Gaynor Haliday

It was Gaynor Haliday's passion for genealogy and social history that took her on the path to becoming a published author. Although thus far she hasn't discovered links to either royal or notorious ancestry, she is fortunate in having a family tree full of ordinary people who did interesting things that needed further investigation.

Gaynor started sharing the stories she had uncovered, by writing magazine articles about her ancestors. Her first book, Victorian Policing (Pen & Sword, November 2017), was inspired by her great, great grandfather’s policing career, and her second, Struggle & Suffrage in Wakefield (Pen & Sword, March 2019) looked closely at women’s lives and influence over the 100-year period 1850–1950. Exploring women’s influence further, Shaping a Nation (Pen & Sword, October 2025) looks at the work of the women who strived for improvements in education –whether that be for the benefit of the children, other women, or that of the educators – the challenges they faced and the enormous impact they made for future generations.