Riding worked as the former curator of the Palace of Westminster before becoming Director of the Handel House Museum.[3][1] Riding has worked as Books Editor for The Art Newspaper.[5][6]
In 2016, she published Jacobites: A New History of the ’45 Rebellion.[2][7][8] In 2018, she published Peterloo: The Story of the Manchester Massacre.[2][9] In 2021, she published Hogarth: Life in Progress, which was the Sunday Times Art Book of the Year.[10] In 2023, she published Hogarth’s Britons.[2]
She has worked as the art history and historical adviser on several films,[1] including Mr. Turner (2014), Peterloo (2018),[11] Colette (2018), Gwen (2018) and Prizefighter (2022).[3]
She is an Honorary Visiting Fellow of the University of York.[3]
She is a fellow of the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Clore Leadership Programme, the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and the Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.[3][12] She is a trustee of Sandycombe Lodge and the Jacobite Studies Trust.[3]
She is a writer of the Historical Writers Association.[12]