In 2005 Byrne's biography Perdita: The Life of Mary Robinson was featured on the Richard & Judy Book Club on Channel 4, propelling it into the Sunday Times bestseller list.

[4] Her book Mad World: Evelyn Waugh and the Secrets of Brideshead, another top ten bestseller,[5] was published by HarperPress in the UK in August 2009 and HarperCollins New York in the USA in April 2010.

The film presented forensic and art historical evidence that the work was authentic to the period, not a forgery, but the case for its being Austen was fiercely debated, both in the programme and subsequently in the Times Literary Supplement.

Featured as BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, and again a Sunday Times top ten bestseller,[8] it approaches the subject's life by means of an array of key objects, including her portable writing desk and the topaz cross given to her by her brother.

Based on the archive of Barbara Pym in the Bodleian Library, it revealed many surprising aspects of the life of the English novelist, including a brief love affair with a Nazi SS officer prior to the Second World War.