About Me

Books have always been important to me. Growing up in Lincolnshire in the 1970s, I was something of a contradiction; an active tomboy who also loved to read. Our family didn’t have money to spare (nobody did in those days) and I was reliant on the local library. I still recall my shock when my parents bought me the entire set of Malory Towers to keep me occupied during a rainy holiday in Bridlington. Six books that were mine to keep, and it wasn’t even my birthday!

In summer of 1988, I was sixteen, and all our possessions had been packed away. We were moving to Clacton, as my dad had a new job. I wasn’t allowed to go to the library in case the books got accidentally packed away. I found a half-filled box of my Mum’s old Everyman’s Library Classics.  Until that moment, I’d never given any thought to these pocket-sized hardbacks, covered in plain brown paper. With nothing else to do, I opened one. It was Emma, and I was entranced from the very first line. I can still remember the smell of old pages, my excitement (and surprise) when I realised I was reading something special. My love for the books of the 18th and 19th century sprung from that moment. Austen, Dickens, Trollope, the Brontës, I devoured them all.

Looking back, it was an escape from my loneliness at moving away from all my friends, a way to ignore the niggling suspicion that I was different from most girls. I wasn’t yet ready to accept that I was a lesbian. The late 1980s wasn’t a great time to be gay, especially if you were an introvert. Being gay got you beaten up, sacked, or vilified. Losing myself in books helped me feel safe.

It was books that taught me about being gay. Well, books and Xena. Oranges are not the Only Fruit and The Well of Loneliness were eye-opening, if not exactly cheering. Then came Sarah Waters. Her books were among the first I read that had lesbians at their heart, and her wonderful prose and intricate plotting showed me that lesbian fiction could be powerful and engaging, and also (sometimes) have happy endings.

I now read in many genres, and love many modern authors, but I still carry a special fondness for books written in or about the Georgian, Regency and Victorian periods. However, Sarah Waters aside, it’s almost impossible to find any that feature lesbians. If sapphic love was hinted it, it was usually in the context of moral depravity. The lack of lesbian and gay representation in the literature of the past is a constant reminder that acceptance of homosexuality is recent, and still not complete. It is why I write historical fiction with sapphic protagonists. I am also keen, where possible, to include diverse characters, something also notably lacking from the classics. My first historical novel, The Secret of Matterdale Hall is written deliberately in the style and language of the Victorian era. I want the reader to imagine finding it in a dusty old library,  between a copy of Agnes Grey and The Woman in White. A book that fills the gaps our much-loved favourites left behind. And my most recent novel, A Lady to Treasure is a  closed-door Regency romance inspired by Gentleman Jack and the works of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. It has been nominated for a Lammy award.

Find out more about me in this recent interview (link).