge of leading, representing, and working for the College.' Visit the Wolfson College website for more information.