Trinity Hall’s Professor Clare Jackson is the winner of the 2026 Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography, beating a ‘formidable’ short-list of works.

Described as a ‘masterwork’ by judges, her book ‘The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of James VI & I’ was announced the victor last night (June 15).

The annual prize awards historical biographies that combine scholarship and narrative drive. Judges were unanimous in voting for Professor Jackson’s work.

Roy Foster, Chair of Judges, said: “The 2026 short-list was one of the most formidable, as well as varied, that we can remember. But we were unanimous in choosing Clare Jackson’s The Mirror of Great Britain, a masterwork by a historian uniquely equipped to reinterpret James VI and I and his times.

“In short but richly articulated thematic chapters, Professor Jackson subtly but authoritatively recreates Britain on the edge of convulsive change, and shows the extent to which its monarch both precipitated the coming crisis, and held it at bay.

“Her conclusion that James was the ‘most interesting’ of British monarchs is triumphantly vindicated by a biography that combines original research, literary style, political acumen and psychological penetration – exactly the qualities that the Elizabeth Longford Historical Biography prize seeks to reward.”

The cover art for Dr Clare Jackson's historical biography entitled The Mirror of Great Britain: a Life of James VI & I".
Professor Jackson, Honorary Professor of Early Modern History at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity Hall, said: “I’m so thrilled by this announcement; I’m an avid reader of historical biographies, so joining the stellar company of previous prize-winners is a real surprise and honour.

“I’m also very grateful to colleagues in the wonderfully supportive research environment that is Trinity Hall. And finally, I’m indebted to James VI & I himself: an endlessly lively and fascinating, if sometimes infuriating, character!”

The Master of Trinity Hall, Mary Hockaday, said she was “thrilled” to congratulate Professor Jackson, adding: “She is a brilliant historian who is able to share her deep expertise with the general reader in an accessible and inspiring way. Trinity Hall students, and indeed the whole community, benefit from her presence in the Fellowship and I am delighted to see her talents recognised by this wonderful accolade.”

The Judges, Roy Foster, Antonia Fraser, Flora Fraser, Richard Davenport-Hines and Rana Mitter, are all distinguished historical biographers and historians. Antonia and Flora Fraser are also, respectively, daughter and granddaughter of the celebrated historical biographer, Elizabeth Longford, who died at the age of 96 in 2002. The Prize, now in its twenty-third year, was founded in 2003 by Flora Fraser and Peter Soros (Patron).

Alongside her academic work Professor Jackson has presented a number of highly successful television programmes for the BBC,  and is author of the award-winning ‘Devil-Land: England under Siege 1588-1688’. She most recently appeared in the BBC’s Queen James: Passion, Plots and Power in the Court of Britain’s First King, exploring the personal life of King James VI and I.