Gareth Russell is a Northern Irish historian, author, and broadcaster. Educated at St Peter’s College, Oxford, and Queen’s University, Belfast, he specialises in European and royal history.

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Young and Damned and Fair, his biography of Queen Catherine Howard, was based on his postgraduate research and was published to critical acclaim in 2017. His account of the Titanic disaster, The Ship of Dreams, was a Daily Telegraph Best History Book (2019). Do Let’s Have Another Drink, his affectionate biography of the late Queen Mother, was named a Book of the Year (2022) by The Times. In 2023, his bestselling The Palace: From the Tudors to the Windsors, 500 Years of History at Hampton Court was named a BBC History Book of the Year.
 

His most recent book is a biography of James VI & I. Praised as “a stellar example of how to write historical biography,” it was published in February 2025 in the UK and Ireland as Queen James (a contemporary nickname for James). It will be published in hardback in Australia and New Zealand in July 2025. It will be published in Canada and the United States in time for Christmas as The Six Loves of James I. The audio book is narrated by Gareth. 
 
He frequently contributes to documentaries and news reports in Britain and America. He provided commentary on Elizabeth II’s funeral and Charles III’s coronation for BBC Northern Ireland.
 

Russell divides his time between Belfast and London.