Irene Collins (née Fozzard; 16 September 1925 – 12 July 2015) was a British historian and writer, known for her studies of Napoleon and Jane Austen.

Her father was a joiner from Leeds, and her mother left school at 12 to work as a burler and mender at the Black Dyke Mill in Queensbury.

She also gained a major county scholarship to St Hilda's College, Oxford, to read modern history at the age of 17.

[2][3] Graduating with a first-class degree in 1946, the 22-year-old Collins was appointed as an assistant lecturer at the University of Liverpool the following year as the department's only female staff member.

[2] These were widely read, partly as a result of the 1995 BBC series Pride and Prejudice, and turned her into a practical celebrity among Austenites across the world.

[4] Collins was a great supporter of historical scholarship in China and in 1994 was invited to become Advisor to the Centre for British and American Studies at the University of Nanjing.