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Glynis Ridley is originally from the north of England. After twelve years working in universities in Britain and Northern Ireland, she moved to the U.S. and joined the University of Louisville in 2004, chairing the Department of English from 2013-2023. She enjoys sharing her fascination for all things eighteenth century with both academic and non-academic audiences. Her first book, Clara's Grand Tour. Travels with a Rhinoceros in Eighteenth-Century Europe (2004) won The Institute of Historical Research Prize. Her second book, The Discovery of Jeanne Baret. A story of science, the high seas, and the first woman to circumnavigate the globe (2010) led to the 2012 naming of a new plant species, Solanum baretiae, in honor of its subject: the first species named for the botanist Baret in over two hundred years. Glynis has a new book due for release in 2026 - a biography of eighteenth-century poet Alexander Pope.