Valerie Lester is the author of the biographies Phiz: The Man Who Drew Dickens (Chatto & Windus, 2004), Giambattista Bodoni: His Life and His World (Godine, 2015), and Marvels: The Life of Clarence Bicknell, Botanist, Archaeologist, Artist (Troubadour, 2018). She is also the author of the history, Fasten Your Seatbelts! History and Heroism in the Pan Am Cabin (Paladwr, 1994), and the translator of Alain-Fournier's Le Grand Meaulnes (Vintage, 2009).
