Roderick Beaton

Roderick Beaton grew up in Edinburgh, Scotland and studied English Literature at Cambridge, before specialising in Modern Greek studies. For thirty years until his retirement he held the Koraes Chair of Modern Greek and Byzantine History, Language and Literature at King’s College London, and is now Emeritus. He also chairs the Trustees of the British School at Athens, one of the British International Research Institutes (BIRI) supported by the British Academy.

Roderick is the author of several books of non-fiction, one novel, and several translations of fiction and poetry. He has been shortlisted for the Cundill History Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize and is a record-breaking four-times winner of the prestigious Runciman Award for best book on Greece and the Greek-speaking world. He has also won awards in Greece, including the Anagnostis, Daedalus, Epilogos and Vardinoyannis prizes.

He is a Fellow of the British Academy (FBA), a Fellow of King’s College (FKC), and Commander of the Order of Honour of the Hellenic Republic. From 2019 to 2021 he served as a member of the Committee “GREECE 2021”, charged by the Greek government with overseeing events commemorating the 200th anniversary of the start of the Greek Revolution in 1821, and from September to December 2021 as A.G. Leventis Visiting Professor of Greek at the University of Edinburgh. In 2023 he was awarded honorary citizenship of Greece.