Anna Beer

Biography

Death of an Englishman: an Oxford mystery, Anna’s crime fiction, appeared in 2025 with the sequel, An Inkling of Death, coming in late in 2026. 

Anna is best-known, however, for her work as a biographer and cultural historian. A Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, she has written major studies of familiar – think Milton, Ralegh and Shakespeare - and not so familiar figures, including her feisty, feminist and accessible accounts of female creatives. Anna’s most influential book is probably Sounds and Sweet Airs: The Forgotten Women of Classical Music (2016) whilst her most recent is Eve Bites Back: An Alternative History of English Literature (2022), both with Oneworld Publications.

The swerve to fiction is, however, not as surprising as it first seems. In many ways, Anna’s novels represent Beer business as usual. Both Oxford mysteries are filled with all the things she loves: strong female characters, fierce historical debates, and - of course - long train rides.