From tales spun for her teddies when she was a child (usually about mermaids) to film scripts, plays and novels, Alexandra Walsh has always been a storyteller. Words are her world. For over 25 years, she has been a journalist writing for a wide range of publications including national newspapers and glossy magazines. She spent some years working in the British film industry, as well as in television and radio: researching, advising, occasionally presenting and always writing. Books dominate Alexandra’s life. She reads endlessly and tends to become a bit panicky if her next three books are not lined up and waiting. Characters, places, imagery all stay with her and even now she finds it difficult to pass an old wardrobe without checking it for a door to Narnia. As for her magical letter when she was 11, she can only assume her cat caught the owl! Alexandra’s other passion is history, particularly the untold tales of women. Whether they were queens or paupers, their voices resonate with their stories, not only about their own lives but about ours, too. The women of the Tudor court have inspired her novels. Researching and writing The Marquess House Trilogy (Book One: The Catherine Howard Conspiracy) has brought together her love of history, mysteries and story telling.

Get in touch

You can contact Alexandra Walsh on Twitter or check out her website.

Coming soon

The Marquess House Trilogy begins with The Catherine Howard Conspiracy, a mystery alternating between the court of Henry VIII and present-day Pembrokeshire.

Alice Chetwynd Ley was born on 12 October 1913 in Halifax, Yorkshire, the first child of a journalist, Fred Humphrey and his wife, Alice Mary (née Chetwynd): she was given the name and surname of her mother in addition to her father’s surname. Her father left home to serve overseas as an officer in the First World War in Palestine, Egypt and France, but returned to take up again his chosen profession of journalism. The family moved around the country as the father took jobs on different regional newspapers, and Alice’s early schooling took place in Selkirk and Sheffield, but when they settled in Birmingham she went to King Edward VI Grammar School for Girls in Edgbaston. In 1959 Alice enrolled part-time for an extra-mural Diploma in Sociology of the University of London, for which she studied at the relatively local Harrow College. This course included work on the eighteenth century, and in October of the same year she published her first novel, The Jewelled Snuff Box with the London-based publisher, Robert Hale. Apart from historical research conducted through the local library and via the printed word, Alice also did a great deal of field research into locations, taking short holidays in likely settings, and exploring many aspects of the Napoleonic period, from old inns to smugglers’ coves. She was well-informed on costume and ‘manners’ generally, and would become indignant when costume dramas on television ‘got it wrong’. Most of her novels go back from the Regency (strictly speaking, 1811-20) and the overlapping Napoleonic period into the later part of the eighteenth century, and she created one family whose fortunes she followed in a short series (the Eversley saga). Alice passed away in 2004.

Alis Hawkins grew up on a dairy farm in Cardiganshire. Her inner introvert thought it would be a good idea to become a shepherd and, frankly, if she had, she might have been published sooner. As it was, three years reading English at Corpus Christi College, Oxford revealed an extrovert streak and a social conscience which saw her train as a Speech and Language Therapist. She has spent the subsequent three decades variously bringing up two sons, working with children and young people on the autism spectrum and writing fiction, non-fiction and plays. She writes the kind of books she likes to read: character-driven historical crime and mystery fiction with what might be called literary production values. Having lived in various English cathedral cities, Alis now lives with her partner in the Forest of Dean. Interestingly, their first contact with their now-home was a research trip for The Black and The White into the techniques of medieval charcoal making. What Alis had assumed would be an interesting hour or two turned into a fascinating weekend and, having relocated to the Forest, she and her partner are now regular volunteers at the Dean Heritage Centre’s annual charcoal ‘earth burn’ in May.

Get in touch with Alis

You can contact Alis through her author website and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.

Coming soon

The Black and The White is a psychological thriller – think The Talented Mr Ripley meets The Road - set during the Black Death and is the first of a trilogy. Sapere Books will also be re-issuing Alis’s historical mystery Testament, a dual narrative novel set in the fictitious medieval university city of Salster. It revolves around the characters of Kineton and Dacre College in both the financially-precarious present day and during its contentious construction in the fourteenth century.

Austin Hernon lives in Nottinghamshire with wife Mandy. Born in the middle of World War II and spending lots of nights in an air raid shelter, it was no surprise to find him following a military career when he survived. Twenty six years, mostly in the REME where he was a mechanic specialising in underwater recovery. A world-wide traveller and someone who has spent many years living abroad he is unwilling to give up that habit now that he is retired and travels widely. First gaining a degree in Social Sciences before he took up the challenge and has so far produced four historical fiction novels with another in progress.

Get in touch with Austin

Take a look at his website: www.history-reimagined.co.uk And find out more about his books on his Facebook pages: Lincoln 1217 History Reimagined Robert – The Wayward Prince Battle 1066

Cathy Wallace is an author, journalist and hopeless romantic who wrote her first book at the tender age of six. Entitled Tarka the Otter, it was a shameless rip-off of the Henry Williamson classic of the same name, and the manuscript was lost after she sent it to her pen-pal and never heard a jot from her since. Fortunately reception to her writing became more favourable and she spent ten years working for a range of newspapers and magazines covering everything from general elections and celebrity scandals to cats stuck up trees and village fetes. She has been freelance since 2011 and written for The Telegraph, Red Online, Total Women’s Cycling and other lifestyle and cycling publications and websites. She is the author of three non-fiction books and her debut and thankfully non-plagiarised novel Summer at Hollyhock House will be published by Sapere Books this year. Cathy lives on the leafy London/Surrey border with her two children and a dog with only two facial expressions, hungry and guilty. Her hobbies include mountain biking, photography, wandering around outside getting lost, fantasising about getting her garden under control, reading, looking at pretty things on Instagram and drinking tea.

Get in contact with Cathy

You can find her on Instagram at CathyWallace_ on Twitter @CathyWallace_ or visit her website.

Sir Cecil Beaton (1904-1980) was a photographer of considerable distinction, who photographed most of the interesting figures of the twentieth century, from the Queen and Queen Mother, the Windsors, stars such as Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich, Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, to figures of the 1960s such as Rudolph Nureyev, the Rolling Stones and Twiggy. He was also a noted war photographer and took many fashion photographs for Condé Nast. He was also a man of considerable style, an arbiter of taste, designer of sets and costume for opera, ballet and theatre, an inveterate traveller, and throughout this long career, he was a diarist from 1922 until 1974 (and even a little later). During his lifetime he published six volumes – The Wandering Years – 1961 The Years Between – 1965 The Happy Years - 1972 The Strenuous Years – 1973 The Restless Years - 1976 The Parting Years - 1978 A composite volume, Self Portrait with Friends, edited by Richard Buckle, was published in 1979. Later there were two further volumes, The Unexpurgated Beaton (2002), and Beaton in the Sixties (2003), both edited by Hugo Vickers. Cecil Beaton won three Oscars for his work on the films, Gigi and My Fair Lady. He was awarded a CBE in 1957, and knighted for his service to the arts in 1972.

Charlie Garratt was born in Manchester and moved to Coventry, Warwickshire at the age of 18 where he trained as a telecommunications engineer. Increasing involvement in his local community led to a change of career and over thirty years in the field of community development across the United Kingdom. During this time he was regularly writing non-fiction and is credited as author and co-author of a number of books and guides on community participation. In 2006, Charlie moved to Donegal, Ireland and this is when his fiction writing began, through involvement in a creative writing group. Charlie is currently working on a fictionalised memoir and on a third novel in the Inspector James Given series. In 2016, three of Charlie's short stories were included in a collection, Wild Atlantic Words, fifteen tales drawing from life along the west coast of Ireland. He returned to England in the Spring of 2018 and now lives in Shropshire. When he's not writing, Charlie enjoys gardening, playing and listening to music, genealogy, short-mat bowls and, of course, reading crime fiction.

Coming soon 

His first novel, A Shadowed Livery, a murder mystery set in Warwickshire, was published in April 2015 by Grey Cells Press, the crime imprint of Holland House. It is due to be republished by Sapere Books in 2019, with the sequel, A Rose by Any, soon afterwards.

Christine Evans was brought up in Moss Side, Manchester and then moved to Wythenshawe, a sprawling council estate at the edge of south Manchester. Leaving grammar school at sixteen, she went to work in a bank. After Christine married she gave up work to have her children and, after a spell of temping, worked at the Bishop of Manchester’s office for twenty years. During that time she began night school classes for creative writing. One of the tutors suggested that she send off some of her short stories to magazines and her first short story was published in 1999 in Ireland’s Own. Since then she has had over two hundred short stories published in various magazines, mostly in People’s Friend but also in Ireland’s Own, Take a Break, Bella, My Weekly and Yours. All sorts of idea set Christine off, memories, funny things that happened to people or someone’s love story, not to mention eavesdropping. She has written three serials for People’s Friend and “Song of the Shuttle” began as one of those serials. She became interested in the Lancashire Cotton Famine caused by the American Civil war. The Famine rarely makes an appearance in any history books, so she decided to weave a story around it, set in Lancashire and America.  

Claire Gray lives in the South Lakes with her family. She studied Creative Writing at the Cumbria Institute of the Arts, which no longer exists, having been absorbed by the University of Cumbria. She graduated in 2006 and then went on to complete a journalism course at Darlington College. That same year, she won a Northern Promise Award from New Writing North, and her work was featured in their anthology, entitled Ten Years On. Claire now works as a freelance copywriter and continues to write short stories, some of which have been published in magazines and online. Recently, she has been guest editor for the prose section of SpeakEasy Magazine, which showcases Cumbrian writing. In 2015, she received editing advice from The Literary Consultancy through their Free Read scheme. They subsequently felt that her manuscript, Running in Circles, showed potential, and began approaching literary professionals on Claire’s behalf. This resulted in the novel being placed with Sapere Books, and Claire is very excited to be a part of their inaugural launch list.

Get in touch 

Follow Claire on Twitter to keep up with her news.

  Cora Harrison was born in Cobh, in southern Ireland, but was educated in the city of Cork. After attaining a first honours degree in French, she went to London and worked initially for the Linguaphone Institute. When her children were young she and her husband moved to Kent where she took up teaching and after some years became a headteacher. After retirement, she and her husband relocated back to Ireland where they bought a twenty-acre farm with a river, an Iron Age fort and a derelict cottage. This place inspired the seventeen ‘Drumshee’ books, historical novels for children. Inspired by the success of these books, and other books for children, Cora began to write the thirteen Burren mysteries for adults, using the ancient Brehon laws of medieval Ireland and set in the scenic stony land of the Burren in the west of Ireland, beside the Atlantic Ocean. These historical mysteries were followed by the Reverend Mother series, six of them at this moment, dealing with her native city of Cork during the tumultuous times after the war of independence and the civil war, during the early part of the twentieth century.

Get in touch

Get in touch with Cora through her website.

David Field was born in post-war Nottingham, and educated at Nottingham High School. After obtaining a Law degree he became a career-long criminal law practitioner and academic, emigrating in 1989 to Australia, where he still lives. Combining his two great loves of History and the English language he began writing historical novels as an escape from the realities of life in the criminal law, but did not begin to publish them until close to fulltime retirement, when digital publishing offered a viable alternative to literary agencies, print publishers and rejection slips. Now blessed with all the time in the world, his former hobby has become a full time occupation as he enjoys life in rural New South Wales with his wife, sons and grandchildren to keep him firmly grounded in the reality of the contemporary world.

Get in touch with David

You can contact David through his website or via Facebook.

Dean Carson trained as a physicist, then worked as a journalist for a decade, covering the crime beat during the infamous Limerick drug war. His first book was a definitive account of that conflict, Family Feud: Gangland Limerick Exposed. It became the most shoplifted book in Ireland. He followed it with several more true crime titles. His first thriller, The Christmas Killer, was published by Penguin in 2014. Dean quit journalism to concentrate on writing full-time, and on his second career as a magician and comedian. He travels widely doing magic and hypnosis shows. He has performed throughout Europe, in America, and in the Middle-East. He lives outside Cork, Ireland, and when not writing thrillers, he enjoys hiking and climbing, and is currently training for a 1,000 mile hike through Siberia in deep winter (www.coldestjourney.info). He writes factual books as Anthony Galvin, and fiction as Dean Carson, and occasionally Jim Gallows.

Get in touch: 

You can check out Dean's website or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Coming soon: 

Sapere Books will be publishing Death and Destruction on the Thames in London (by Anthony Galvin); the story of the dark history of the Thames. We will also be publishing Dean's thrillers, two books from the Eli Varrick Bounty Hunter series and one standalone novel.

Deborah Swift used to be a set and costume designer for theatre and TV, during which time she developed a love of research which fuelled her passion for the past. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and also writes successful seventeenth century historicals. She likes to write about extraordinary characters set against the background of real historical events and is the author of nine novels so far. Her first novel, The Lady's Slipper was shortlisted for the Impress Prize and Past Encounters was awarded Best In Genre at the BookViral Millennium Book Awards.

Get in Touch

Find her at www.deborahswift.com or on Twitter @swiftstory and Facebook. Pictures of Deborah's research can be found on Pinterest 

Doreen Tovey was born in Bristol in 1918 and raised by her grandparents, her love of animals was fostered by her grandmother who was an inveterate rescuer of anything in need. The family shared its home with cats, dogs and an owl called Gladstone. Having attended grammar school she had a couple of boring jobs before joining Imperial Tobacco as a typist/secretary before graduating to their public relations department. It was here that she met her future husband, Rene (called Charles in the books). Doreen Tovey was the author of more than a dozen books about the life she and her husband shared with their Siamese cats and other animals in Somerset, England. She was president of the Siamese Cat Club, President of the West of England Cat Club and President of the RSPCA for North Somerset. Doreen passed away in 2008.

Coming soon 

Sapere Books are delighted to be reissuing Doreen's books, beginning in 2018. We currently have plans to republish seven of Doreen's books, charming tales of life surrounded by various pets, most importantly, cats. We are happy to announce that all author proceeds from the sales of Doreen's books will go to the North Somerset branch of the RSPCA.

Dorothy Mack is a native New Englander, born in Rhode Island and educated at Brown and Harvard Universities. She and her husband have made their home in the National Capital Area for many years. They enjoy exchanging visits with their large extended family and try to take any opportunity for world travel.

Coming soon

Sapere Books will be reissuing 23 historical romances by Dorothy.

Elizabeth Bailey feels lucky to have found several paths that have given her immense satisfaction - acting, directing, teaching and, by no means least, writing. Through the years, each path has crossed the other, honing and deepening her abilities in each sphere. She has been privileged to work with some wonderful artistic people, and been fortunate enough to find publishers who believed in her and set her on the road. To invent a world and persuade others to believe in it, live in it for a while, is the sole aim of the novelist. Elizabeth's own love of reading has never abated, and if she can give a tithe of the pleasure to others as she has received herself, it's worth all the effort.  

Elizabeth Lemarchand was born in 1906. She became a teacher at The Godophin School in Salisbury. Her first book Death of an Old Girl was published in 1967. Elizabeth passed away in 2000 at the age of 94.

Coming soon

Elizabeth wrote 17 books throughout her life in the acclaimed Pollard and Toye detective series. Sapere Books is delighted to be reissuing the series beginning in 2018. 1. Death of an Old Girl (1967) 2. The Affacombe Affair (1968) 3. Alibi for a Corpse (1969) 4. Death on Doomsday (1971) 5. Cyanide With Compliments (1972) 6. No Vacation from Murder (1973) 7. Buried in the Past (1974) 8. Step in the Dark (1976) 9. Unhappy Returns (1977) 10. Suddenly While Gardening (1978) 11. Change for the Worse (1980) 12. Nothing to Do with the Case (1981) 13. Troubled Waters (1982) 14. The Wheel Turns (1983) 15. Light Through the Glass (1984) 16. Who Goes Home? (1986) 17. The Glade Manor Murder (1988)

Eric Helm is a pseudonym used by the writing team of Kevin D Randle and Bob Cornett. Kevin D. Randle Kevin D. Randle is a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot accumulating more than 1100 hours of combat flight time. In 2003 he deployed to Iraq as an intelligence officer. He served on active duty with the Army and later the Air Force. He was a member of the Iowa National Guard on his deployment into the Middle East. He retired from the National Guard in 2009. He is a graduate of the University of Iowa, has advanced degrees from California Coast University and American Military University. He has taught classes at both the community college and the university level. Randle is the author of dozens of books about the military drawing on his own experiences as a soldier in a combat environment. He has also written nonfiction books about UFOs as well as science fiction. He teamed with Robert Cornett in the 1980s to create the Vietnam Ground Zero series as well as write many science fiction novels. He makes his home in Iowa where, if nothing else, the seasons change and sometimes the sun shines. Bob Cornett Bob Cornett was born in a small town in Iowa no one has ever heard of. And he tries to keep it that way. Growing up, he developed an appreciation for hunting and fishing. At the University of Iowa, Bob worked for Dr. James Van Allen and learned to fly under the AF ROTC program. He has been a private investigator, a fire-medic, an outdoors writer, a junior college instructor in both creative writing and EMS, and a Marine (no longer on active duty.) Bob now makes his home in New Mexico where he enjoys shooting, ham radio, and retirement when his three dogs and his cat will let him.

Coming soon

Sapere Books will be reissuing 31 military thrillers by Eric Helm: 4 books in the Scorpion Squad series and 27 books in the Vietnam Ground Zero series.

I first started writing as a child; mainly poetry, but there was one horrific novel (mercifully, never finished) in which a woman gives birth to a hideously deformed child in a thunderstorm. While I was bringing up my four children, I began writing and selling short stories to magazines before the enforced immobility following a fractured spine gave me the time to tackle my first novel, Dead Ernest. My main career was in nursing, but I also trained and worked for many years as a relationship counsellor with Relate. Widowed in 1992, I re-married and now live with my husband in Wiltshire, where I enjoy riding my horse in the beautiful Pewsey Vale, reading, writing, singing in our large church choir and keeping up with my grandchildren. I also write regularly to a prisoner on Texas Death Row and do local voluntary work with homeless and vulnerable adults. All my books are very strongly relationship-based. My writing has also been affected by my widowhood and my experiences with my Relate clients, and my books sometimes include issues of death and bereavement. Strangely (and not by design) they all seem to include pet animal funerals (not a subject which normally occupies my mind!). Get in touch with Frances You can contact Frances through her website or via Facebook.

Gail Lindenberg enjoys her home in Phillips Ranch, CA with her husband Gene and a furry cat named Smudge. Retired after thirty-seven years of teaching in public schools, Gail spends her time caring for her mother and her granddaughter. Gail wrote He Wrote Her Every Day while recovering from cancer. She presented a hard-cover version to her mother as a 90th birthday gift. Once the chemo fog lifted, she joined a writer's workshop to produce better edited editions. Gail often says that she felt as though her father was watching over her shoulder while she wrote about his letters. “Sometimes,” she notes, “I think he may have been shaking his head a bit.”

Get in contact with Gail

You can contact Gail and read more about the background of her book on her website.  

Gaynor Torrance writes chilling contemporary thrillers, often, though not solely, about serial killers. Having studied Psychology at university, she uses her interest in the subject to create memorable characters. She is the author of the DI Jemima Huxley series of books, which are set in and around the Welsh capital city, Cardiff; an area she knows and loves, having lived there for many years. Revenge is due to be published by Sapere Books in 2019, as is the second book in the series, Sole Survivor. The third DI Huxley installment, Stalked, is close to completion. Gaynor is also the author of an international thriller, Step Up or Die, set against the backdrops of New York, Toronto and London. A Goodreads reviewer said of Step Up or Die – ‘A very well-written international thriller ... Lots of exciting scenarios, with several twists, turns and a huge set of unique characters to keep track of. This could also make another great international thriller movie, or better yet a mini TV series. A very easy rating of 5 stars.’ When she is not writing, Gaynor enjoys going to the cinema, theatre and live music events, socialising with friends and family, reading, playing the piano, and travelling with her husband.

Get in touch with Gaynor

You can get in touch with Gaynor via her website, and follow her on Facebook or Twitter. See a full list of Gaynor’s books on Goodreads.

Dr Geoffrey Davison has spent all his working life in South-East Asia, as a university lecturer in Malaysia, a conservationist with WWF, and now with the National Parks Board, Singapore. His interests range across ornithology, tropical forest ecology and animal taxonomy. He has written numerous scientific papers as well as books, including the bestselling Naturalist's Guide to the Birds of Malaysia. Sapere Books will be publishing nine of Geoffrey's espionage novels.

Gillian lives in Darlington in the North East of England, with her husband and rescue dog Liffey. With four adult children and nine grandchildren, there is always plenty to do but her passion for writing occupies much of her time. After a career in childcare as the owner/manager of a Day Nursery, Gillian changed course and trained as a therapeutic counsellor. Following this, five years working in the voluntary sector for Victim Support brought a whole new range of experiences as she supported victims of crimes, from burglary to homicide. Combining these experiences with a lifelong love of writing, the fictional counsellor, Maggie Sayer, was created.

Coming soon

There are five books in the ‘Maggie’ series, each dealing with gritty contemporary issues yet written with a sensitive touch. Each book introduces three different clients for Maggie, as well as moving her own story along what is often a rocky path. Other novels include Abduction which opens thirteen years after the abduction of three year old Grace Bryson, when her sister is convinced she has seen her alive. Dare the family hope again and if it is Grace, where has she been all these years? Snatched begins with eleven year old Danny being taken on his way home from school, hurling the family into every parent’s worst nightmare. The police investigation is hampered by lies and deceit as secrets begin to surface. Danny himself is terrified as he is held prisoner, in fear of what his fate may be but an unexpected friendship springs up, one which will change his young life forever.

Get in touch with Gillian

Gillian can be found on Twitter @GillianJackson7 and at her website www.gillianjackson.co.uk You can check out her page on Facebook at Gillian Jackson Fiction Author.

  Graham Brack hails from Sunderland and met his wife Gillian in Aberdeen where they were both studying pharmacy. After their degrees Gillian returned to Cornwall and Graham followed. This is now called stalking but in 1978 it was termed “romantic”. They have two children, Andrew and Hannah, and two grandchildren, Miranda and Sophie. Gillian and Graham now live in Northamptonshire. Graham’s foray into crime writing began in 2010 when he entered the Crime Writers’ Association’s Debut Dagger competition and was highly commended for Lying and Dying (previously titled The Outrageous Behaviour of Left-Handed Dwarves), in which the world was introduced to Lt Josef Slonský of the Czech police. Slaughter and Forgetting followed. Both have been re-published by Sapere Books along with the third book in the series, Death On Duty. The next two books in the series, Field of Death and A Second Death, followed in 2019. In 2014 and 2016 Graham was shortlisted for the Debut Dagger again. The earlier novel, Death in Delft (previously titled The Allegory of Art and Science), is set in 17th century Delft and features the philosophy lecturer and reluctant detective Master Mercurius. Sapere Books will publish it in 2019.

Get in touch with Graham

You can check out Graham's website here and follow him on Twitter here.

J. C. Briggs taught English for many years in schools in Cheshire, Hong Kong and Lancashire. She now lives in a cottage in Cumbria. The Murder of Patience Brooke is the first novel featuring Charles Dickens as a detective and his partner, Superintendent Sam Jones of Bow Street. The idea of Dickens as a detective came about when she read Dickens’s articles about the London police in his periodical Household Words. Dickens was fascinated by police investigation and by murder, in particular – there are plenty of murderers in his writing, and Dickens is credited with the creation of the first literary detective in Inspector Bucket who solves the murder of Mr Tulkinghorn in Bleak House. The second in the series is Death at Hungerford Stairs (2015), and the third, Murder by Ghostlight, set in Manchester and London, was published in 2016.

Get in touch 

You can check out Jean's website or follow her on Twitter or Facebook.  

Jane Cable started to take her scribbling seriously when the manuscript that would become her debut novel reached the final of The Alan Titchmarsh Show’s People’s Novelist competition. After that she took time out to hone her craft and with two successful independently published novels under her belt is delighted to be joining Sapere Books. The timing is perfect because last year Jane and her husband fulfilled their dream of moving to Cornwall and, despite the obvious distractions of surf, sand and the great outdoors, she has now become a full time author. Jane writes contemporary romance with a twist of mystery and a glance back over the shoulder at the past. More than anything she is inspired by a place, delving back into its history to find stories which resonate with her modern characters – and her readers – alike. An enthusiastic member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association, Jane also writes a weekly column about publishing and books for Frost online magazine.

Get in touch with Jane

You can check out Jane's website, her Facebook Page or her Twitter Page if you would like to get in touch.

Coming soon

Sapere Books will be publishing two timeslip novels looking back to World War 2. The first is a re-issue of Another You, a novel based in Dorset around the 60th anniversary of a tragic D-Day exercise. Against the backdrop of commemorations and re-enactments, chance meetings with two soldiers and an elderly veteran and his son prove unlikely catalysts for change in downtrodden chef Marie’s life. Jane’s new novel, Winter Skies, is set in the Lincolnshire heartland of Bomber Command. Archaeologist Rachel is trapped in a destructive pattern of behaviour as far as relationships are concerned, but the past has a habit of repeating itself and could provide her with the impetus she needs to break free.

Jean Stubbs was born in 1926 in Lancashire. Even as a small child she made up stories and plays – her younger brother a captive audience and ‘bit part player’. Jean’s book writing began with The Rose Grower, published in 1962. She lived in London for over 20 years, thriving on city life and later its publishing world. Her writings included innumerable short stories for magazines and collections, some of which have been adapted for radio. She also ran seminars and discussion groups at writer’s summer schools and was appointed for a year as writer-in-residence for Avon. Her books include three Victorian-set crime novels featuring the charismatic Inspector Lintott, and she also based some of her fiction on historical figures like Henry VII. She was mostly published in the UK by Macmillan and by St Martins Press in the US. In 1975 Jean moved to Cornwall with her husband, to live in a small stone cottage on the Lizard peninsula – a sea change. Once more Jean’s creativity responded to her surroundings. This very different Cornish life inspired a number of books, several set in Cornwall, and the four novels comprising The Brief Chronicles, set in industrial-age Her final novel – I’m a Stranger Here Myself – was published in 2004. Jean died in 2012.  

Crime and thriller writer John Matthews lives with his wife and son in Surrey, close to the Kent border. After gaining a Kent scholarship at his 11-plus, he spent most of that summer taking entrance exams and gained acceptance to Dulwich College; but because his family were moving at the time, he ended up going to a less illustrious nearby Grammar school. John also spent a while in Spain during his early writing days where he had a regular doubles tennis game up until his tennis partners died (hopefully not from his hard-edged tennis game, but more their heavy social drinking habits). John's books span genres of crime, action, mystery and legal-thriller and include: Basikasingo, The Crescent Wars, Past Imperfect, The Last Witness, The Second Amendment, Ascension Day, The Shadow Chaser, Blindsided, The Prophecy and his latest Jameson and Argenti series set in 1890s New York with the first days of criminal forensics. They have been translated into 14 languages with total sales of 1.5 million. In 2007, Past Imperfect was included in a top ten all-time best legal thrillers list in The Times. He was one of only two British authors in the list. John is also an accomplished screenwriter, including a film adaptation for Past Imperfect and original screenplays, with two recent projects in collaboration with Nigel McCrery, creator of TV's Silent Witness and New Tricks.

Get in touch with John 

You can check out John's website here.

Kate Dunn comes from a long line of writers and actors: her great-great-grandfather Hugh Williams was a Welsh chartist who published revolutionary poetry, her grandfather, another Hugh Williams, was a celebrated film star and playwright and she is the niece of the poet Hugo Williams and the actor Simon Williams. Kate has acted in repertory, toured around Britain, the Far and Middle East and appeared in three West End plays, as well as a number of television productions. She has a PhD in Drama from Manchester University. Following the birth of her son Jack she turned to writing and has had six books published: Rebecca’s Children Always and Always – the Wartime Letters of Hugh and Margaret Williams Exit Through the Fireplace – The Great Days of Rep Do Not Adjust Your Set – The Early Days of Live Television. The Line Between Us The Dragonfly (short listed for the Virginia Prize awarded to encourage fresh women’s voices in fiction). Sapere Books will also be re-publishing The Line Between Us in 2019.

Get in touch with Kate

You can check out Kate's other books on her website, or follow her on Twitter.

Keith Moray was born in St Andrews and studied medicine at the University of Dundee in Scotland. He lives in England now, within arrow-shot of the ruins of a medieval castle, the scene of two of his historical novels, The Pardoner’s Crime and The Fool’s Folly. He is a part-time doctor, medical journalist and novelist, writing in several genres. He writes historical fiction and crime as Keith Moray, non-fiction as Keith Souter and westerns as Clay More. Curiously, his medical background finds its way into most of his writing. He is a member of various writers’ organisations, including the Crime Writers’ Association, Medical Journalists Association, International Thriller Writers, Western Writers of America and a past vice-president of Western Fictioneers, a professional organisation of Western writers. In his spare time, Keith enjoy the movies, theatre and making bread. He plays golf, tennis and runs at carthorse speed. As a frustrated actor, he has found occasional solace as a supporting artist, but enough said about that! Keith lives in West Yorkshire in England with his wife Rachel and whichever of his children and grandchildren happen to pop home.

Get in touch with Keith 

You can check out Keith's website or follow him on Facebook or Twitter.

Kim Fleet holds an MA and PhD in Social Anthropology and spent five years living and working in Australian Aboriginal communities, helping indigenous people gain access to their traditional country. This experience informed several of her short stories and her novels Sacred Site and Featherfoot, which are set in the Australian outback. She has been writing since the age of nine, when her father gave her a book called Write Your Own Novel. Over 80 of her short stories have appeared in magazines in the UK and Australia, including People's Friend, Woman's Weekly, Take a Break and That's Life Fast Fiction. She has won or been short-listed in over twenty literary competitions, including the Asham Award.

Get in touch

Kim welcomes visitors to her website: www.kimfleet.com

Coming soon

Kim is fascinated by crime and history, topics which she blends together in her timeslip novels, Paternoster, Holy Blood and Devil's Chimney which Sapere Books are delighted to be publishing.

Linda's love affair with the printed word started when she was two, when her mother, a keen reader, taught her the alphabet. She has had her nose in a book ever since. By her teens, she had developed an absorbing and enduring interest in true crime and history and a special fascination for the Victorian era. 2003 saw the launch of her first published book, Chloroform: the Quest for Oblivion. Several true crime books were to follow, most recently The Secret Poisoner, a study of nineteenth century poison murder, and three biographies, including The Marquess of Queensberry: Wilde’s Nemesis. Linda's first fiction series, the Frances Doughty Mysteries set in 1880s Bayswater, features a clever and determined lady detective. Through her adventures, Linda explores aspects of Victorian life such as diet, education, medicine, women’s rights, fear of premature burial and the fashion for cycling. In her second series, set in 1870s Brighton, Mina Scarletti is a deceptively diminutive lady who writes horror stories and exposes the activities of fraudulent spirit mediums. Linda is delighted to be an active member of the Crime Writers’ Association, and was elected Vice-Chair in 2017. Get in touch with Linda You can get in touch with Linda via her website or on Facebook.  Follow her on Twitter and Instagram. See a full list of Linda’s books on Goodreads. Sign up to her newsletter to hear about Linda's news and exclusive content.

Lynne Reid Banks is the author of ten acclaimed adult novels as well as many much-loved books for children.

She was born in London in 1929, the only child of a Scottish doctor and an Irish actress. During WW2 she was evacuated to the prairies of Canada where she spent 5 years. After studying at RADA in the late 1940’s she became an actress and later joined ITN to become one of the first women TV news reporters in Britain. Her first novel, The L-Shaped Room, was published in 1960 and caused outrage in more conservative quarters for its portrayal of a an unmarried mother-to-be who is thrown out by her father and has to live in the L-shaped room of the title. The novel was later adapted for cinema by the legendary Bryan Forbes and brought great critical acclaim.

In the early 1960's she went to live in a kibutz in Israel with her husband where she taught English. In 1971 she brought her family back to London where she continued to write for adults and children including her classic children’s novel, The Indian in the Cupboard which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide and was made into a highly successful feature film.

In 2013 Lynne won the prestigious JM Barrie Award for her contribution to children's arts.

Lynne has now written over forty five books and lives in Shepperton, England.

Get in touch

You check out Lynne's books and her news on her website.

M. J. Logue (as in cataLOGUE and epiLOGUE and not, ever, loge, which is apparently a kind of private box in a theatre) wrote her first short novel on a manual typewriter aged seven. It wasn't very good, being about talking horses, but she made her parents sit through endless readings of it anyway. Thirty-something years later she is still writing, although horses only come into it occasionally these days. Born and brought up in Lancashire, she moved to Cornwall at the turn of the century (and has always wanted to write that) and now lives in a granite cottage with her husband, and son, five cats, and various itinerant wildlife. After periods of employment as a tarot reader, complaints call handler, executive PA, copywriter and civil servant, she decided to start writing historical fiction about the period of British history that fascinates her - the 17th century. Her first series, covering the less than stellar career of a disreputable troop of Parliamentarian cavalry during the civil wars, was acclaimed by reviewers as "historical fiction written with elegance, wit and black humour" - but so many readers wanted to know whether fierce young lieutenant Thankful Russell ever did get his Happy Ever After, that the upcoming series of romantic thrillers for Sapere Books began.

Get in touch with MJ

She can be found on Twitter @Hollie_Babbitt, lurking on the web at asweetdisorder.com, and posting photos of cake, cats and extreme embroidery on Instagram as asweetdisorder.

Marilyn Todd is the award winning author of sixteen historical thrillers, three anthologies and scores of short stories. Most of these stories are crime, with the others swinging from comic fantasy to commercial women's fiction and all points in between. Two scooped awards from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and a third was nominated for a Shamus. She is also a reviewer for the New York Journal of Books. Born in London, she's been killing people for a living since 1995. These days she lives with her husband on a French hilltop, surrounded by vineyards, chateaux and woods, and when she isn't killing people, Marilyn enjoys cooking. Which is pretty much the same thing.

Get in touch with Marilyn

You can check out Marilyn's website at www.marilyntodd.com.

Coming soon

Sapere Books will publish the first three books in Marilyn's fascinating new crime series about Britain's first crime scene photographer.

Matthew Pritchard is a former investigative journalist and worked 10 years in Spain, covering stories for the local and national press. Since becoming a novelist, he has had four novels published (two of which were translated and sold in Germany). The Danny Sanchez series is based on his Pritchard’s experiences of working in the hot, chaotic and corrupt world of southern Spain. His standalone, Werewolf, is a historical thriller, set in Germany, August, 1945, as the British settled down to occupy the north of the country. Outside of writing, Pritchard is also a talented musician, and plays in the rock band, The 109s, who have released two albums.

Get in touch 

You can check out Danny's website here.

Following retirement, after thirty-two years as a police officer, working mainly as a detective, Michael Fowler returned to the deadly business of murder, as a writer. His past work brought him very close to some nasty characters, including psychopaths, and gruesome cases, and he draws on that experience to craft his stories: there is nothing gentile about the novels he writes. He penned his first DS Hunter Kerr novel in 2010 and he says that writing about Hunter is like writing about himself. “In many ways I am inextricably linked with Hunter Kerr. His career shadows mine to an extent and many of his experiences were mine. South Yorkshire remains a key element in my books. It’s Hunter’s patch and we both know it well.”

Get in touch with Michael

Check out Michael's website or get in touch via Twitter.

Coming soon

Heart of the Demon, Cold Death and Secrets of the Dead are the first three books in the DS Hunter Kerr series.

Natalie came late to writing, but not to reading, and it was her lifelong love of Regency romance that led her to turn from contemporary romantic fiction to try her hand at her favourite genre. She takes delight in creating short stories of which more than fifty have been published, but is never happier than when immersed in an age of etiquette and manners, fashion and intrigue, all combined into a romping good tale. Natalie is a member of the Romantic Novelists Association, the Society of Authors and the Society of Women Writers and Journalists. Natalie lives in southeast London with her husband who fortunately enjoys cooking, as she can be found at her laptop at almost any hour of the day.

Coming soon

Written in the flowing language of the era, The Reluctant Bride tells the story of Charlotte, a young woman who is forced by her ambitious father into marriage with an earl. Within six weeks she is widowed and must find her own way in society, frustrated by the interference of her husband’s cousin and heir who proves to be a thorn in her side. When Prudence loses her beloved father to suicide and is left without a home she resolves with only a small legacy to stand on her own two feet. What else can she do When Only Pride Remains? Sophie is twenty-one years old when she learns that her life has been a sham. Shunned by society but with a spirit that will not be broken, The Girls with Flaming Hair is determined to overcome every challenge that is thrown at her. The Ghost of Glendale (released previously under the same title) is a delightful romp in which Phoebe and her beau, Duncan, try to resolve the mystery of why her several times great grandfather’s spirit cannot rest in peace.

Get in touch with Natalie

Natalie can be found on Twitter @NatKleinman and on her blog. Check her out on Facebook and on her Amazon Author page.

Following a childhood spent writing her first books, most notably, Our Book about Jesus – a self-help guide for fellow young Catholics, and, The Sleepover – a compelling tale of a midnight feast, shockingly intercepted by fictitious parents with badly drawn hands, Patricia Caliskan always liked to play with words. Patricia first saw her name misspelt in print aged 17, interviewing hungover rock stars and illegible actors for an Arts and Entertainment magazine. After graduating from the University of Liverpool, Patricia joined Trinity Mirror Newsgroup, working as editor across a portfolio of lifestyle magazine titles. Patricia likes a good pair of boots, wearing perfume with her pyjamas, and laughter. Lots of laughter. Because without it life feels far too grown up for her liking. Told with mischievous humour, Patricia’s stories explore family dynamics, office politics, and the divergent roles of women throughout their lives.

Get in touch 

You can get in touch with Patricia on her website or follow her on Instagram, Twitter or Goodreads.

Rebecca Jenkins was born into history and never recovered. Her first home was a 15th Century college house in Oxford High Street with the red and white roses of the War of the Roses carved over the door. In her early teens she was such a fan of D’Orczy’s Scarlett Pimpernel, she took up fencing determined to master the “prise de fer”. Her library began at the same age – collecting cheap between-the-wars editions of diaries and memoirs from the Georgian era. She spent the second half of her childhood in Switzerland but returned to Oxford University to take a degree in history. Sewing a loose buckle on a towering ugly sister’s shoe aged 16, as a dresser at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester, Rebecca discovered a fascination with theatre and celebrity that later led to her first non-fiction book, a biography of Georgian actress and anti-slavery campaigner, Fanny Kemble (The Reluctant Celebrity, Simon & Schuster 2005). Raif Jarrett, the returning soldier and detective of her Regency mystery series first appeared in The Duke’s Agent in 1997. Despite many the distractions of a busy career in communications and PR, his world remains her first love. In between producing a book on The First London Olympics, 1908 (Piatkus Little Brown 2012), the opening novels of the Faith Morgan series (as Martha Ockley - Monarch Books), and serving as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at York St John University, she managed to return to write the second book of the series, Death of a Radical. She is presently at work on the third Jarrett mystery.

Get in touch with Rebecca

You can check out Rebecca's website and follow her on Twitter here.

Ros was a head teacher, so was used to writing policy documents, essays and stories to which young children enjoyed listening. Now she has taken up the much greater challenge of writing fiction for adults. She writes both historical sagas and contemporary romance; perfect for lying by a warm summer pool or curling up with on a cosy sofa. Her books are thoroughly and accurately researched and often have a French connection, since she lived in France for ten years. Now Ros is back in the UK. She has two daughters and four granddaughters, with whom she shares many activities. When not writing, Ros spends time ballroom or Latin dancing as well as dog walking, not always at the same time, although she and her husband were caught once dancing down a country lane. Ros is a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association and is a founder committee member for the Deepings Literary Festival.

Get in touch

Contact Ros via Twitter, Facebook or her website.

Coming soon

The Strong Sisters series; three sisters, three times of major 20th century conflict. In Flowers of Flanders a malicious lie between two sisters, Delphinium and Rose, alters the course of their lives and draws a contrast between those at war in France and people in England. Flowers of Resistance continues Delphi’s life and that of her daughter, Flora, and is set largely in Vichy France before and during WW2. Flowers that Shattered Stones is a dual timeline story in 1975 with Heather, working in a care home, but tells of the youngest sister, Iris, before and during the Cold War. Three contemporary novels, Sense and French Ability, Peace of Time and Cuckoo’s Counsel are family relationship stories, easily relatable to readers and told with insight and sensitivity.

Sarah Herman is a British writer and editor. She’s worked for film, fashion and food magazines, including Star Wars Insider, Total Film and The Ingénue, and has written over twenty non-fiction books on topics as varied as unsolved crimes, The Archers and Facebook. She is also an expert on LEGO, having authored a number of books on the subject. She currently resides in the fine city of Norwich, England.

Get in touch with Sarah

You can find her blogging at sarahherman.co.uk and tweeting @hermanatee.

Coming soon 

Sarah Herman’s Famous Assassinations will be released in 2018. Spanning from Ancient Rome to the twentieth century, Herman sheds light on some of the most shocking murders in our history.

Seán, the father of three adult children, originally from Galway City, now lives with his partner in Wexford in the sunny South East of Ireland. He is a graduate of the National University of Ireland, Galway and Brunel University, London. After a career spent mostly in youth work and social care, Seán is at last able to indulge his lifelong passion for writing. In the early 2000’s he spent four years driving a taxi in Galway and it was from this experience that his unconventional, taxi-driving crime-solver, Ben Miller, gained life. Along with writing crime fiction and historical thrillers, Seán is also an award-winning playwright and filmmaker. When not writing, Seán is a patient, often frustrated, and always passionate supporter of Galway United FC, his hometown League of Ireland club. As his London-born mother lived on Britannia Road, SW London, there are no prizes for guessing the identity of his other team!

Coming soon

There are three books so far in the ‘Ben Miller’ series, each dealing with gritty contemporary issues yet written with a darkly humorous touch. Each book sees taxi-driver Ben Miller become unwillingly involved in situations, including murder, people-trafficking, prostitution and the illegal drugs trade that blur the distinctions between good and evil, as well as dealing with his own issues, including possible autism. The character of corrupt Gárda Superintendent Martin Folan features prominently in the Galway-set stories, each one of which is based on experiences the author had whilst working as a taxi-driver in the city.

Get in touch

Follow Seán on Twitter. Seán's website is coming soon.

Shirley Harrison began broadcasting with Uncle Mac on the BBC’s Children's Hour in 1954. She wrote for most national magazines and newspapers, turning to non-fiction after the death of her husband in 1982. Her best known is the internationally best selling The Diary of Jack the Ripper in which she takes readers on a journey back to the home of the Ripper in Liverpool and to the scene and execution of the most infamous murders in history. It has all the pace and drama of a thriller and, being based on historical archives remains utterly convincing. Because of her inexhaustible curiosity, at the age of 82, Shirley's professional life has covered a colourful range of subjects that have caught her imagination including Father Christmas, cider, Winnie the Pooh, King James II’s best loved brothel in Paris Gardens, Southwark, and Suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst resulting in her biography: Sylvia Pankhurst: The Rebellious Suffragette.

Simon Michael is the author of the best-selling London 1960s noir gangster series featuring his antihero barrister, Charles Holborne. Simon writes from personal experience: a barrister for 37 years, he worked in the Old Bailey and other criminal courts defending and prosecuting a wide selection of murderers, armed robbers, con artists and other assorted villainy. The 1960s was the Wild West of British justice, a time when the Krays, Richardsons and other violent gangs fought for control of London’s organised crime, and the corrupt Metropolitan Police beat up suspects, twisted evidence and took a share of the criminal proceeds. Simon weaves into his thrillers real events of the time and genuine court documents from cases on which he worked. Simon was published here and in America in the 1980s and returned to writing when he retired from the law in 2016. Simon’s theme is alienation; Holborne, who dabbled in crime and in serious violence before becoming a barrister, is an outsider both in the East End where he grew up and in the Temples of the Law where he faces daily class and religious prejudice. He has been compared to Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett’s Sam Spade, honourable men surrounded by corruption and violence, trying to steer an honest course. Simon supplements his writing with his entertaining one-man show, My Life in Crime, which he performs up to 50 times a year to Rotary, WI, library and other groups.

Get in touch

Simon's official website is www.simonmichael.uk.  You can catch up with Simon on Facebook or Twitter too.

Coming soon

The Charles Holborne series, The Brief, An Honest Man, The Lighterman and Corrupted, have all garnered strong reviews for their authenticity and excitement. Corrupted takes actual political events from the 1960s to create a frighteningly topical crime thriller of sexual abuse by people in positions of power, and an Establishment cover-up. The Waxwork Corpse is the brand-new thriller in the series and will be published for the first time by Sapere Books in 2019.

Stephen Taylor was once a happy and reasonably well-adjusted person; that was until an urge to write invaded his psyche, this need to be a writer, to tell tales; then these thoughts began to coalesce. A Georgian trilogy was conceived; set in London; a decadent time, a decadent place. If the past is another country, then the Georgian period exemplifies this. Why were these people so different from us? Now added, also Gospels - a Georgian adventure story set in Egypt. He is a widower with a daughter just finished University. Born in Yorkshire, brought up in Manchester (still an avid Manchester City fan); he is now a retired Tax Inspector (now come on out from behind the sofa, they are a fine bunch of lads and lasses at the Tax Office) and lives near Loughborough with his new partner. He has always admired the skill of the storyteller, and his character-driven historical fiction aspires to that simple tradition.

Coming soon

Sapere Books will be reissuing Stephen's Georgian Quartet; series of novels linked by social change, and the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution. Where class divisions were intensified, where morality declined as prosperity increased. Where sensibilities were strange to our modern eyes, and yet manners were highly prized.

Contact Stephen

You can check out Stephen's website here.

Valerie Holmes became a published author when she won Writing Magazine’s Annual Ghost Story Competition in 2002 with Three Squashed Pumpkins. Since then she has had over forty novellas published. The majority of her historical romances/mysteries are set in the early nineteenth century in a time of dramatic social change and of war with France. Smuggling, espionage and press-gangs all add to the drama that the hero/heroine faces. Valerie's work also includes contemporary titles. Two of her novellas were shortlisted for the category Romance Award by the Romantic Novelists’ Association. She literally ‘Loves the Adventure!’ Growing up in a coastal town on the edge of North Yorkshire, Valerie Holmes' novella world often reflects her love of the dramatic beauty of North Yorkshire; an area where she enjoys both hiking and discovering its fascinating history. She is an experienced creative writing tutor of distance learning courses who enjoys being able to encourage unpublished writers to move towards their dreams. Valerie also completes manuscript appraisals for the Romantic Novelists’ Association, New Writers' Scheme. As a reader for the Historical Novel Society she reviews both adult and children’s books. She is a member of the Society of Authors, The Crime Writers’ Association, Historical Novel Society and the Romantic Novelists’ Association.

Get in touch with Valerie

You can check out Valerie's website here and follow her on Facebook and Twitter.