Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy (17 May 1933[1] – 16 July 2019) was a British author, known for biographies, including one of Alfred Kinsey, and books of social history on the British nanny and public school system.
Born in Edinburgh, he was raised in London, and educated at Port Regis School,[3] Bryanston School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he received a major scholarship to read history.
[4][5] As a boy, he was one of Benjamin Britten's favourites and he and his family provided the names for the characters in The Little Sweep.
His father was Surgeon-Commander Honorable Antony Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, the fourth child of the third Earl.
[6][7] His cousin, born just a month after him, was the zoologist Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 5th Earl of Cranbrook, who attended Cambridge at the same time as he did.