Christopher Hibbert is an historian and biographer. Born in Leicestershire in 1924, Hibbert was educated at Radley College and then Oxford University, before going on to serve as an infantry officer in the London Irish Rifles during the Second World War. He was wounded twice and awarded the Military Cross in 1945. In 1979, he joined Ben Weinreb in creating The London Encyclopaedia, and he has also written books on London, Venice, Florence and Rome, among others. He continues to be published internationally and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Ben Weinreb (1912–1999) was a self-taught bibliophile with a particular interest in architecture. From humble beginnings in a Bloomsbury basement, he went on to become the world's leading antiquarian architectural bookseller, always aided and encouraged by his wife, Joan. In 1969, he started to compile and enlist contributors for The London Encyclopaedia, which was first published in 1983. John Keay, once a history scholar at Magdalen College, Oxford, has written some twenty books, mostly works of history. He is married to Julia Keay and they have four children. Julia Keay is co-editor with John Keay of the Collins Encyclopaedia of Scotland and author of The Spy Who Never Was, With Passport and Parasol and Alexander the Corrector.