Robert Waller

Robert Waller (born September 1955) is a British historian, election expert, author, teacher, and former opinion pollster. His best known published work is The Almanac of British Politics (eight editions, 1983–2007), a guide to the voting patterns of all United Kingdom parliamentary constituencies.

Education and career

Waller was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and educated first at Buxton College in Derbyshire, and then at the University of Oxford. In 1977, he earned a first class BA in history from Balliol College, and in 1981, graduated from Merton College with an MA and D.Phil. in History. His doctoral thesis, a historical study of the Dukeries district of Nottinghamshire, was published by Oxford University Press in 1983 under the title The Dukeries Transformed. He was a Fellow of Magdalen College from 1980 to 1984.

From 1984 to 1986, Waller was a lecturer and tutor in Politics and History at the University of Oxford, as well as an assistant professor at the University of Notre Dame. In 1986, he became the research director of the Harris Research Centre, responsible for national opinion polling. He remained in this position until 1998, when he took up secondary school teaching. He has since taught at Brighton College, Dame Alice Harpur School in Bedford, and Haileybury in Hertford. In 2001 he was made head of History and Politics at the Greenacre School for Girls in Banstead, Surrey. In 2017 he moved to teach at Dunottar School, Reigate.

From 2008 until the 2010 general election, Waller contributed a monthly column to Total Politics magazine.

From March 2020 an online version of the Almanac, moderated by Waller, has appeared on the Vote UK website. From July 2023, this addressed the new constituency boundaries scheduled to come into force at the next UK general election.