Dr Rachel Holmes is a writer and Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre. She directs the London Literature Festival, and has judged several major literary prizes, including the Orange Prize for Fiction. Author of The Secret of Dr James Barry and The Hottentot Venus: The Life and Times of Saartjie Baartman, she is currently writing a book about the life of Eleanor Marx. Holmes has held lectureships in English at Queen Mary College, the University of London and the University of Sussex. In 1998 she left academia to join the launch team of Amazon.co.uk where she was Senior Editor of Books from 1998-2000 and Website Manager until 2002. She is the chair and trustee of several charities, including Friends of the Treatment Action Campaign, the organisation that support the Treatment Action Campaign in the fight against HIV and AIDS in South Africa, and a broadcaster, reviewer and critic on arts and culture.