Rosalind Miles (born Rosalind Mary Simpson on January 6, 1943) is an English author, historian, university lecturer, broadcaster, journalist, magistrate and activist who has written 23 works of fiction and non-fiction. Dr Miles' international best-selling book The Women's History of the World , also called Who Cooked the Last Supper?, charts the untold history of women.
She has two grown children, and is married to the historian Robin Cross. [1]
Rosalind Miles was born in Warwickshire, the youngest of three sisters. As a child, Miles suffered from polio, which she acquired at the age of four,[ citation needed ] causing her to undergo several months of treatment. From the age of ten, Miles attended the King Edward VI High School for Girls, [1] where she obtained a working knowledge of Latin and Greek, along with a lifelong love of Shakespeare. At seventeen, she was accepted at St Hilda's College, Oxford, [2] where she studied English literature, Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, Latin and French. There, she was awarded the Eleanor Rooke Memorial Prize, the Principal's Prize of St Hilda's College, as well as a State Studentship Award. She obtained five degrees in all, including an MA and Ph.D. from the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, as well a starred MA* from the Centre for Mass Communication Research at the University of Leicester. [1]
Alongside her studies, Miles worked in several occupations, including working as a travelling saleswoman and a stable hand. She got her first job, in a plastics factory, at the age of 13. [3] Miles later became interested in jurisprudence, which resulted in her appointment at the age of 26 as a lay magistrate in the Warwickshire criminal and family courts, and eventually on the bench in a superior court in Coventry. She served for ten years, and rose to the level of Crown Court. Miles has also worked with numerous government agencies and served on consultative committees. [1]
In addition to novelist, Miles is also a journalist and broadcaster. She began her broadcasting career on the BBC, for which she is now a regular commentator. She also broadcasts on Canadian radio, as well as numerous local radio stations. She has made many television appearances as a historian and commentator, including on CNN, PBS, and CBS. As a journalist, her work has appeared in major newspapers across the English-speaking world, including The Washington Post . Miles is also a major contributor to a number of magazines, including Prospect and Cosmopolitan . [1]
With Robin Cross:
The Holy Grail is a treasure that serves as an important motif in Arthurian literature. Various traditions describe the Holy Grail as a cup, dish, or stone with miraculous healing powers, sometimes providing eternal youth or sustenance in infinite abundance, often guarded in the custody of the Fisher King and located in the hidden Grail castle. By analogy, any elusive object or goal of great significance may be perceived as a "holy grail" by those seeking such.
Guinevere, also often written in Modern English as Guenevere or Guenever, was, according to Arthurian legend, an early-medieval queen of Great Britain and the wife of King Arthur. First mentioned in popular literature in the early 12th century, nearly 700 years after the purported times of Arthur, Guinevere has since been portrayed as everything from a fatally flawed, villainous and opportunistic traitor to a noble and virtuous lady. Many records of the legend also feature the variably recounted story of her abduction and rescue as a major part of the tale.
St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college is named after the Anglo-Saxon saint Hilda of Whitby and was founded in 1893 as a hall for women; it remained a women's college until 2008. St Hilda's was the last single-sex college in the university as Somerville College had admitted men in 1994. The college now has almost equal numbers of men and women at both undergraduate and postgraduate level.
Hilda Doolittle was an American modernist poet, novelist, and memoirist who wrote under the name H.D. throughout her life. Her career began in 1911 after she moved to London and co-founded the avant-garde Imagist group of poets with American expatriate poet and critic Ezra Pound. During this early period, her minimalist free verse poems depicting Classical motifs drew international attention. Eventually distancing herself from the Imagist movement, she experimented with a wider variety of forms, including fiction, memoir, and verse drama. Reflecting the trauma she experienced in London during the Blitz, H.D.'s poetic style from World War II until her death pivoted towards complex long poems on esoteric and pacifist themes.
Rosemary Sutcliff was an English novelist best known for children's books, especially historical fiction and retellings of myths and legends. Although she was primarily a children's author, some of her novels were specifically written for adults. In a 1986 interview she said, "I would claim that my books are for children of all ages, from nine to ninety."
Katherine Louise Mosse is a British novelist, non-fiction and short story writer and broadcaster. She is best known for her 2005 novel Labyrinth, which has been translated into more than 37 languages. She co-founded in 1996 the annual award for best UK-published English-language novel by a woman that is now known as the Women's Prize for Fiction.
Camelot is a musical with music by Frederick Loewe and lyrics and a book by Alan Jay Lerner. It is based on the legend of King Arthur as adapted from the 1958 novel The Once and Future King by T. H. White.
Iseult, alternatively Isolde and other spellings, is the name of several characters in the legend of Tristan and Iseult. The most prominent is Iseult of Ireland, the wife of Mark of Cornwall and the lover of Tristan. Her mother, the queen of Ireland, is also named Iseult. The third is Iseult of the White Hands, the daughter of Hoel of Brittany and the sister of Kahedin.
Guenevere, Queen of the Summer Country is a novel by Rosalind Miles, based on Arthurian legend. It chronicles the life of Queen Guenevere from her perspective, from childhood to the blossoming of her relationship with Lancelot.
This is a bibliography of works about King Arthur, his family, his friends or his enemies. This bibliography includes works that are notable or are by notable authors.
Maureen Patricia Duffy is an English poet, playwright, novelist and non-fiction author. Long an activist covering such issues as gay rights and animal rights, she campaigns especially on behalf of authors. She has received the Benson Medal for her lifelong writings.
The Knight of the Sacred Lake is a historical fantasy novel by Rosalind Miles. It was first published in 2000 by Simon & Schuster in the UK followed by Crown Books in the US. The book is a retelling of the Arthurian legend and follows the lives of Queen Guinevere, consort of King Arthur and her struggles with the king's nephews Agravain and Gawain; the queen is torn between her love for her husband, her land, and her lover, Lancelot. The book was part of a series, The Guinevere Novels, and was followed by The Child of the Holy Grail. Reviewing the book, Publishers Weekly described it as "a lush, feminist take on the English epic".
The Idylls of the Queen: A Tale of Queen Guenevere is a 1982 fantasy mystery novel set in the framework of the King Arthur myths written by American author Phyllis Ann Karr. It was first published in paperback by Ace Books in June 1982, and reprinted by Berkley Books in 1985. A trade paperback edition was published by Wildside Press in 1999. The novel's title is inspired by Alfred, Lord Tennyson's Arthurian poetry collection Idylls of the King.
As You Like It is a pastoral comedy by William Shakespeare believed to have been written in 1599 and first published in the First Folio in 1623. The play's first performance is uncertain, though a performance at Wilton House in 1603 has been suggested as a possibility.
Rosalind Coward is a journalist and writer. She is an Emeritus Professor of journalism at Roehampton University, and a former member of the board of Greenpeace UK (2005–12).
Merrily Weisbord is a Canadian literary non-fiction writer, documentary screenwriter and broadcaster. Her 2010 book The Love Queen of Malabar, a memoir of her longtime friendship with the late Indian writer Kamala Das, was a finalist for the 2010 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, the QWF Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction, and the Charles Taylor Prize for Literary Non-Fiction. Her other books include Dogs with Jobs, The Valour and the Horror, Our Future Selves: Love, Life, Sex and Aging and The Strangest Dream.
Hellawes the sorceress is a character in Thomas Malory's 15th-century Arthurian legend compilation Le Morte d'Arthur. She is lady of the Castle Nygurmous, associated with the chapel perilous episode in one of the quests of Lancelot.
Rosalind Mary Theodosia Hill (1908–1997) was an English historian who for 39 years was a lecturer, Reader and Professor in History at Westfield College, a constituent college of the University of London.
Heather Dale is a Canadian Celtic folk musician, author, entrepreneur, and filker who was inducted into the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Association's Hall of Fame in 2020. Much of her music draws on Celtic and Arthurian legend, but she also incorporates influences and instruments from other genres, including world music. She runs her own independent record label, Amphis Music, from its office in Toronto, Ontario.