Helen McCarthy

Helen McCarthy is an historian of everyday worlds of work, family and politics in modern Britain from the late 19th century to the present. She is author of Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood (2020), which was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize in 2021, and is currently writing a social history of retirement for Allen Lane.

 

McCarthy is Professor of Modern and Contemporary British History at the University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St John’s College. Her books include Women of the World: The Rise of the Female Diplomat (2014), which won Best Book on International Affairs at the Political Book Awards, and Double Lives: A History of Working Motherhood (2020), which was shortlisted for the Wolfson History Prize. Helen is currently writing a social history of retirement entitled Living the Dream: The Rise and Fall of Retirement, to be published by Allen Lane in 2028 and supported by a Major Research Fellowship from the Leverhulme Trust.