Here are some of The History Girls at our inaugural meeting - our launch, which also involved lunch - at Michelle Lovric's home. Michelle is third from the left in the front row. Linda Buckley-Archer and H.M.Castor are first and second left and Mary Hoffman on the right. Behind them are Eleanor Updale and Imogen Robertson and, standing, Theresa Breslin, Celia Rees, Mary Hooper, Adèle Geras and Leslie Wilson. Peeping out behind them are Sue Purkiss, Penny Dolan and Barbara Mitchelhill. Katherine Langrish and Caroline Lawrence were taking photos. Read about all of us here:
Louise Berridge
Jane Borodale worked as an artist before turning to fiction – inspired by spirit of place, and the tangled mass of fragments, gaps and traces that is history. She recently spent a year as Leverhulme writer-in-residence at the Weald and Downland Open Air Museum in Sussex, and is fascinated by the lives of ordinary people in the past. Jane has written for other sites including the Wordsworth Trust, Cumbria and the Foundling Museum, London, and has an MA in site-specific sculpture from Wimbledon School of Art.
Her first novel The Book of Fires, about 18th-century illegitimacy and firework-making, was shortlisted for the Orange Award for New Writers.
Her new novel The Knot is set on the edge of the Somerset Levels and explores the life of a forgotten pioneer of 16th-century English botany. She lives in the West Country with her husband, poet Sean Borodale, and their two children.
Theresa Breslin is the critically acclaimed multi-award winning author of over 30 books for children and young adults whose work has appeared on television and radio and is read world-wide in many languages.
She won the Carnegie Medal, the UK’s most prestigious award in children’s literature, for Whispers in the Graveyard, her compelling story of a dyslexic boy and her latest novel, Prisoner of the Inquisition, is on this year’s Carnegie shortlist. She has written a range of historical novels which include The Nostradamus Prophecy, and bestsellers, The Medici Seal, following the life of Leonardo da Vinci and Remembrances, a tale of youth in World War One. Her latest novel, Prisoner of the Inquisition, continues her books dealing with feisty women, exploring the turbulent Spain of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand and the mariner-navigator Christopher Columbus - longlisted for the Guardian Book Award, and shortlisted for the Northern Ireland Book Award, the UKLA (United Kingdom Literature Award), the Young Quills Award for Historical Fiction, and the Carnegie Medal. A respected contributor to professional journals, Theresa is passionate about reading. She travels extensively, doing research for her books and speaking at international conferences and book festivals.
Nicky Browne
N M Browne grew up in Lancashire of Welsh parents and has a degree in Theology and Philosophy from New College, Oxford, a PGCE from Kings College Cambridge, and an MBA from Manchester Business School. In an effort to use this ill assorted combination of qualifications she taught in a secondary school and worked for an international oil company before accepting the inevitable and becoming self employed. She has published nine novels for children and young adults and now lectures part time in Creative Writing at Kingston University.
Linda Buckley-Archer grew up in rural Staffordshire near Dr Johnson’s birthplace,
Lichfield. Linda was a college teacher, journalist and scriptwriter (for radio and
television) before becoming a novelist. Inspired by accounts of 18th-century
criminality, Gideon the Cutpurse (called The Time Travelers in the US), the first
volume of a YA historical fantasy trilogy, was published in twelve countries
including Russia and Japan.
Current writing projects involve researching life at the Court of Versailles and
the Paris riots of May ’68. Linda also reviews children’s fiction for the
Guardian and has a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths College. She lives in
London with her husband and two teenaged children.
Lichfield. Linda was a college teacher, journalist and scriptwriter (for radio and
television) before becoming a novelist. Inspired by accounts of 18th-century
criminality, Gideon the Cutpurse (called The Time Travelers in the US), the first
volume of a YA historical fantasy trilogy, was published in twelve countries
including Russia and Japan.
Current writing projects involve researching life at the Court of Versailles and
the Paris riots of May ’68. Linda also reviews children’s fiction for the
Guardian and has a PhD in Creative Writing from Goldsmiths College. She lives in
London with her husband and two teenaged children.
H.M. Castor has been obsessed with history, and especially Tudor history, since primary school. She has been obsessed with writing for just as long. After having her first book accepted for publication by Penguin at the age of twelve (under the name Harriet Castor), she went on to study History at Cambridge University, and since then has written over forty fiction and non-fiction books for children, nearly half of them historical biographies. However VIII (published by Templar in October 2011) is a new and exciting departure: her first historical novel, and her first novel for teenagers. H.M. Castor lives in Bristol with her husband and two daughters.
Penny Dolan is a children's writer and storyteller, and works in schools, libraries, museums, galleries and at historic sites. Her latest novel A BOY CALLED MOUSE is set in a fictional Victorian age and follows her runaway hero's life on the road with a Punch & Judy man and into the whirling backstage life in the Albion Theatre.
Eve Edwards has a doctorate from Oxford University and thinks researching a large part of the fun for writing historical fiction. She has visited Tudor houses, attended jousts and eaten Elizabethan banquets to get the sights, sounds and tastes right for her book. She lives in Oxford and is married with three children and also writes under the names Julia Golding and Joss Stirling.
Essie Fox
Essie Fox grew up in rural Herefordshire. After studying English Literature at Sheffield University she worked as editorial assistant for the publishers, George Allen & Unwin. When her daughter was born she worked from home as a professional illustrator – a career that lasted for over twenty years before she returned to her love of books and started to paint pictures with words instead. Essie is fascinated by the nineteenth century and she blogs as The Virtual Victorian. Her debut novel, The Somnambulist is published by Orion Books. It is a Victorian gothic mystery set in the East End music halls, docks, and cemeteries, as well as a Herefordshire country house that Essie knew well in her youth.
Teresa Flavin
New York born illustrator Teresa Flavin was inspired by her love of Renaissance paintings, labyrinths and mystery stories when she wrote her début novel, The Blackhope Enigma (Templar Publishing, 2010) and its forthcoming sequel, The Crimson Shard (October 1, 2011).
Moving from the USA to live in Scotland was also a huge creative influence for the former art college instructor and amateur radio DJ. For Teresa, Scotland’s mysterious landscape, rich mythology and dramatic history provide endless fascination and material for stories and artwork.
When she is not writing or illustrating, Teresa makes paintings and hand-made books, hikes in the Scottish hills and walks every labyrinth she can find.
Adèle Geras was born in 1944 in Jerusalem, where her mother's family have lived since the mid -19th century. Because her father worked in the British Colonial Service, she spent her childhood in many different countries, including Nigeria, British North Borneo and the Gambia. She was educated at Roedean School and St Hilda's College Oxford, where she read French and Spanish. She's been an actress and singer and a teacher of French but since 1976 has written full time. She's published more than 90 books for children and young adults. Her novel Troy (Scholastic) was shortlisted for the Whitbread Award and Highly Commended for the Carnegie Medal. Two of her books (My Grandmother’s Stories and Golden Windows) won prizes in the USA. Together with Linda Newbery and Ann Turnbull, she has written two novels (Lizzie’s Wish and Cecily’s Portrait) for the Historical House series (Usborne). A Candle in the Dark (A & C Black) is for younger children and deals with the subject of the Kindertransports. She has published four novels for adults, the most recent of which is A Hidden Life (Orion) and a collection of poetry called Voices from the Dolls’ House (Rockingham Press). Her most recent novel is Dido (Corgi). After 43 years in Manchester, she and her husband Norman Geras now live in Great Shelford, Cambridge. They have two daughters and three grandchildren.
Laurie Graham
Laurie Graham is the otherwise unemployable author of twelve dark, social comedies and with her most recent, A Humble Companion, has fulfilled a long-time ambition to write about the 18th and 19th centuries. She is currently working on a novel with a Nelsonian theme which will be published by Quercus in 2013. She also blogs at http://www.lauriegraham.com/blog usually on some aspect of books and writing.
She has four children, nine grandchildren, and lives in Dublin with her American husband.
Laurie Graham
Laurie Graham is the otherwise unemployable author of twelve dark, social comedies and with her most recent, A Humble Companion, has fulfilled a long-time ambition to write about the 18th and 19th centuries. She is currently working on a novel with a Nelsonian theme which will be published by Quercus in 2013. She also blogs at http://www.lauriegraham.com/blog usually on some aspect of books and writing.
She has four children, nine grandchildren, and lives in Dublin with her American husband.
Mary Hoffman has written over ninety books for teenagers and children, recently specialising in the fantasy history of the Stravaganza sequence, set in a parallel world version of Italy in the 16th Century. She also writes stand-alone historical novels like The Falconer’s Knot, Troubadour and David, all published by Bloomsbury.
She lives in a converted barn in Oxfordshire with her husband and three predatory cats. Her three daughters are all grown up and work in the Arts.
Dianne Hofmeyr
Dianne Hofmeyr grew up in Africa where she taught art. Archaeology, ceramics, Ancient Egypt, African History and voyages of exploration are her touchstones. She won the M-net Award for a novel set in South Africa during the peace process prior to Nelson Mandela’s release. Her two Ancient Egyptian novels, Eye of the Moon and Eye of the Sun, have come out for younger readers in the States and are translated into many languages. She now lives in London in a flat that was once part of the house of the sculptor Marochetti, next door to the Artists’ Studios where the statue of Richard the Lionheart and the lions of Trafalgar were cast.
Mary Hooper has been writing for nearly thirty years. She started by writing short stories for magazines and gradually the stories got longer and longer and before she knew it, she was writing books. She used to do "issue books" - her Megan series about teen pregnancy is still in print after fifteen years - but then discovered historical fiction and loves writing this so much she doesn't want to do anything else. Fallen Grace is her eighth historical novel - and her first set in Victorian times. It received brilliant reviews in both the Times in the UK and the New York Times.
Marie-Louise studied German and Scandinavian, worked abroad and in the UK, and then spent a number of years home-educating her two sons. Having done an MA in Writing for Young People, she was first published by Oxford University Press in 2008. She lives in Bath with her teenage sons.
Catherine lives in historic Hackney in a genuine Victorian slum. She has written historical novels and those dramatic inserty bits for Simon Schama’s BBC2 programme Rough Crossings. She prefers horse power to cars, trains to aeroplanes, but would hate to have to wear any kind of corset. She was rubbish at history at school but enjoys the 18th century in particular, but is glad she only goes there in her head and doesn't have to live there.
Katherine Langrish is the author of several YA novels published by HarperCollins, including a trio of historical fantasies set in the Viking age: Troll Fell, Troll Mill and Troll Blood (republished 2011 in an omnibus version as West of The Moon), and Dark Angels (US title The Shadow Hunt), a tale of ghosts and faeries set on the Welsh border in the 12th century. Her writing, which has sometimes been compared with that of Alan Garner, is inspired by folklore and legends, and she blogs about all aspects of myth, fantasy and legends at Seven Miles of Steel Thistles.
Caroline Lawrence writes historical novels because nobody has invented a Time Machine. She writes for kids 8 - 12 because that is her inner age. Caroline divides her time between 1st century Ostia and 19th century Nevada. In a manner totally befitting a split-personality Gemini, this Californian Londoner has two websites, one for her Roman Mysteries and one for her Western Mysteries.
Michelle Lovric writes historical novels for adults and children. She has particular interests in Venice, art and the history of medicine. Her first novel, Carnevale, is the story of the portrait-painter Cecilia Cornaro, described by The Times as the possessor of ‘the most covetable life’ in fiction in 2001. In The Floating Book, a chorus of characters relates the perilous birth of printing in Venice, examining the translation of raw emotion into saleable merchandise. Lovric’s third novel, The Remedy, a literary murder-mystery set against the background of 18th-century quack medicine, was long-listed for the 2005 Orange Prize for Fiction. In her latest, The Book of Human Skin, Lovric returns to the theme of art, with a plot revolving around a transgressive portrait of a supposedly dead nun in Peru. She also explores the issues of Holy Anorexia, unmitigated villainy and a very unusual form of bibliomania. Her first novel for young adult readers, The Undrowned Child, was described by The Independent as ‘gripping, elegant and original’ A sequel, The Mourning Emporium, was published November 2010. Michelle Lovric is currently a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the Courtauld Institute of Art.
Sue Purkiss taught English in various settings before becoming a writer. She has recently been a Royal Literary Fellow at Exeter University.
Her most recent book, Emily’s Surprising Voyage, was long-listed for the Carnegie Medal. Set in the 19th century, it’s about two children travelling to Australia on board the first iron ship, the SS Great Britain. The previous one, Warrior King, was a novel about the great Dark Age leader, Alfred the Great, and his very remarkable daughter, Athelfled.
Sue is married with three fairly grown up children and a very charming dog called Jessie. Of the whole family (except Jessie), she is the only one who did not study history beyond year nine.
Celia Rees studied History and Politics at Warwick University and then went on to teach English in city comprehensive schools for seventeen years. She now divides her time between writing, talking to readers in schools and libraries, reviewing and teaching creative writing. She has written over twenty books for older children and teenagers. In recent years, she has concentrated mainly on historical fiction. Witch Child (2000) won the prestigious Prix Sorcières in France and has been translated into 28 languages. Her other historical titles include: Sorceress, Pirates!, Sovay and her latest novel, The Fool’s Girl.
Katherine Roberts won the inaugural Branford Boase Award for her first novel Song Quest, part of the Echorium trilogy. She is author of the Seven Fabulous Wonders series (translated into 12 languages so far) and the Carnegie-nominated I Am The Great Horse. She received a first class degree in mathematics from the University of Bath, and has also written computer software and worked with racehorses.
Katherine’s historical claim to fame: She is heiress of a small part of Manhattan island (the mythical Edwards-Hall fortune).
Imogen Robertson grew up in Darlington, studied Russian and German at Cambridge and now lives in London. She directed for film, TV and radio before becoming a full-time author. Imogen won the Telegraph’s ‘First thousand words of a novel’ competition in 2007 with the opening of Instruments of Darkness, her first novel. Her second novel featuring the detective duo of Harriet Westerman and Gabriel Crowther, Anatomy of Murder, was published in April 2010, and the third in the series Island of Bones in April 2011. She can be found talking about writing at Imogen Robertson's Blog.
Eleanor Updale wrote her first four historical novels while studying for a PhD. Her novels are based mainly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Her thesis covered the late seventeenth and early eighteenth. Academically, she specialises in the history of science and ideas. Her fiction focuses more on mystery and fun, but with technology, and in particular the sewers of Victorian London, playing a large part. She is also involved in the world of medical ethics, being a lay member of the Clinical Ethics Committee at Great Ormond Street Hospital and of the UK Donation Ethics Committee. She is also on the editorial advisory board of the journal Clinical Ethics. This interest finds its way into her plots, too.
Eleanor's Montmorency books have won prizes on both sides of the Atlantic, including the Blue Peter prize for 'The Book I Couldn't Put Down'. Her latest, Johnny Swanson, was longlisted for the Carnegie Medal, and is on several of this year's shortlists, including the UKLA award and the Historical Association's Junior Quills. Eleanor has been on the judging panels for several awards, including the Guardian and the Royal Society prizes, and is one of this year's Costa judges. She is a Royal Literary Fund fellow. She appears at, and frequently chairs, sessions at all the major festivals, and occasionally broadcasts on programmes such as Radio 4's 'A Good Read'.
Leslie Wilson is the author of four critically acclaimed historical novels, two for adults, Malefice and The Mountain of Immoderate Desires(which won the Southern Arts Prize) and two for young adults, Last Train from Kummersdorf (shortlisted for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize) and Saving Rafael (nominated for the Carnegie Medal, Highly Commended for the Southern Schools Book Award, shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year Award and longlisted for the Wirral Paperback of the Year Award). She has lived in England, Germany, and Hong Kong. She lives in Berkshire with a husband and a dog, and has two daughters and a grandson.
Louisa YoungLouisa Young is the author of My Dear I Wanted to Tell You (HarperCollins), set between 1908 and 1919, a story of love, death and the origins of maxillo-facial reconstructive surgery in World War One.
She has also written The Book of the Heart (Flamingo), a cultural history of that most emblematic organ, and A Great Task of Happiness (out of print - republishing January 2012), a biography of her grandmother the sculptor Kathleen Scott, widow of Captain Scott of the Antarctic.
Her first novel, Babylove, was listed for the Orange Prize.
As half of Zizou Corder she has co-written five children's novels with her daughter, including the Lionboy trilogy, which is published in 36 language.
She read history at Trinity College, Cambridge, and lives in London, where she is working on the sequel to My Dear I Wanted to Tell You.
