Sometimes the inspiration for a novel is very close to home, very personal. It was the true story of her mother and aunt, both biologists and PhDs, both denied the careers they might have had, that led Rachel Hore to the idea for The Secrets of Dragonfly Lodge. Here she writes about the barriers that […]
Feisty Victorian women
Were Victorian women feisty? As Jem Poster says, they wouldn’t have recognised the word, but they’d have known the attitude. Some were feisty enough to become detectives – like Eliza Mace, the fictional protagonist of his new book. Reviewers of our co-written historical detective mystery, Eliza Mace, have repeatedly described the book’s titular heroine as […]
Red brick women: 1930s university pioneers
What was life like at university for the pioneering women who went to a red brick institution in the 1930s? Lizzie Bentham, who writes mysteries set against this background, draws on family experiences to explain. Each autumn, thousands of students will begin studying at so-called red brick universities, the nine civic universities founded in the […]