Penelope Clare

Penelope Clare writes historical fiction about the people who lived history.

Her novels are shaped by a fascination with the lives that rarely make the historical record—the hopes, relationships, difficult choices and everyday moments that reveal what it means to be human. For Penelope, history is the setting; people are the story.

Years spent researching family history and genealogy taught her how much can be discovered in a single name, a passenger list or a half-told family story—and how much remains unknown. Those gaps are often where her fiction begins.

The Bold Series follows women finding their way through nineteenth-century England, New Zealand and beyond, with stories centred on courage, connection, belonging and the quiet choices that shape a life.

The records ended there. The story began.