Bronwen Riley

Bronwen Riley is a writer, lecturer and editor with a special interest in the Classical world and in Romania – both life-long passions.

She is currently researching her new book Journey to Jerusalem, which follows a group of pilgrims on their extraordinary travels from Britain to the Holy Land in the late fourth-century. She published Journey to Britannia in 2015 (US edition The Edge of the Empire) which traced the route of a newly appointed governor of Britain and his team from Rome to Hadrian’s Wall at the time of the emperor Hadrian. Her Transylvania was published in 2008.

As head of content and series editor of the revered Red Guides at English Heritage, Bronwen published more than 80 guidebooks as well as other innovative titles in print and online. She has extensive knowledge of and insight into historic sites in Britain and is the author of two books on historic houses – Great Yarmouth Row Houses and Greyfriars' Cloister (2011) and Cloth Fair Chambers: A History (2007). She has also published many articles about country houses, antiques, gardens, collections and heritage for publications such as Country Life, Gardens Illustrated and BBC History Magazine. Bronwen has worked on a number of national newspapers and magazines, including Country Life, Tatler and The Daily Telegraph, for which she particularly enjoyed writing obituaries.

Bronwen is an experienced and engaging lecturer who has organised and led highly praised cultural tours to Romania. She has given talks, lectures, presentations and guided tours at many events, including at literary festivals, for BBC History Magazine, English Heritage, the Romanian Cultural Institute, the Transylvanian Books Festival as well as for charity events, local history societies and schools.

Bronwen read Classics at Oxford and Byzantine Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art where she wrote her dissertation on a miracle-working icon in Romania. She lives in the Lake District.