Arthur Thomas Malkin

Arthur Thomas Malkin was an English writer born in Hackney in 1803. He is generally described as a writer, alpinist, and cricketer, a mix that gives him an unusually wide place in 19th-century cultural history.

As an author, he is most closely associated with The Gallery of Portraits: with Memoirs, a multi-volume series of biographical sketches written for general readers. The books gather portraits of major historical figures and pair them with accessible accounts of their lives, showing Malkin's gift for turning history into something readable and engaging.

Outside books, Malkin is also remembered as an early mountaineer: he is credited with the first recorded ascent of the Hockenhorn in the Bernese Alps in August 1840. He also appeared in first-class cricket for Cambridge University, making him one of those energetic Victorian figures whose interests stretched well beyond a single field.