R. F. Foster was the Carroll Professor of Irish History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Hertford College, Oxford. His books include Modern Ireland 1600–1972, Paddy and Mr Punch, The Irish Story, W. B. Yeats: A Life, Volume I: The Apprentice Mage, W. B. Yeats, Volume II: The Arch-Poet and Luck and the Irish. Foster was awarded an Irish Presidential Distinguished Service Award in Arts, Culture & Sport in 2021, and received the Bob Hughes Lifetime Achievement Award at the An Post Irish Book Awards 2023.
