CATHERINE FLETCHER

Catherine Fletcher is professor of history at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her latest book, The Beauty and the Terror: An Alternative History of the Italian Renaissance (Bodley Head, 2020), was longlisted for the RSL Ondaatje Prize and the Historical Writers' Association Non-Fiction Crown. It followed previous work on sixteenth-century history including The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de' Medici (2016), which was shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year. Catherine was selected as an AHRC/BBC New Generation Thinker in 2015, and is a regular contributor on historical topics to podcasts, radio and TV. She is currently working on a project called Roads to Rome, envisaged as part history book, part road trip, on which she reflects in her essay for PLACE 2021.