Kate Williams is a historian, author and broadcaster. She is a Professor of Modern History at Reading University and an expert in Royal & Constitutional Affairs. Kate co-presents the hit podcast Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things for the Daily Mail, in which she reveals and explains the more scandalous side of royal history alongside Mail columnist Robert Hardman. Kate has contributed to a number of Channel 5 documentaries, including the Secrets of the Royal Palaces and the Royal Residence series. Kate is the in-house historical analyst for CNN, providing expert commentary for news and events such as the Queen’s funeral, the King’s coronation, and the arrest of Andrew Mountbatten Windsor.
Kate often appears on Radio 4, Sky News, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, ITV News, Channel 5 News and Good Morning Britain to discuss the historical aspect of royal news. The Radio 4 Today Programme called her ‘Historian Extraordinaire’.
She recently performed the first in a series of live shows with Suzannah Lipscomb – To Kill a Queen: Two queens. One crown. A decision that would change the monarchy forever.
She has worked with BBC Politics and BBC Events on numerous events including the Referendum in Scotland, the anniversary of the outbreak of World War One and the RTS award-winning 70th anniversary coverage of VE Day.
She co-presented BBC Two’s RTS-nominated Restoration Home as well as The Stuarts for UKTV and Netflix. To accompany the major BBC Two Drama, Versailles, Kate co-presented two series of Inside Versailles, delving deeper into the history of the French court. She has presented two BBC Inside Out films on Derbyshire’s Belper Mill and how the nation’s transport system resumed after WWII.
On Radio, Kate has presented radio documentaries on The History of the Smile and author of Self Help, Samuel Smiles. She was the historian on Frank Skinner’s Radio 4 Series, The Rest is History – called ‘Professor search engine’!
Kate loves quiz shows and was a regular on the BBC Four show, The Quizeum, hosted by Griff Rhys Jones – dubbed the ‘human encyclopaedia’! Kate won Celebrity Mastermind, with Emily Bronté as her specialist subject. She also took part in BBC Two’s The Great History Quiz: The Tudors and regularly appeared on the BBC Two quiz show, Insert Name Here, and has been a guest on BBC One’s Would I Lie To You.
Kate is a NYT bestselling author of six historical books. Her biographies of Josephine Bonaparte is being made into a major TV series by Ecosse and her biography of Emma Hamilton is being made into a film.
Kate is also an experienced after dinner speaker and lecturer and she speaks regularly to historical societies, groups, conferences and commemorative dinners.
