Tim Clarke was educated at St John's College, Cambridge University, where he won a scholarship in history. He chose, however, to spend his career working in the City of London as a partner in one of the world's leading international law firms. Honouring a promise he had made to himself when he went up to Cambridge, he retired early from the law to become, once more, a historian. His biography of Frances, Countess of Jersey, is his first book.