Katie Lumsden read Jane Eyre at the age of thirteen and never looked back. She spent her teenage years devouring nineteenth century literature, reading every Dickens, Brontë, Austen and Hardy novel she could find. She has a degree in English literature and history from the University of Durham and an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the London Short Story Prize and the Bridport Prize. Katie’s YouTube channel, Books and Things, has 25,000 subscribers. She lives in London and works as an editor.

The Secrets of Hartwood Hall is her debut novel.

Julie Owen Moylan is the author of three novels: That Green Eyed Girl, 73 Dove Street and Circus of Mirrors.

Her debut novel That Green Eyed Girl was a Waterstones’ Welsh Book of the Month and the official runner up for the prestigious Paul Torday Memorial Prize. It was also shortlisted for Best Debut at the Fingerprint Awards and featured at the Hay Festival as one of its TEN AT TEN debuts.

73 Dove Street was recently named as a Waterstones’ Book of the Year and Daily Mail Historical Fiction Book of the Year.

As a filmmaker Julie won the Celtic Media Award for her graduation film “BabyCakes” before going on to win Best Short Film at the Swansea Film Festival.

Her writing and short stories have appeared in a variety of publications including Sunday Express, The Independent, New Welsh Review and Good Housekeeping.

She has a Masters in Filmmaking and an additional qualification in Creative Writing & English Literature. Julie is an alumna of the Faber Academy.

I was, for over 35 years, an English teacher. After running a successful Educational Consultancy company for four years, I decided to return to an early passion, writing. As I love the works of C.S Forester, Simon Scarrow, Ben Kane, Alexander Kent and Bernard Cornwell, I began writing my Roman historical fiction novel, the Sword of Cartimandua. Since then my catalogue has been expanded so that it covers everything from the building of Hadrian’s Wall to the Korean War. A complete catalogue is available on my website.

In the last 12 years, I have written a number of series; from my Roman Books, through Saxons, Vikings, Norman, Stephen and Matilda, The Crusades, King John, King Richard II, Tudor England and the conquest of the Americas by the Conquistadores. At the moment, I am up to Henry Vth and Agincourt. I have also written an American Civil War series, as well as a series set during the Napoleonic War. Two of my most recent series are set in World War I and World War II. The former is about the RFC and the latter is about the Commandos. I have also written about the wars of the late eighteenth century.

As of October 2023, I have published over 175 books. My most popular series are the Dragonheart series (Viking Period), The Anarchy Series, The Lord Edward’s Archer Series (King Edward 1st) and the Sir John Hawkwood series about Italian condottiere.

I write at least 5000 words each day and I love my life as a writer. My readers are a constant source of information and active criticism. I try to respond to every reader.

Eleanor Swift-Hook enjoys the mysteries of history and fell in love with the early Stuart era at university when she re-enacted battles and living history events with the English Civil War Society. Since then, she has had an ongoing fascination with the social, military and political events that unfolded during the Thirty Years’ War and the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. She lives in County Durham and loves writing stories woven into the historical backdrop of those dramatic times.

Lord’s Learning follows the adventures of Philip Lord, a mercenary commander with a reputation for ruthlessness gained in the wars raging across Europe in the 1620s and 1630s, from his earliest exploits in his teens, to how he earns that reputation on land and at sea. It also tells the story of Kate, Lady Catherine de Bouqulement, a young woman in the service of the exiled Queen of Bohemia who undertakes diplomacy and intregue on her account – and reveals how the lives of these two young people gradually become entwined.

Lord’s Legacy continues the story of Philip Lord, who has returned to England at the opening of what will become the First English Civil War. But he returns with a treason charge hanging over his head and in search of his identity and heritage. The truth about that lies in the hands of a mysterious cabal calling itself the Covenant, and their secret conspiracy which began a century before. The story is largely told through the eyes of Gideon Lennox, a young London lawyer who has some growing up to do. He is honest, and intelligent, struggling with the changing reality as war overthrows the things he values. His worldview is broken apart and remoulded by the extraordinary people he is thrust into contact with and the demands made on him.

 

Sarah Rayne, the daughter of an Irish comedy actor, began writing in her teens, including plays for the Lower Third to perform in her convent school.

Her first novel was published in 1982, and since then she has written over 30 books.  As well as being published in America and Australia, Sarah’s novels have been translated into German, Dutch, Russian and Turkish.

For many years Sarah was active in amateur theatre, and lists among her interests theatre, history, music and old houses.  This fascination with old buildings is strongly apparent in many of her settings – Infanger Cottage in Song of the Damned; the sinister watermill, Twygrist, in Spider Light, and the haunted Charect House in Property of a Lady.

Music has influenced a number of her plots: the eerie death lament, ‘Thaisa’s Song’ in The Bell Tower, the macabre ‘Dark Cadence’ in The Devil’s Harmony, and the story of the scandalous 19^th century violinist, Roman Volf, in Death Notes.

But it is the theatre world of the late 19^th/early 20^th century that has inspired her more recent books, with the backdrop of the Victorian music hall, ‘Linklighters’ in Music Macabre, and the creation of the Amaranth Theatre for the irrepressible Fitzglen family, who make their first appearance in Book One of the ‘Theatre of Thieves’ series – Chalice of Darkness.

 

‘It was hard choosing just one of Rayne’s supernatural thrillers – they are all superb…’  Woman & Home

‘Totally hypnotic…  Grabs you from the start and builds to a gripping end…’  The Bookseller

 ‘Rayne spins eerie yarns within yarns like a latter-day Isak Dinesen or Wilkie Collins…’  Kirkus Reviews

‘Beautifully written with a strong protagonist and very cleverly constructed stories…’ Booklist Starred Review