Caitlin Davies

Caitlin Davies was born in London in 1964. She spent 12 years in Botswana as a teacher, human rights reporter and newspaper editor, during which she was twice arrested and put on trial. Many of her early books are set in the Okavango Delta, including her critically acclaimed memoir Place of Reeds. She is fascinated by the buried stories of women from the past, which feature in several of her books - The Ghost of Lily Painter is based on the arrest and execution of two Edwardian baby farmers, while Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World is inspired by the lives of forgotten Victorian aquatic stars. Her non-fiction books include Taking the Waters: A Swim Around Hampstead Heath, Downstream: A History and Celebration of Swimming the River Thames, and Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, which was longlisted for the 2019 Orwell Prize for Political Writing. Many of her books have a criminal theme, including Queens of the Underworld, a journey into the lives of female crooks, and Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths, to be published by The History Press in October 2023. She is a teacher, social historian, and freelance journalist, and was a regular feature writer for The Independent's education and careers supplement. As a Royal Literary Fund Fellow she has worked at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Science Museum and the University of Westminster, and is currently an RLF Writing Fellow at NHS Kent & Medway. She is a mentor with StoryBoard, https://www.storyboardwriter.com/, which offers writing help for both fiction and non-fiction. Her website is www.caitlindavies.co.uk Author photo by Florence Akano https://florenceakanophotography.com/