Elizabeth Drayson is a British historian, author and literary scholar specialising in medieval and early modern Spain. Educated at Newnham College, Cambridge, she became an Emeritus Fellow in Spanish at Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge. Her research explores Spanish and European cultural history, particularly the complex relationships among Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities. She has also studied the representation of medieval culture in literature, film and visual art, and produced the first English edition and translation published in England of Juan Ruiz’s medieval Spanish work Libro de buen amor, issued as The Book of Good Love.
Drayson’s books combine detailed scholarship with accessible historical narrative. The King and the Whore examines the enduring legend of the Visigothic king Roderick and La Cava, while The Lead Books of Granada investigates the mysterious texts discovered near Granada during the late sixteenth century. The Moor’s Last Stand recounts the life of Boabdil, the final Muslim ruler of Granada, and was named among The Times and The Sunday Times best history books of 2017. She subsequently published Lost Paradise, a wide-ranging history of Granada from its earliest settlement to the modern city. Her most recent major work, Crucible of Light, traces thirteen centuries of interaction between Islam and Europe, challenging the idea that the Muslim and Christian worlds developed as separate civilisations and emphasising their continuing cultural, intellectual and political connections.
