Ophelia Field's first book - a historical biography of Sarah Churchill, a major political figure during the reign of Queen Anne - was published to critical acclaim in 2002. She is currently working on a group biography of several literary members of the Kit-Cat Club, also based in the early eighteenth century, which will be published by HarperCollins UK.

Ophelia was born and raised in Australia and London, and educated at Christ Church, Oxford and the London School of Economics. Aside from her career as a freelance writer, she has also worked for over a decade as an advocate for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers. She has been an expert consultant to, among others, the European Council on Refugees and Exiles, Human Rights Watch and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees.

Ophelia has reviewed for the Times Literary Supplement and Sunday Telegraph, as well as publishing numerous articles related to both her historical and human rights work. She won the inaugural Elizabeth Longford grant for biographical research in 2003.

photo: © Barney Cokeliss

The fascinating history of the male-only members of the Kit-Cat Club, the unofficial centre of Whig power in 17th century Britain, and home to the greatest political and artistic thinkers of a generation.

The Kit-Cat Club was founded in the late 1690s when London bookseller Jacob Tonson forged a partnership with pie-maker Christopher (Kit) Cat. What began as an eccentric publishing rights deal - Tonson paying to feed talented young writers and receiving first option on their works - developed into a unique gathering of intellects and interests, then into an unofficial centre of Whig power during the reigns of William & Mary, Anne and George I.

With consummate skill, Ophelia Field portrays this formative period in British history through the club's intimate lens. She describes the vicious Tory-Whig 'paper wars' and the mechanics of aristocratic patronage, the London theatre world and its battles over sexual morality, England's Union with Scotland and the hurly-burly of Westminster politics.