Kirsten Claiden-Yardley studied Modern History as an undergraduate at Merton College, Oxford, before completing a part-time Masters course in English Local History at Kellogg College, Oxford. She later returning to Merton College to complete a PhD on noble identity and commemoration in the Tudor period, as part of the collaborative project titled "Representing Re-Formation". In between times, she has worked in publishing and as Assistant Church Buildings Officer for the Diocese of Oxford. She was also engaged as a production researcher on the television adaption of Wolf Hall and as a historical adviser on a number of fiction and non-fiction publications. She is the co-founder of a heritage consultancy partnership specialising in ecclesiastical projects, and mother to a lively two-year-old.