“The Mayfair-based author and socialite seems to have been torn straight from the pages of an Evelyn Waugh novel; with her cut-glass accent, perma-fixed tiara and layers of pearls.” CNN STYLE
“With the trendy London life & the glossy glamour, O’Connell herself is like an artistic statement, rather like Gilbert and George.” SUNDAY INDEPENDENT IRELAND
Tyne O’Connell is a British Author of 13 bestselling books, and LGBTQ+ Historian whose quest is to challenge the pink-washing of history and expose the multitudes of ghosted and heteronormalised LGBTQ+ Torchbearers from 1603-1850. As a direct descendent of the Irish Liberator Daniel O’Connell and the god-daughter of Quentin Crisp, O’Connell was driven by her fascination in how freedom, tolerance and liberty have historically fuelled the new ideas that provoke social changes and cultural, economic, scientific and technical progress. It was Quentin Crisp who inspired O’Connell’s conviction that ‘history is not made by conformists, but rather by eccentrics who dare to cut a line of their own, in the way they think, live and dress’. Her approach to history is to strip away the calvinist heteronormative historiography and research source archives. It was this method that exposed the debt society owes to owes to the LGBTQ+ Torchbearers of History whose intellectual ingenuity and flair for new-ideas in science, the arts, industry and technology, fuelled the cultural and social progress of history.
O’Connell is a Mayfair Historian and Author of thirteen international bestselling published novels, translated into 26 languages published by Headline Review / Bloomsbury USA
British Historian and Author ,Tyne O’Connell was shaped by her eccentric, Irish academic upbringing. Her mother was a feminist and anthropologist and her father was a spy in the RAF. Victorian nuns taught her to question the straight male historiography peddled by men reminding her that history isn’t made by conformists but by original thinkers, artists, eccentrics and those who dare to live outside the confined of covention. The nun’s emphasis on defiance was reinforced by her parents and their friendships and tales of Ian Fleming, Nancy Mitford, Prince Philip, Quentin Crisp lit the fuse of her drive to research and expose the untold history of the Defiant Women and LGBTQ+ Torchbearers of History who shaped.
As a child, O’Connell explored the secret underground passageways beneath Mayfair’s streets created in the 1600’s during the conflict between Royalist Cavalier Freedom Fighters who fought to protect freedom of expression, The Arts and tolerance versus the Puritan Roundheads led by Oliver Cromwell and other members of the Gentry who fought for the creation Puritan Military Dictatorship informed by the religious dogma of Calvinism. The maze of passageways lead to Whitehall and St James’s Palace and emerge at Berry Bros and various gentlemen’s clubs.
One access point to this maze remains at the back of Albany Courtyard, the exclusive “by invitation only” accommodation which has been home to Lord Byron, Gladstone and O’Connell’s close friend, Edward De Bono the Father Of Lateral Thinking, with whom she travelled the world.
In her late teens and early twenties Tyne lived in Nepal and Egypt working with local charities throughout Asia and North Africa focused on providing safety, food and education to women and children in remote areas and those escaping the traumas of war.
By the end of her twenties O’Connell’s became an established author of contemporary women’s fiction and later Y.A fiction.
The fuse was lit by famous Eccentric, Quentin Crisp who persuaded her to uncover the Defiant Women and LGBTQ+ of History
O’Connell’s life was first profiled in Vogue 1996. She has subsequently been featured in Style Magazine, The Guardian, The Times. Elle, Cosmopolitan, Marie Claire, Women’s Journal, Huffington Post, etc.
As part of a collaboration with other authors to raise money for War Child, O’Connell contributed stories to the Girl’s Night In, Kid’s Night In and the Travel Goddess series – with all proceeds to War Child for children living in conflict zones.
O’Connell also worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood for a year in 1997 when NBC purchased her life story and commissioned her to co-write the series. Sony TriStar then purchased the rights to her book, “What’s a Girl To Do?” for Tony Danza’s, Katie Face Productions.
In recognition of her achievements in uncovering the enormous contribution of the Stuarts and DeMedici’s to The Arts and Culture of Britain, the descendants of the Stuart and DeMedici Family awarded O’Connell the Crown of Stuart.
In recognition of her extensive research into the history of how and why “eccentricity became a quintessential aspect of the British Character” in 2015, H.R.H. Prince Philip awarded O’Connell the title of “Most Eccentric British Thinker” in his capacity as patron of the Eccentric’s Club – a club which dates back to the 1740’s.
Having spent years in treatment for a brain tumour, O’Connell was thrilled to be asked to walk in London Fashion Week, closing Michaela Frankova’s runway show September 2018 “Frankova’s ultimate Golden Age woman arrived on the catwalk” Women’s Journal