PDR Lindsay, Writer's Choice

p.d.r. lindsay (no capitals, please—a nod to her beloved e.e. cummings) doesn't just write historical and literary fiction; she wages war with words. Armed with a superb education, formidable research skills, and an uncompromising passion for justice, she crafts stories that challenge readers to see the uncomfortable patterns threading through centuries of human behaviour. She's the kind of writer who believes books should do more than entertain—they should shake you awake, make you think, and perhaps inspire you to be slightly less terrible to the planet and each other. Her writing journey began at age seven with a calculated attempt to manipulate her parents into buying her a pony. The novel failed spectacularly in its mission, but it succeeded in something far more important: it revealed writing as her lifeline, her oxygen, her escape hatch from a childhood shadowed by a mother who couldn't love her and siblings who tormented her. In those early stories, she created the acceptance and love that her real world denied her. What started as survival became as essential as breathing—a compulsion she's never been able to shake, nor wanted to. Today, p.d.r. lindsay calls herself a Martian rather than claim membership in a species she finds appalling. She watches humanity's treatment of the planet with a mixture of rage and heartbreak, channelling her eco-warrior fury into both her writing and her lifestyle. She grows her own food, bakes her own bread, and has built a life as close to sustainable as one can manage while still, regrettably, being stuck on Earth. When she's not tending her garden or researching obscure historical details, you'll find her body surfing—one of the few activities where she feels genuinely at peace with the natural world. Her passion for historical fiction springs from a shrewd observation: readers will swallow hard truths about human nature when they're wrapped in the costume of another century. By excavating the lives of ordinary people—the parsons and farmers, the wives and merchants whose names history forgot—she reveals how little we've learned from our mistakes. Social injustice, environmental destruction, the abuse of power: these themes repeat across her work because they repeat across human history. She collects early twentieth-century books not just for their beauty, but for the voices they preserve, the evidence they provide that we've been here before and failed to pay attention. The path hasn't been smooth. In 2016, her creative energy was nearly destroyed by a church conflict that became deeply personal—a new vicar's hate campaign that singled her out for years of vicious attacks. The irony of being persecuted by someone claiming Christian values wasn't lost on her. She survived by doing what she's always done: writing it down. The memoir she crafted became both weapon and shield, proof and processing, a way to reclaim her voice when someone tried to silence it. That experience only sharpened her intolerance for fools, hypocrites, and blabbermouths who abuse whatever small power they're given. p.d.r. lindsay writes for readers who aren't afraid to be challenged, who understand that the best stories don't just transport us—they transform us. Her characters solve problems more successfully than real life often allows, but they do so within the messy constraints of their historical moments, making their victories feel earned rather than easy. She travels widely, hunting for unusual settings and kernels of historical fact that she can grow into full-bodied narratives. Her fierce intelligence, combined with her refusal to tolerate injustice, makes her both a formidable storyteller and an occasionally difficult dinner companion. She remains noisy, enthusiastic, and utterly uncompromising in her demands for fair play. She has little patience for idiots and even less for those who destroy what they should protect—whether that's a happy parish, a fragile ecosystem, or the truth. Through historical fiction, she holds up a mirror to our failures and occasionally, in the grace of her best characters, shows us what we might become if we could just learn from the past. Her books are love letters to language, battle cries for justice, and invitations to readers willing to think while they turn pages.

PUBLISHED WORKS

The Novels:

THE VICTORIAN SERIES

1. Bittersweet – 1872

A Victorian Novel of Justice and Passion in British India

Short listed in the Wishing Shelf awards and a Readers' Choice top 50 reads of the years

2. Tizzie -1887 A Powerful and Intense Victorian Family Drama in the Yorkshire Dales

short listed in the Bookbzz Best Book competition, short listed in the Wishing Shelf Independent Book Awards and the M.M. Bennetts Award for Historical Fiction Association. Tizzie was chosen as Editor's Choice and short listed for the Historical Novel Society historical fiction award.

3. Wild Colonial Girl

A Victorian New Zealand Romance of Love and Rebellion

listed 20th in the Readers' Choice 50 best novels of the year. Long listed in the Wishing Shelf Awards!

THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR SERIES

1. Jacob’s Justice:

A powerful story of family, sacrifice, and vengeance.

short listed in the UK Writers' Unpublished Novel competition. Long listed in the Wishing Shelf Awards.

THE TALES FROM OLD JAPAN SERIES

Where honour meets destiny in the shadows of ancient Japan

I Tales from Old Japan:

Four gripping tales of courage, loyalty, and honour transport readers to feudal Japan, where samurai warriors, cunning servants, and noble ladies fight to protect what they hold most sacred.

2 Salt Run: The Heir's Last Hope:

a stand along novella where enemies storm the castle gates, and a young warrior must guide her lord's four-year-old heir through feudal Japan's deadliest mountains to safety.

3 Gentle Days In Old Japan:

When duty demands everything, and courage is not enough

Four enthralling and gently humorous tales of courage, loyalty, and honour transport readers to feudal Japan, where samurai warriors, cunning servants, and noble ladies manoeuvre to avoid the wrong partners.

AN AFFECTIONATE VIEW OF LIFE IN THE '80s & '90s SERIES

1 Blokes Muddling Through –

Discover six powerful stories of men, land, and the changes that test them both.

Humour blended with poignant emotional depth in these prize winning short stories

2 Women Waking Up – Eight women. Eight turning points. Infinite courage.

One powerful collection of prize winning short stories

The individual short stories published as Writer's Choice Shorts were all published first in journals, magazines, zines, and podcasts.

3 Adam's Tale: Boy, Dog and Trumpet