Anna Beer is a British author and lecturer, primarily known for her work as a biographer.
Her particular interests as a biographer are "the relationship between literature, politics and history,"[4] (which was the basis for her life of John Milton, 2008) and the rediscovery of neglected lives, the motivation both for her book about Bess Throckmorton, the wife of Sir Walter Raleigh (2004) and her exploration of the lives and work of female composers Sounds and Sweet Airs: the forgotten women of classical music which was published by Oneworld Publications in 2016 and shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Awards in 2017 for Creative Communication.Classical Music More recently Eve Bites Back: an Alternative History of English Literature explores the lives and work of eight authors, including Jane Austen. It was described in the Times Literary Supplement as 'invigorating' book review by Dinah Birch
She was Lecturer in Literature at the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford between 2003 and 2010, and remains a Fellow of Kellogg College She is also a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow RLF
Peter Ackroyd described Beer's biography of Milton as "a persuasive reading of the power and complexity of Paradise Lost,"[1] while former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion esteems it "a reliable guide to nonspecialists" and "the anniversary present he [Milton] deserves."[2] Philip Pullman called it 'a beautifully clear account of a richly complex life...Fascinatingly vivid...It's the best narrative I've read of the life of our greatest public poet'.
In recent years, Beer's work has focused increasingly on gender inequality in the arts. In an interview in 2022 she said "every day I see something in the news that echoes a tired, sexist cliché (some more toxic than others) from the past – whether the 1400s or 1900s – and that fires me up again. We owe it to these historical women to celebrate their lives and work and there are people right here, right now, who need to think again about their views of women with knowledge and authority".The Idler