Liza Picard

Who is Liza Picard?

Liza Picard is an English historian specialising in the history of London.

After reading law at the London School of Economics she was called to the bar by Gray's Inn when she was 21. She did not practise as a barrister, although she did write a book called Questions and Answers on Private International Law for which she was paid £25. She worked for the office of the Solicitor of Inland Revenue until her retirement in 1987. She left her home in Hackney and moved to Oxford.

Upon retirement Picard began researching the history of Restoration London, publishing her first book on the subject in 1997. Three years later, she published a similar volume on Dr. Johnson's London, one on Elizabeth's London followed in 2003, Victorian London in 2005.

Her books place great emphasis on citing contemporary diaries so that she may "speak with the voice of the times".

Picard is modest about her skills, telling the Guardian: "I am not a properly trained historian. I am a lawyer by trade, and an inquisitive, practical woman by character."