Linda Colley, CBE, FBA, FRSL, FRHistS (born 13 September 1949) is a historian of Britain, empire and nationalism. She is currently^[update] Shelby M. C. Davis 1958 Professor of History at Princeton University in the United States.

Born in Chester, England, Colley was an undergraduate at Bristol University, and completed her doctorate at the University of Cambridge, where she was supervised by John H. Plumb. After holding Fellowships at Girton College and Newnham College, in 1978 she became the first woman Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge.

In 1982 Colley accepted a post at Yale University, where she was appointed Richard M. Colgate Professor of History in 1992 and where she was also Academic Director of the Lewis Walpole Library. Her third book, Britons: Forging the Nation 1707-1837 (1992), won the Wolfson History Prize, and has attracted wide and continuing attention both as a study of the evolution and complexities of British national identities, and as a contribution to understandings of nationalism more broadly. In 1998, Colley was offered a Sterling Professorship, Yale's highest Professorial rank, but declined it in favor of an offer of a Research Chair in England.

James Gordon Brown (born 20 February 1951) is a British Labour Party politician who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Labour Party from 2007 until 2010. He previously served as Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Labour Government from 1997 to 2007, becoming the longest-serving holder of that office in modern history. Brown has been a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1983, for Dunfermline East until 2005, and currently for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath.

Brown became Prime Minister on 27 June 2007, after the resignation of Tony Blair and three days after becoming Leader of the governing Labour Party. His tenure ended on 11 May 2010, when he resigned as Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party. Brown was one of only three people to serve in the Cabinet continuously from Labour's victory in 1997 until its defeat in 2010, the others being Jack Straw and Alistair Darling.

Brown has a PhD in history from the University of Edinburgh and spent his early career working as a lecturer at a further education college and a television journalist. He has been a Member of Parliament since 1983; first for Dunfermline East and since 2005 for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath. As Prime Minister, he also held the offices of First Lord of the Treasury and the Minister for the Civil Service.