Shining Threads (The Book Guild 2023) is a novel based on the life of Ethel Smyth (1858-1944), composer and suffragette. The novel is about a determined and energetic woman and her fight to become accepted as a musician when it was virtually unknown (and unacceptable) for women to compose. Her relationships with both men and women were stormy. She was a friend of Emmeline Pankhurst and joined her on several protests in the campaign for Votes for Women, which involved her spending time in prison. One of history’s forgotten women, Ethel Smyth’s music is slowly being rediscovered.

Previously, in 2012, I published a novel Far From Home, the story of Joan of Arc as told by her mother.

I also wrote a local history about the suffragettes of Ipswich and Suffolk, called A Song of their Own (The History Press 2014).  

I live in Suffolk and like to discover and make known the achievements of women whose names have been forgotten over time.