Edward Whitley

Edward Whitley first became interested in the works of Jane Austen and George Eliot as an undergraduate at Oxford. His lifelong project has been to re-read and re-examine their novels in the context of each other. Edward’s previous books include The Graduates, a collection of interviews which was a Private Eye Book of the Year, and Gerald Durrell’s Army, a travelogue setting out the battle to save rare animals from extinction. This inspired him to launch the Whitley Awards, which fund wildlife conservation worldwide. In 2013, Edward was given the OBE for his work, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the Whitley Awards he was interviewed by Sir David Attenborough.