My story
I believe there is so much power in what history left unsaid. That’s why I write about
Strong women who’ve been written out of the record
Places that only dusty old maps still remember
Events that are barely a footnote in textbooks
A childhood dream
I knew from an early age that I wanted to be an historical novelist. I was rarely without a notepad and pen when I was growing up, as you can see from the photo.
Finding social history
After I left school, I went to the University of Edinburgh to study history. I had originally signed up for a degree in Scottish history, but, in my first year, I took a course called British Society, c.1600 to 2000. This introduced me to social history, or history from below. Thanks to the amazing lectures by Professors Trevor Griffiths, Adam Fox and Julian Goodare (and many others), I fell in love and switched to social history.
Studying during the pandemic
I went on to complete a master’s in history, where I studied the relationship between crime and poverty in nineteenth-century London, through one specific crime: infanticide. My thesis was about whether the New Poor Law (the law that Charles Dickens was criticising in Oliver Twist) was responsible for the ‘epidemic of infanticide in the mid-nineteenth century and whether there actually was an epidemic of infanticide. I wrote my these during the COVID-19 lockdowns, which involved some creative researching.
In the big, bad world
I had decided that I wasn’t going to do a PhD as I’d planned. I just wanted to tell stories, and a PhD didn’t feel like the right vehicle for that. So I focused on learning the craft. I trained as an editor and proofreader but ultimately decided to focus on my writing.
Brotherings
In March 2025, I published my first short story, ‘Brotherings’, in Stories from Scotland volume 2. Based on the true story of the Tranent Militia Riot, ‘Brotherings’ follows Jackie Crookston as she gathers support for a protest against the British Government’s unfair Militia Act, which aimed to recruit 6,000 Scotsmen to fight Napoleon. Will the protestors succeed, or will it all end in tragedy?
Current projects
I am currently working on a novel set in Edinburgh during World War 1 about an inspector investigating a series of murders.
Other stories
I also update my blog regularly with stories about lesser-known historical events and the process of writing historical fiction.