Mr Dickens and the Mystery at Fort House Louisa May Investigates: Book One ‘A stolen document. A famous author. A young maid with everything to lose.’ Seventeen-year-old Louisa May has just lost her job as a London housemaid when she is offered a fresh start by the celebrated Inspector Henry Hedge: five guineas to work […]
‘Private Inquiries is a must-read – a riveting mythbuster, with its revelations of the real histories of women PIs’ – Val McDermid ‘Intriguing and informative, Private Inquiries is a fascinating piece of detective work. ‘ – Martin Edwards ‘Davies is a great storyteller and this is a feast of true crime and women’s place in […]
‘What a brilliant piece of research; pieced together with compassion, heart and understanding. Caitlin gives voice to women who have been forgotten or have only been seen through a male prism. She wrestles back their stories,’ – Maxine Peake. Listen to an interview (Jan 2025) on New Books Network Available to buy here The idea […]
Published by University of KwaZulu-Natal Press An extract from Place of Reeds has been included in Botswana Women Write, an anthology of writing by and about Batswana women. The 55 writers include the legendary Bessie Head and the poet Tjawangwa Dema, as well as many women being published for the first time. It is one […]
Unbound, September 1st, 2018 ‘A thrilling tale of female courage and love, beautifully told,’ Maggie Gee ‘A great slice of history, a feisty woman, and lots of swimming – what’s not to love?’ Jenny Landreth, author of Swell: A Waterbiography ‘Daisy Belle has the passion, greed and romance of all good stories, but with that […]
Published by John Murray, March 8th, 2018. Paperback Feb 2019 LONGLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING, 2019 ‘Davies’ absorbing study serves up just enough sensationalism – and eccentricity – along with its serious inquiry’ – Helen Davies, The Sunday Times ‘Caitlin Davies meticulously records a much-needed and balanced history’ – Yvonne Roberts, The […]
A History and Celebration of Swimming the River Thames Published by Aurum April 2015 ‘Hurrah .. for Caitlin Davies who fearlessly dives into the Thames to restore its reputation as a source of pleasure and even sensuality … Armed with Davies’ fascinating book, it is time for Londoners to rise and reclaim the river,’ Philip […]
Published 2013, by Frances Lincoln. ‘Full of both character and characters…If you know the market well, and witnessed much of its short but eventful history, you will savour every sentence, and simply must buy this book.’ – The Londonist ‘A beautiful, detailed study of the area’s transformation from industrial wasteland to iconic global brand.’ – […]
Published by Hutchinson 2011, Windmill 2012. “Big, rich and entertaining,” Saga Magazine “Engrossing. (Davies) represents historical research as exciting, romantic and as offering personal catharsis. History, we discover, begins with where we live and the people who lived in our homes before us,” History Today “In this dark thriller Caitlin Davies uses the haunted house […]
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2005. ISBN-13: 978-0743492270 A memoir of the 12 years Caitlin Davies spent in Botswana. ‘Candid and unsentimental. She has a particular gift for capturing an individual’s physical presence…Botswana is not quite the comforting place it appears in the genial writings of Alexander McCall Smith,’ – Hilary Mantel, Sunday Telegraph ‘Davies’s […]
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2008. ISBN-13: 978-1416522546 “A sweeping, multi-generational, feuding family saga, covering some 60 turbulent years,’ – The Bookseller “Davies lived in Botswana for twelve years and the landscape, culture and humour of its people obviously made a strong impression as they surface throughout the pages of this unusual and entertaining novel,” […]
A Swim Around Hampstead Heath Published by Frances Lincoln, 2011 ‘Well researched and colourfully told’ – The Observer ‘A really well-produced, rewarding book. Text and marvellous illustrations capture the joys, punishments and unabashed delights of bathing on the Heath. Well worth dipping into’ – Michael Palin ‘I loved Taking the Waters. It will appeal to […]
Published by Hutchinson, 2013, and Windmill, 2014, ‘A beautiful story of family and loss. Haunting and compelling’ – Lisa Jewell ‘Heart-rending’ – Anne Berry, author of The Adoption ‘A quickly engaging domestic mystery…gently ingenious,’ – Lesley McDowell, the Sunday Herald ‘This moving tale of life-long searches and accountability will pull at the heart strings’ – […]
Published by Simon & Schuster, 2009. “A sweet and insightful story, and there’s certainly more to Friends Like Us than your average chick-lit read.” – Heat Magazine 5* “An engaging story.” – Image Magazine “Friends Like Us charts the relationships between four life-long friends who have pledged loyalty to one another – but have secrets […]
Published by Penguin Books, 1996. ISBN-13: 978-0140248272 BUY FROM AMAZON The story behind the story This is a novel about a young girl growing up near a salt mine in Botswana in the 1980s, daughter of a Motswana man and a white English expatriate mother. I got the idea because I was living in a […]
Published by Viking Penguin, 2003. ‘A thought provoking and well-researched book, bound to cause controversy, not least in government circles but also in the scientific and laymen worlds,’ – Rodrick Mukumbira, newsfromafrica ‘It covers not only the history of El Negro and his return to Botswana but also wider issues about the treatment of human […]
I contributed to a collection of short stories – which included authors Joanna Trollope and Jilly Cooper – to raise funds for the charity PiggyBankKids, which supports fundraising efforts for a range of British charities who create opportunities for children and young people. TOTALLY MAGIC raised funds for the National Council for One Parent Families. […]
I contributed a short story to this collection of fiction and memoir celebrating mothers, with proceeds going to children’s charity PiggyBankKids. Published by Ebury, 2007.
An extract from Place of Reeds is included in Mary Lederer’s survey of the genesis and development of the English novel in Botswana. Published by African Heritage Press, 2014.
I chatted with New Books Network about my research for Queens of the Underworld and the stories I discovered from the 1600s to today. ‘A fabulous book, I cannot give it enough plaudits’ – many thanks to Katrina Anderson for a lovely long interview. Listen here.
The Bookseller has just announced that Queens of the Underworld will be published by The History Press in October 2021. For the next year I’m going to be on the hunt for forgotten criminal women – who were they, what made them so successful, and why don’t we know about them today?’
October 6th, Crown & Mitre Hotel, Carlisle, CA3 I gave a writing masterclass, Bringing the Past to Life: Starting to Write Non-fiction, at this year’s Borderlines Book Festival, followed by an illustrated talk on the history of Holloway Prison, sponsored by the Royal Literary Fund. A number of suffragettes were in the audience, members of […]
July 8th, 12.15 The Guildhall Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 I talked about the suffragettes at Holloway Prison – and how their defiance changed not only the prison service but the course of history – during the Lichfield Festival. The festival’s theme this year was ‘Extraordinary Women’, and the talk took place at the Guildhall, pictured above. […]
June 30th, 12.30pm. Queen’s Park, London, NW6 ‘Bad Girls and Brave Women: Reflections of a Centenary’ – I joined Shami Chakrabati, Rachel Holmes and Melissa Benn to discuss the history of women in Britain, from exceptional political pioneers to non-conformist rebels to the invisible women who don’t usually make it into the history books…
May 27th, 12.30pm. The Adnams Spiegeltent, Norwich Caitlin explored the real-life stories of those incarcerated at Holloway Prison over 164 years, including the suffragettes and other freedom fighters, at the Norfolk & Norwich Festival in conjunction with Writers’ Centre Norwich. She was in conversation with Helen Dawson, former governor of HMP Styal.
May 30th, 7.00pm. Blackwell’s Oxford, OX1 3BQ Caitlin gave a talk about a century of women, crime and punishment at Holloway Prison, as part of Blackwell’s Every Woman Series, a year long series of events run in conjunction with the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in the UK. Blackwell’s first opened […]
Sept 13th, Highgate Library, 7.30pm, London N19 5DH ‘Remarkable Women’ – an illustrated talk on both the history of Holloway Prison and the women who inspired Daisy Belle: Champion Swimmer of the World.
‘Caitlin Davies meticulously records a much-needed and balanced history of this home to ‘royalty and socialites, spies and prostitutes, Nazis and aliens, terrorists and freedom fighters’ and thousands of very ordinary desperate women, many of whom had experienced violence at the hands of men…. Bad Girls is a chronicle (of) the ongoing fight to replace a […]
‘A rich, superbly researched, definitive history of Holloway Prison, which closed in 2016, and of the many disobedient, defiant, dangerous women and girls incarcerated there. There are many heartbreaking stories within stories within stories.’
Jo Good has long been interested in prison – she once played a prison officer in the 1999 TV mini series Daylight Robbery – and she had plenty of questions to ask about both inmates and governors at Holloway. She found Bad Girls ‘such a good read…fascinating.’ Listen here
- 1
- 2