Elizabeth Fremantle holds a first in English and an MA in creative Writing from Birkbeck. As a Fashion Editor she has contributed to various publications including Vogue, Elle, Vanity Fair and The Erotic Review and has had her fiction published in The Mechanics Institute Review. She presently works as a reader for Literary Scouts, Anne Louise Fisher Associates, whilst working on a series of novels based around the Tudor court, the first of which is Queen's Gambit.
The Boleyn Secret (2026) Alison Weir "With her extraordinary breadth of knowledge and scrupulous attention to detail, Alison Weir has excavated from the Tudor records the unsung story of a remarkable woman who had a ringside seat to some of the most precarious and pivotal passages of history. Katherine Carey learned young how to negotiate the knife-edge of court, developing deep loyalties and cautious allegiances. She had fifteen pregnancies, had to flee England and live as a fugitive for a time, and carried a momentous and dangerous secret about her origins for her entire life. Her story is as fascinating as it is gripping."
A Schooling in Murder (2025) Andrew Taylor "Taylor evokes beautifully the tawdry atmosphere, the cast of misfits and the relationships and love affairs that must be hidden, with a lightness of touch that belies the deeper tragic elements of the story. This is a novel of immense charm."
Madame Matisse (2025) Sophie Haydock "Madame Matisse is a fascinating portrait of three extraordinary women whose lives were shaped by the conflicts, hardships and upheavals of early twentieth century Europe. Each of these distinctly different women are linked by the man they all loved, Henry Matisse. While he created a new aesthetic, they each carved their own rules, flying in the face of society's restrictive expectations. Sophie Haydock, in her restrained and precise style, has written a worthy follow up to The Flames."
The King's Mother (2024) Annie Garthwaite "Breathes life into these women, wives, daughters and mothers. It is rare that historical fiction is so immersive and transporting."
An Inconvenient Wife (2024) Karen E Olson "Kate Parker has just wed her boss, the six-times-married Titan of industry Hank Tudor, when the headless corpse of a woman is discovered on his land. But this is not the first one - some years before another decapitated female was found and never identified. Kate is hell-bent on finding out the truth. I thought I knew exactly where this was going but Olson kept me guessing with her twisty plot. Hugely entertaining, bursting with irony and all about the women - imagine The Tudors set in the world of Succession, by way of Jackie Collins. I was swept off my feet."
Bonjour, Sophie (2024) Elizabeth Buchan "A coming-of-age novel and so much more. Buchan weaves her narrative into a mystery that must be solved as much for the reader as for Sophie, whose story recalled, for me, the young heroines of Elizabeth Jane Howard, modern women cramped by convention, yet spirited and courageous. A wonderful, engrossing, tear-jerking and joyful read."
The Square of Sevens (2023) Laura Shepherd-Robinson "The Square of Sevens is a cunningly plotted and wonderfully captivating novel that conjures up the Georgian period with a magical touch. Shepherd-Robinson guides us effortlessly through the social and political landscape of the time - the South Sea Bubble, the wonders of science, the complicated manners of Bath society - and populates this terrain, from drawing rooms to backstreets, with a plucky heroine and a cast of hugely engaging characters, each with their own secrets and flaws and all woven together with Dickensian deftness. I defy even the most curmugeonly not to be thoroughly entertained."
Clytemnestra (2023) Costanza Casati "Rivals House of the Dragon in conspiracies and feminine brutality. Here is a complex and courageous woman, all flesh and blood, simmering with passion. Facing the grimmest of betrayals, Clytemnestra's ruthless desire for revenge powers a thrilling plot. This is an electrifying read that shocks and fascinates in equal measure."
The Words I Never Wrote (2020) Jane Thynne "The Words I Never Wrote threads its way through layers of twentieth-century history, weaving a pattern of love, loss, hope, and tragedy against a backdrop of conflict. Two sisters separated both ideologically and geographically are brought together once more when a half-finished manuscript describing their lives surfaces more than half a century later, allowing their stories to be unpicked and re-sewn together in a deeply moving narrative. Highlighting the power of the written word to bear witness to the seismic shifts of history, this is complex material beautifully stitched. I couldn’t recommend it more highly."
The Doll Factory (2019) Elizabeth Macneal "A remarkably assured and beautifully written debut, filled with sinister delights and intriguing themes of imprisonment and objectification. A truly captivating read."
The Glass Woman (2019) Caroline Lea "remendous. Atmospheric and beautifully wrought, The Glass Woman is both chilling and beguiling."
The Story Keeper (2018) Anna Mazzola "I read The Story Keeper in a single sitting and am very glad it is still light because I have rarely encountered such a creepy and unsettling story. With echoes of The Wicker Man, the remote and desolate setting adds to the sense of threat but also gives it a timeless quality, like the folkloric stories it evokes."
The Last Hours (2017) (Last Hours, book 1) Minette Walters "A vividly-wrought and powerful story. With The Last Hours, Minette Walters has brought her impressive skill as a writer of psychological crime to create a dark and gripping depiction of Medieval England in the jaws of the Black Death."
Black Rabbit Hall (2015) Eve Chase "Black Rabbit Hall is a seductive wonder of a novel; with echoes of Daphne du Maurier and Dodie Smith, it pulls you irresistibly into its world where nothing is quite as it first appears."
The Misbegotten (2013) Katherine Webb "Katherine Webb's writing is beautiful and THE MISBEGOTTEN reads like a journey through the dark hidden world beneath a Jane Austen novel."
