Biography

Dr James Fox is a Cambridge art historian, bestselling author, and multi-award-winning, BAFTA-nominated broadcaster.

 

He is Director of Studies in History of Art at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Creative Director of the Hugo Burge Foundation, and an Honorary Fellow of the Arts University Plymouth.

 

His critically acclaimed books on art and culture have been translated into fourteen languages. His most recent book, Craftland: a Journey Through Britain's Lost Arts and Vanishing Trades (2025), was a Sunday Times bestseller, named Waterstones Book of the Year, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and shortlisted for the Nero Book Prize and Wainwright Prize.

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James is perhaps best known for his many art documentaries for the BBC, including A History of Art in Three Colours, The Art of Japanese Life, The Age of the Image and Nature and Us: a history through Art. He is the co-host of Stories of Art podcast, which launched in 2026.

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Convinced of creativity's huge social importance, James works with museums, schools, businesses, charities and the media to engage broader audiences in this most life-enhancing of activities.

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