Vincent Archibald Patrick Cronin FRSL (24 May 1924 – 25 January 2011) was a British historical, cultural, and biographical writer, best known for his biographies of Louis XIV, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, Catherine the Great and Napoleon, as well as for his books on the Renaissance. Cronin was born in Tredegar, Monmouthshire, to Scottish physician and novelist A. J. Cronin, and May Gibson, but moved to London at the age of two. He was educated at Ampleforth College, Harvard University, the Sorbonne, and Trinity College, Oxford, from which he graduated with honours in 1947, earning a degree in Literae Humaniores. During the Second World War, he served as a lieutenant in the British Army.

Family

In 1949, he married Chantal de Rolland, and they had five children. The Cronins were long-time residents of London, Marbella, and Dragey, in Avranches, Normandy, where they lived at the Manoir de Brion. He died at his home in Marbella on 25 January 2011.

Awards

Cronin was a recipient of the Richard Hillary Award, the W. H. Heinemann Award (1955), and the Rockefeller Foundation Award (1958). He also contributed to the Revue des Deux Mondes, was the first general editor of the Companion Guides series, and was on the council of the Royal Society of Literature. His publications sold well, but were not always received well by scholars. Reviewer John T. Alexander called Catherine, Empress of All the Russias, a "facile popularization".

Works