Jesse Norman

Jesse Norman is a writer, thinker and politician whose books span political philosophy, biography and fiction. His acclaimed biographies of Edmund Burke and Adam Smith have been widely praised for bringing two of the great minds of the Western tradition alive for modern readers.

His first novel, The Winding Stair (2023), explored the fierce rivalry between Francis Bacon and Edward Coke at the courts of Elizabeth I and James I. A Companion to The Winding Stair — originally written as a birthday gift for his wife, Kate Bingham — illuminates the history, characters and ideas behind the novel. All proceeds of both books go to NMITE, the New Model Institute for Technology and Engineering in Hereford, which Jesse co-founded and now chairs.

An enthusiastic cyclist, hillwalker, wild swimmer and amateur jazz trumpeter, Jesse is MP for Hereford and South Herefordshire, a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and a Privy Councillor. He and Kate have three children.