I’m a novelist, non-fiction writer, teacher, mentor and journalist and I love nothing better than inspiring other people to write their own stories.

I’m the author of six novels and eight non-fiction books, many of which are based on the forgotten lives of women from the past. Bad Girls: The Rebels & Renegades of Holloway Prison (John Murray)was nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2019.

My latest non-fiction book is Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths, to be published by the History Press in October 2023.

I’m a trained English teacher (with a PGCE in English) and have worked as a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the V&A, the Science Museum, and the University of Westminster in the school of Media, Arts and Design. I am currently an RLF writing fellow at NHS Kent & Medway.

I’ve taught creative writing in a variety of settings, including primary and secondary schools in Botswana and the UK, universities in the United States and the UK, and prisons and community centres in England. I have 30 years experience in running writing workshops, covering both fiction and non-fiction, as well as giving illustrated talks at literary festivals, libraries, schools, bookshops and museums.

I've tutored fiction and non fiction retreats with the Arvon Foundation, and taught Blogging and Creative Writing at City Lit and City Academy.I'm also a mentor with Story Board, https://www.storyboardwriter.com/, an online mentoring service.

I have run workshops on topics including Turning History into Fiction, Using Artifacts to Inspire Fiction, Writing Ghost Stories, Creating Characters in Historical Fiction, and Using Historical Sources in Non-Fiction.

I have also run several longer, school based writing and performance projects including Discovering the History of Your School and History Detectives. I am a former member of Speakers for Schools, and have served as co judge for the City of London’s short story competition for young people.

As a journalist I’ve worked as editor of a national newspaper in Botswana and as a stringer for a regional news agency in Zimbabwe. In the UK, I wrote education and careers features for The Independent, as well as the column Postgraduate Queries.

I’ve written education, travel and health features for The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Prospects Magazine, and the Open University Alumni Magazine. I've also written features for a range of magazines, including Town and Country, Tate Etc., and Discover Your History, as well as blogs for sites including VisitLondon, BBC History, the Museum of London and Genes Reunited.

For more information, please see my website: http://www.caitlindavies.co.uk/ @CaitlinDavies2

Qualifications

Foundation in Fine Art (Sir John Cass School of Art, UK) BA in American Studies (Sussex University, UK) MA in English (Clark University, USA) PGCE in English (Sussex University)

Publications

Fiction: Jamestown Blues, Penguin 1996 Summer Magic, Bloomsbury 2003 (short story contributor) Mums - in celebration of Motherhood, Ebury 2007 (short story contributor) Black Mulberries, Simon & Schuster, 2008 Grandparents, Ebury, 2009 (short story contributor) Friends Like Us, Simon & Schuster, 2009 The Ghost of Lily Painter, Hutchinson, 2011 Family Likeness, Hutchinson, 2013 Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World, Unbound,2018

Non-fiction: Communities in Crisis: Violence against women in Botswana's Northwest. WAR/Skillshare Botswana. 1999 The Return of El Negro, Penguin, 2003 Place of Reeds, Simon & Schuster, 2005 Taking the Waters, Frances Lincoln, 2012 Camden Lock & the Market, Frances Lincoln, 2013 Downstream: A history of Swimming the Thames, Aurum, 2015 Bad Girls: The Rebels & Renegades of Holloway Prison, John Murray, March 2018 Botswana Women Write (contributor), University of KwaZulu-Natal Press, 2019 Queens of the Underworld: A Journey into the Lives of Female Crooks, The History Press, 2021 Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths, The History Press, 2023

Radio appearances include: Woman’s Hour, BBC World Service, Midweek, Radio 4 PM, the Robert Elms Show, Radio 5 Live Victoria Derbyshire Show, Radio 4 Open Country, Monocle 24, Radio France Internationale, BBC Open Book, The Jo Good Show,The World This Weekend.

TV appearances include: Newsnight, BBC London TV News, Sky News, BBC 1 Country Tracks, Channel 5 Inside Holloway (Wildfire TV), SABC Africa.