Sir Roderick Beaton grew up in Edinburgh and studied English Literature at Peterhouse, Cambridge, before turning to Modern Greek as the subject of his doctorate, also at Cambridge – and at the British School at Athens. After a three-year postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Birmingham he embarked on a long career at King’s College London, first as Lecturer in Modern Greek Language and Literature (1981–1988), later as Koraes Professor of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature (1988–2018), and since then as Emeritus Koraes Professor. From 2012 to 2018 he also served as Director of the Centre for Hellenic Studies at King’s, and from September to December 2021 as A.G. Leventis Visiting Professor of Greek at the University of Edinburgh. Since 2022 he has been Chair of the Trustees of the British School at Athens, one of the British International Research Institutes (BIRI) supported by the British Academy. Roderick is the author of many books and articles that relate in various ways to the Greek-speaking world. His books include: An Introduction to Modern Greek Literature (1994);George Seferis: Waiting for the Angel. A Biography (2003);Byron’s War: Romantic Rebellion, Greek Revolution (2013);Greece: Biography of a Modern Nation (2019);The Greeks: A Global History (2021), and most recently Europe: A New History (2026), published in the UK by Allen Lane/Penguin in March and Basic Books in the USA in April. Four of his books have won the prestigious Runciman Award for best book on the Hellenic world;he has also been shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize and the Cundill History Prize and has won several other awards in Greece (Anagnostis, Daidalos, Epilogos, Vardinoyannis). Roderick is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA, 2013), a Fellow of King’s College (FKC, 2018), Commander of the Order of Honour of the Hellenic Republic (2019) and an Honorary Fellow of Peterhouse, Cambridge (2024). In 2023 he received honorary citizenship of Greece and an honorary doctorate from the University of Patras, and in February 2025 he was knighted by King Charles III for services to History and UK/Greek relations.