Author and antiques expert Judith Miller dies, aged 71

Author and antiques expert Judith Miller died over the Easter weekend, aged 71, after a short illness.

Her publisher Mitchell Beazley confirmed the news in a statement. Miller leaves behind her second husband and work colleague of over 30 years, the writer John Wainwright, her children Cara, Kirsty and Tom and her four grandchildren, Aria, Leo, Lila and Clea. She was the antiques consultant on her daughter Cara’s debut novel, The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, the first in the Crockleford Antiques Mystery Series, to be published in early 2024 by Pan Macmillan.

In 1979 Judith Miller co-founded Miller’s Antiques Price Guide with her first husband Martin Miller and at the time of her death was working on the forthcoming edition of the book.

Born in Galashiels in the Scottish Borders in 1951, Miller was a self-confessed “child of the Formica generation”, and  began collecting inexpensive antique plates in the late 1960s, initially to brighten up the walls of her student digs while studying at Edinburgh University.

Increasingly intrigued, she began to explore their history, and in the decades that followed went on to become one of the world’s leading experts on not only antiques, but also interior design, the publisher says. Following the publication of the first  Miller’s Antiques Price Guide  in 1979, Miller wrote more than 100 books on antiques and interiors – published by Mitchell Beazley, Marshall Editions, Ryland, Peters & Small and Dorling Kindersley in the UK, and numerous other publishers internationally.

Miller also appeared regularly on TV and radio. She joined the BBC’s " Antiques Roadshow"  as an expert in 2007, co-hosted the BBC series "The House Detectives", ITV’s  "Antiques Trail", and Discovery’s  "It’s Your Bid" and represented her alma mater Edinburgh in an alumni series of "University Challenge". She contributed to numerous newspapers and magazines and lectured extensively, including at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London and the Smithsonian in Washington.

Octopus publisher Alison Starling said: “Judith Miller’s association with Mitchell Beazley goes back to the 1980s when the Miller’s Antiques Price Guide was created from a bustling office in the picturesque Kentish village of Tenterden. I’ve been lucky enough to work with Judith on and off for the past 30 years and the news of her death is a huge shock. She had such energy and spirit – and always combined her impressively broad-ranging, in-depth knowledge of antiques with a life-long passion to make the world of collecting accessible and unintimidating to all.

“Judith will be much missed by all those readers and viewers who looked to her for expert and reassuringly friendly advice… and of course here at Octopus, where she established long-standing friendships with numerous members of staff over the years – forged through topics of conversation as diverse as work, family, dogs, Scottish rugby and her other passion, Bruce Springsteen.”