Caitlin Davies

Caitlin Davies is a novelist, non-fiction writer, teacher and journalist. She's the author of six novels and eight non-fiction books, many inspired by women from the past.

Her early books are set in Botswana, where she started her writing career as a human rights reporter, including her memoir Place of Reeds.

Some of her books have a watery theme, such as Taking the Waters, Downstream, and Daisy Belle. Others have a criminal theme, including The Ghost of Lily Painter, based on a true tale of baby farming, Bad Girls, nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2019, and Queens of the Underworld, a history of professional female crooks from the 17th century to today.

Her latest non-fiction book, Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths, tells the story of the UK's female private eyes from the 1850s to the present, interspersed with her own training as a Professional Investigator.

Caitlin is currently writing a series of cozy historical crime novels, The Seaside Detective, featuring Victorian sleuth Louisa May and set on the Isle of Thanet, Kent. The first in the series, Mr Dickens & the Mystery at Fort House, will be published by Troubador in April 2027.

Caitlin is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow, and has worked at the V&A, the Science Museum and the University of Westminster. She is currently Writer in Residence at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

She is also a volunteer guide at Dickens House Museum in Broadstairs, and sells hand painted decoupaged shells online and at local gift shops.

She can be found on Instagram @seasidedetective