Geraldine Norman was born in Wales in 1940 and brought up in Oxford. She has a BA in Mathematics from the University of Oxford and joined The Times newspaper as a statistician in 1962. In 1967 she launched the Times-Sotheby index of art prices and in 1969 became the Sale Room Correspondent of The Times. She married Frank Norman, the well known author and playwright, in 1971 (d. 1980). In 1987 she left The Times to join the Independent newspaper as Art Market Correspondent, resigning in 1995 in order to write her book, The Hermitage: The Biography of a Great Museum (1997). She was director of the Hermitage Development Trust (1999–2001), editor of Hermitage Magazine (2003–2005), chief executive of the Hermitage Foundation UK (2003–2012) and director (2014–present). Geraldine’s books include The Sale of Works of Art (as Geraldine Keen, 1971), Nineteenth Century Painters and Painting, A Dictionary (1977), The Fake’s Progress (with Tom Keating & Frank Norman, 1977), Mrs. Harper’ Niece (as Florence Place, 1982), Biedermeier Painting (1987), Top Collectors of the World (with Natsuo Miyashita, 1993), The Hermitage: The Biography of a Great Museum (1997), Bob Hecht by Bob Hecht (ed. 2014).