Andrea Stuart (born 1962)^[1] is a Barbadian-British historian and writer, who was raised in the Caribbean and the UK^[2] and now lives in the UK. Her biography of Josephine Bonaparte, entitled The Rose of Martinique, won the Enid McLeod Literary Prize in 2004.^[3] Although her three published books so far have been non-fiction, she has spoken of working on a novel set in the 18th century.^[4]

Born in Jamaica, of Barbadian parents, Andrea Stuart spent many of her early years there, where her father was Dean of the medical school at the University College of the West Indies. She moved to England with her family when she was 14, in 1976. She studied English at the University of East Anglia and French at the Sorbonne.^[5] She began working as a journalist, then branched into publishing and television documentary production.^[6]

Stuart's first book was Showgirls (London: Jonathan Cape, 1996), a collective biography of showgirls through history to the present day, from Colette, to Marlene Dietrich, to Josephine Baker, to Madonna.^[7] It was adapted into a two-part documentary for the Discovery Channel in 1998, and since then has inspired a stage show, a dance piece and a number of burlesque performances.^[2]

In 2003 Stuart's second book, The Rose of Martinique: A Biography of Napoleon's Josephine, was published. Described by Kirkus Reviews as "unfailingly interesting",^[8] and by The Washington Post as "a comprehensive and truly empathetic biography",^[9] it won the Enid McLeod Literary Prize in 2004 and has been translated into several languages.^[1]

Stuart's most recent book, Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire, was published by Portobello Books in 2012, to much acclaim.^[3][10] It tells the story of slavery and colonialism in the Caribbean from the perspective of what Stuart learned about her own family's experience through seven generations from the 17th century.^[11] Amy Wilentz wrote in The New York Times: "In this multigenerational, minutely researched history, Stuart teases out these connections. She sets out to understand her family’s genealogy, hoping to explain the mysteries that often surround Caribbean family histories and to elucidate more important cultural and historic themes and events: the psychological aftereffects of slavery and the long relationship between sugar — 'white gold' — and forced labor.... Much of the fiery magic of this book arises from Stuart’s ability to knit together her imaginative speculations with family research, secondary sources and the work of historians of the region, including C. L. R. James and Adam Hochschild....There is not a single boring page in this book."^[12] Publishers Weekly referred to Stuart "Brilliantly weaving together threads of family history, political history, social history, and agricultural history into a vivid quilt covering the evolution of sugar—"white gold"—and slavery and sugar's impact on the development of Barbados as well as on her own family."^[13] Valerie Grove in The Times said: "A riveting story of family, slavery and the sugar trade…[Stuart belongs] in the canon of fine post-colonial writers."^[14] The Guardian′s reviewer described the book as "a diligently researched hybrid of family memoir and history ... absorbing".^[15] Margaret Busby in The Independent referred to it as "a magisterial work of history".^[16]

Stuart's work has appeared in numerous newspapers, magazines, and anthologies (including 2019's New Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby),^[17] and she has been co-editor of Black Film Bulletin and fiction editor of Critical Quarterly.^[6]

Stuart has taught at Kingston University, as a Writer-in-Residence since 2011,^[6] and on the Biography course at the Arvon Foundation.^[26] She was also a writing tutor with the Faber Academy,^[27] directing the "Writing Family History" course,^[28] and has been associate lecturer in cultural studies at the University of the Arts London, visiting lecturer in creative writing at City University London, and in cultural studies at Central Saint Martins.^[29]

• Caribbean poetry
• Caribbean literature
• Postcolonial literature