“When women have their proper place there’ll be an end of the wars you men think are so important.” 

When working-class typist Esther Grove joins the suffragettes, she discovers a strength she didn’t know she had. The campaign for votes for women gives her life new purpose, excitement and comradeship.

But not everyone approves of the “new” Esther. Despite hostility from family, friends and lover, Esther continues to fight for women’s rights. Even when her suffrage comrades fail her and abandon the struggle, she remains true to the cause.

Then the greatest betrayal of all comes from the place she least expected.

In 1907 suffragette Annie Kenney brought the militants’ fight for women’s right to vote to Bristol. For the next few years the city rang with the cry “Votes for Women!”. From colourful demonstrations on the Downs and stone-throwing in the Centre, to riot on Queen’s Road and arson in the suburbs, the book tells the fascinating story of Bristol’s suffragette years. Also includes a map and short walk in the Bristol of the suffragettes.

The Bristol Suffragettes was picked as a “fabulous feminist read” by the Bristol Magazine in February 2018. Find out about the books selected by Bristol Magazine 2018 (pdf document).

A South Gloucestershire Libraries Recommended Read.

The Bristol Suffragettes is now out of print. However, I do still have a few copies left (at a discounted price of £10 + p and p). If you would like one, please get in touch via the contact form.

‘Tramgirls, Tommies and the Vote’ was published in Bristol and the First World War: The Great Reading Adventure 2014 by Bristol Cultural Development Partnership for the Bristol 2014 project commemorating the outbreak of the First World War. The book includes chapters on a range of subjects including the war at sea, ANZAC soldiers in Bristol, voluntary work and more.

‘Tramgirls, Tommies and the Vote’ looks at the post-war backlash against women workers which culminated in the Bristol Tram Riots in 1920.

The book was distributed free around the city, and copies are available in Bristol’s libraries (for catalogue see Libraries West).

I have written about Bristol suffragette Victoria Lidiard for The Women Who Built Bristol by Jane Duffus. The book is a fundraiser for Bristol Women’s Voice and is published by Tangent Books. With entries on 250 inspiring women, the book is a compendium of the women who helped to shape Bristol into the vibrant city it is today.

Suffrage Stories: Tales from Knebworth, Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth (Stevenage Museum, 2019) includes my chapter ‘Not So Militant Browne’ about Millicent Price (née Browne), the suffrage campaigner whose biography I am currently writing. The book was produced as part of the Stevenage and North Herts Suffrage Stories: 100 years of votes for women project, run by Stevenage Museum working with North Herts Museum, Knebworth House, the Garden City Collection, and YC Hertfordshire.

Suffrage Stories: Tales from Knebworth, Stevenage, Hitchin and Letchworth is (paperback, price £10.00) is available from the Garden City Collection, or contact  Stevenage Museum or North Hertfordshire Museum.

In 1789 struggling writer Ben Dearlove rescues a woman from a furious Covent Garden mob. The woman is ill and in her delirium cries out the name “Miranda”. Weeks later an anonymous novel about the voyage of the Miranda to the fabled Great Southern Continent causes a sensation. Ben decides to find the author everyone is talking about. He is sure the woman can help him – but she has disappeared.

It is soon clear that Ben is involved in something more dangerous than the search for a reclusive writer. Who is the woman and what is she running from? Who is following Ben? And what is the Admiralty trying to hide? Before he can discover the shocking truth, Ben has to get out of prison, catch a thief, and bring a murderer to justice.

Awesome Indies approved, a Discovering Diamonds Book of the Month

Find out about the history behind the book

A Continent of Great Extent: ‘Writing To the Fair Land’ is a short Powerpoint presentation (ten minutes) which looks at the history behind the story, as well as some of the myths.

You can view the presentation and read the transcript on Substack.

All the posts and presentations on my Substack are free, and there’s no charge for subscribing either.

He heard a noise behind him, turned and glimpsed Bailey, pistol in hand. That was all he had time for. Something exploded in front of his eyes. He plummeted into darkness.

In the winter of 1794 Bow Street Runner and amateur pugilist, Dan Foster, is assigned to guard a Royal Mail coach. The mission ends in tragedy when a young constable is shot dead by a highwayman calling himself Colonel Pepper. Dan is determined to bring the killer to justice, but the trail runs cold.

Then Dan is sent to Staffordshire to recover a recently-excavated hoard of Roman gold which has gone missing. Here he unexpectedly encounters Colonel Pepper again. The hunt is back on – and this time Dan will risk his life to bring down Pepper and his gang.

The Fatal Coin is a prequel novella to Bloodie Bones, the first Dan Foster Mystery (joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016). Awesome Indies approved, a Discovered Diamond.

Note: The Fatal Coin was first published as an ebook with SilverWood Books in 2017 and is available from them. The paperback edition was published in 2022 with a new cover.

Find out about the history behind the book

The Fatal Coin: and Making Money (pdf document)

The smugglers’ lanterns lit up the hollow and dazzled him. He made out half a dozen shadowy figures gathering around the entrance to the cave in a silent semi-circle. He would have time to fire one shot before they overpowered him, and he was going to use it.

Principal Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is sent to collect smuggler Watcyn Jones from Beaumaris Gaol on Anglesey, and bring him back to London for trial at the Old Bailey. As if having to travel to the wilds of North Wales isn’t bad enough, Dan is saddled with an inexperienced constable as his interpreter and assistant. At least it’s a routine assignment and shouldn’t take more than a few days.

But when the prison escort is ambushed and Watcyn Jones escapes, a straightforward transfer turns into a desperate manhunt. And as Jones’s enemies start to die, the chase becomes more urgent than ever. Dan’s search for the killer brings him up against a ruthless smuggling gang – and his chances of getting off the island alive begin to look far from promising.

The Contraband Killings is the fourth Dan Foster Mystery. Bloodie Bones, the first  in the series, was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016. A BRAG Medallion Honoree.

Find out about the history behind the book

A Journey to Eighteenth-Century Anglesey (pdf document) – read about eighteenth-century travel in Wales, and follow Dan Foster’s journey to Anglesey.

Before he was even sure the man was there, the figure darted into the alley, leaving behind only the impression of the tilt of a hat, the flick of a hem, the lift of a heel. A shadow skittering into the shadows.

Two women at opposite ends of the social scale, both brutally murdered.

Principal Officer Dan Foster of the Bow Street Runners is surprised when his old rival John Townsend requests his help to investigate the murder of Louise Parmeter, a beautiful writer who once shared the bed of the Prince of Wales. Her jewellery is missing, savagely torn from her body. Her memoirs, which threaten to expose the indiscretions of the great and the good, are also missing.

Frustrated by the chief magistrate’s demand that he drop his investigation into the death of the unknown beggar woman found savagely raped and beaten and left to die in the outhouse of a Holborn tavern, Dan is determined to get to the bottom of both murders. But as his enquiries take him into both the richest and the foulest places in London, and Townsend’s real reason for requesting his help gradually becomes clear, Dan is forced to face a shocking new reality when the people he loves are targeted by a shadowy and merciless adversary.

The investigation has suddenly got personal.

Death Makes No Distinction  is the third Dan Foster Mystery. Bloodie Bones, the first in the series, was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016. A BRAG Medallion Honoree; joint winner Discovering Diamonds Book of the Month; Chill With a Book Premier Readers’ Award.

Find out  about the history behind the book

Dan Foster and the Bluestockings (pdf document) – read about some of women writers (bluestockings) who inspired the literary women in Death Makes No Distinction.

“An officer’s been murdered. Murdered and cut up for sale to the anatomy schools. It was a professional quartering. I want to know who has the skill to do that.”

During a routine patrol, police arrest two men in possession of human body parts which are intended for sale to the dissecting rooms of a London teaching hospital. Bow Street Runner and amateur pugilist Dan Foster makes the grisly discovery that they are the remains of fellow-officer George Kean. The arrested men are charged with Kean’s murder, but Dan is not convinced that they are the killers. In pursuit of the real murderer, he investigates the unhallowed activities of the resurrection men – body snatchers.

The body-snatching racket soon leads Dan to something bigger and much more dangerous. In a treacherous underworld of vicious pugilists, ruthless murderers, British spy masters and French agents, Dan must tread carefully – or meet the same terrible fate as Kean.

The Butcher’s Block is the second Dan Foster Mystery. Bloodie Bones, the first in the series, was joint winner of the Historical Novel Society Indie Award 2016. BRAG Medallion Honoree; shortlisted for Discovering Diamonds Book of the Month; Chill With a Book Readers’ Award; Awesome Indies Book Award.

Find out  about the history behind the book

Dan Foster in Southwark – a look at eighteenth-century Southwark (pdf document).