About the Author

Henrietta Heald is a writer and editor with a particular interest in history, architecture, travel and interiors. She is the author of William Armstrong: Magician of the North, a biography that was shortlisted for two literary prizes. Her other books include Coastal Living, La Vie est Belle, a National Trust guide to Cragside in Northumberland and, most recently, Magnificent Women and Their Revolutionary Machines, a centenary history of the Women’s Engineering Society. Henrietta is also a self-confessed ‘blue-and-white addict’. The hallway of her London home is painted bright aquamarine; the dining room is dominated by areas of intense Matisse blue; and everywhere there are blue-and-white ceramics collected on her European travels.