Jonathan Keates

Biography

Jonathan Keates was born in Paris, France, in 1946. He was educated at Bryanston School and went on to read for his undergraduate degree at Magdalen College, Oxford. He has written a number of acclaimed biographies and travel books, but his works of fiction have also received critical acclaim, most notably Allegro Postillions, for which he was awarded both the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Hawthornden Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

In addition, Keates was an English teacher employed by the City of London School from 1974 to 2013, where Daniel Radcliffe was among one of his students. He was a judge of several writing competitions (including the Booker Prize 1991). Keates retired in order to focus on his chairmanship of the Venice in Peril Fund. His latest book, La Serenissima: The Story of Venice (2022), takes place in 1846 during the Habsburgs' siege of Venice.