Victoria Schofield


Rosemary Victoria Schofield is a British author, biographer, and historian. Her most recent books are a two volume history of the Black Watch and a biography of John Wheeler-Bennett. She also authored the first full-length biography of Field Marshal Archibald Wavell. She regularly contributes to British national and specialist media.
Victoria Schofield was educated at the Royal Naval School for Girls, and at Lady Margaret Hall of Oxford University, from which she holds a degree in Modern History. At LMH she was a close friend of Benazir Bhutto, whom she succeeded as President of the Oxford Union Society. She was the visiting Alistair Horne Fellow at St Antony's College, University of Oxford in 2004-2005.
Schofield is married to Stephen Willis and has three adult children.

Published works

Lucian W Pye observes in the Foreign Affairs that Schofield has reviewed the "entire record of the conflict, interviewed many participants" and struggled to find solutions. Pye states that the book provides excellent context for understanding the terrorist violence,"many of whom are backed by one side or the other."
Matthias Schmidt, of the Institute of Economic and Cultural Geography, notes in Mountain Research and Development that Schofield is one of the most prominent experts in the field. Schmidt observes that Schofield "offers a comprehensive and well-documented historical and political analysis of this conflict that goes back to the middle of the 19th century." Schmidt further observes that Schofield has explained the diverse state's complex history on the basis of historical sources, showing that the Kashmir Conflict is primarily a post colonial conflict. On the basis of numerous interviews, Schofield presents the political players involved. Schmidt concludes by highly recommending Schofield's book.
Joseph Schaller, of Nazareth College, observes in the International Journal of Hindu Studies that the work is a revision of Schofield's earlier book. Schaller calls the work ambitious in scope as it examines the entire political history of Jammu and Kashmir. Schaller opines that Schofield breaks little new ground and instead prefers to reiterate the conclusions of others in the major issues. Schaller recommends the book for general readers and also for undergraduate libraries lacking more extensive collections in South Asian
history.
Tor H Ase, of the International Mountain Society and United Nations University, has observed that overall it is a brilliant book which will stand as an authoritative source of insight into the Kashmir Conflict. Tor observes that the text is "rich in detail", "impressively well-documented" and that Schofield manages to remain unbiased while documenting the adversaries'
views.