Rebecca Birrell is an art historian, writer and curator. She grew up in Southport, and lives in Cambridge.

Her novel, Venus, Vanishing, will be published by Picador in the UK in July 2026 and Henry Holt in the US in October 2026. Order it for UK here and US here. It received a starred review from Kirkus, which described it as ‘a tour de force […] taut, mesmerising’ and a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly — ‘a magnificent debut’.

She has spoken about her novel at Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, at Foyles in London, at Wivenhoe Bookshop in Colchester, at desireline books in Berlin, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival and (twice!) at Cheltenham Festival. She will be having a much deserved break after appearing at Cambridge Literary Festival on November 22, tickets here. Some influences on the novel can be found here, here and here.

Her first book, This Dark Country: Women Artists, Still Life and Intimacy in the Early 20th Century was published by Bloomsbury in 2021. It was awarded an Antonia Frazer Award for a Biography in Progress by the Society of Authors in 2019. A Guardian/Observer Art Book of the Year 2021, it was described as ‘a striking act of collective empathy.’ It was also longlisted for the William M B Berger Prize for British Art History 2022 and shortlisted for the PEN Hessell Tiltman Prize, 2022.

She was Curator of 19th and 20th Century Paintings and Drawings at the Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, between 2021-2023. She curated the rehang of Galleries 1-5 that opened in March 2024. Between 2023 and 2026, she was a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellow at University of St Andrews. She is currently a Bye-Fellow at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.

Prior to her PhD, she occupied curatorial positions at The Charleston Trust, The Department of Prints and Drawings at The British Museum, and The Jewish Museum, working on research, exhibitions and displays. During her PhD, she undertook a fellowship at The Yale Center for British Art. She also worked on the photographic archive at the Wilhelmina Barns-Graham Trust.

She continues to work on curatorial projects and writes regularly for exhibition catalogues. This includes: an essay on the studio for the upcoming Wilhelmina Barns-Graham retrospective at Tate St Ives, an essay on the nude for the internationally touring retrospective Gwen John: Strange Beauties, the lead essay for Vanessa Bell: A World of Form and Colour at MK One Gallery/The Charleston Trust and an essay for Seeing Each Other at Pallant House Gallery.

She also writes about contemporary artists, including Sofia Mitsola, Yulia Iosilzon, Nicola Turner, and (for the 2024 Kettle’s Yard exhibition catalogue) Megan Rooney.

She recently collaborated with Dior for Jonathon Anderson’s Summer 2026 show. 

For enquires and commissions, please contact her agent Harriet Moore at: harriet@aitkenalexander.co.uk or directly at rb688@cam.ac.uk

Photo credit: Sophie Davidson, photographed at Kettle’s Yard.