Audrey Williamson (1) (1913–1986)

Audrey Williamson has long been known, on both sides of the Atlantic, as an author and journalist on drama, music, and the ballet. She was for some years a drama critic on The Times and when living in New York from 1961-4 continued writing articles and reviews for this paper, and also the Guardian and The Scotsman. Her critical biography, Bernard Shaw: Man and Writer published in the U.S.A. and England in 1963, was her her thirteenth book. Believing, like Shaw, that too rigid specialization limits the critic, she is the only one of his biographers to have practised, like him, as both music and drama critic, and to have written a book on Wagnerian opera. Her other books include best-selling studies of the Old Vic, Gilbert and Sullivan opera and ballet

History and politics are among her major interests [...] [from Thomas Paine (1973)]

Audrey Williamson began her studies of the Richard III and his period as a specialist in the plays of Shakespeare, working as a dramatic critic for The Times and as author of books on theatre subjects. She is also a writer and lecturer on 18th century history and has written on the Pre-Raphaelite movement. [adapted from Mystery of the Princes (1978)]