Geraldine Norman was born in 1940. Having read mathematics at Oxford University, she 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. In 1987 she moved to The Independent newspaper, leaving in 1995 to write her book The Hermitage: The Biography of a Great Museum (1997). She subsequently became director of the Hermitage Development Trust (1999–2001) and editor of the Hermitage Magazine (2003–2005). She remains a trustee of the Hermitage Foundation UK which she founded in 2003.
