Andrew Lownie was educated at Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he was Dunster History Prizeman and President of the Union, before taking his Masters and doctorate at Edinburgh University. A Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and former visiting fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge, he has run his own literary agency since 1988. A trustee of the Campaign for Freedom of Information and President of The Biographers Club, he has written for the Times, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Guardian and formerly served in the Royal Naval Reserve. He was one of the six man team who advised on the creation of the Washington Spy Museum.

His books include lives of the writer and Canadian Governor-General John Buchan, the Cambridge Spy Guy Burgess, the former Viceroy of India Dickie Mountbatten and the former Edward Vlll. He has been the top selling literary agent in the world and lectures extensively on how to get published biography.

He is currently a visiting professor at the Ulster Literary Biography Research Centre and a Senior Research Fellow in Modern British History at the University of Buckingham.

After the Abdication: The Duke and Duchess of Windsor in Exile
The 1936 Abdication Crisis when Edward Vlll gave up his throne for the woman he loved is well-known but what happened to them afterwards? Drawing on hitherto secret sources and his forthcoming book, historian Andrew Lownie tells their story from their pro-Nazi views and controversial wartime posting to the Bahamas to their post war life in Palm Beach and New York.

The Mountbattens: Their Lives and Loves
Dickie Mountbatten: A major figure behind his nephew Philip's marriage to Queen Elizabeth II and instrumental in the Royal Family taking the Mountbatten name, he was Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia during World War II and the last Viceroy of India.
Edwina Mountbatten: Once the richest woman in Britain and a playgirl who enjoyed numerous affairs, she emerged from World War II as a magnetic and talented humanitarian worker loved around the­ world. From British high society to the South of France, from the battlefields of Burma to the Viceroy's House, The Mountbattens , based on a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, is a rich and filmic story of a powerful partnership, revealing the truth behind a carefully curated legend.

Stalin's Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess
A popular power point presentation, which has been given at over a hundred festivals worldwide, on the life of Guy Burgess showing that he was the most important member of the Cambridge Spy Ring. Lownie's book on the subject was a Book or Biography of the Year in the Times, Guardian, Daily Mail, Mail on Sunday and Spectator and won the major prize for an intelligence book. It has also been optioned for drama and is a BBC documentary.

How to get Published
Andrew Lownie has run his own literary agency since 1988, having worked in publishing and been a director of the Curtis Brown literary agency, and is regarded as one of the top literary agents in the world. He has long been a champion of indie and assisted publishing and with Thistle Publishing pioneered the development of agent-assisted publishing. He is a regular at literary festivals and book fairs giving advice on how to get published, find an agent and the future of publishing.

History and Freedom of Information
Andrew Lownie is a trustee of the Campaign for Freedom of Information and a campaigner for more disclosure of historical documents. He has extensive experience of using the Freedom of Information Act to obtain historical documents and fighting cases through the Information Commissioner and tribunal system. His talk looks at how different countries deal with Freedom of Information and gives advice on how best to frame requests.

Literary Edinburgh
Few cities can boast such a distinguished literary pedigree as Edinburgh. From Stevenson, Scott and Burns to Alexander McCall Smith and JK Rowling many significant writers have lived in and been inspired by the city. Visitors have included Daniel Defoe, George Eliot, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray and the city inspired numerous classic novels, ranging from Stevenson's Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Muriel Spark's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie to Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting and Ian Rankin's Rebus crime novels. Andrew Lownie has written several books on Edinburgh's literary associations as well as leading literary tours of Scotland's capital, most notably for Road Scholar.

John Buchan
John Buchan is best known as the author of the spy novel The Thirty-Nine Steps but he wrote over a hundred books including historical fiction, biographies, poetry, children's stories and tales of the supernatural as well as having a full public life culminating in becoming Governor-General of Canada. Andrew Lownie is a leading expert on Buchan, now recognised as an important Scottish writer, having written the standard biography, edited Buchan's complete short stories and poetry and written introductions to many of the novels.

I've lectured for Seabourne, P&O, Cunard and at Cambridge University plus over 100 festivals.