WRITER and broadcaster Amanda Vickery is joining Queen Mary College, University of London as head of early modern history.

The academic, who regularly fronts programmes for BBC Radio 4, will take her place as professor of the department at the college in Mile End Road from January 1.

She is an authority on British social history, particularly from the 17th century to the present and comes to Queen Mary from Royal Holloway College.

Two new courses, on the private lives of Britons from 1660 to 1850 and women in Georgian England, will run from spring.

Describing Queen Mary as a “go-getting, buccaneering institution”, Professor Vickery added: “I can’t wait to become an East Ender myself.”