I’m a novelist, non-fiction writer, teacher and journalist and I love nothing better than trying to inspire children, young people and adults to write their own stories.

I’m the author of six novels and six non-fiction books, as well as several short stories, many of which are based on the forgotten lives of women from the past. My latest non-fiction is Bad Girls: A History of Rebels & Renegades (John Murray),nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2019. My latest novel is Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World (Unbound 2018).

I’m a trained English teacher (with a PGCE in English) and a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the V&A and the Science Museum. I previously worked as a Fellow at the University of Westminster, Harrow, in the school of Media, Arts and Design.

I’ve taught creative writing in a variety of settings, including primary and secondary schools in Botswana and the UK, universities in the United States and the UK, and Holloway Prison in London. I have 20 years experience in running writing workshops, covering both fiction and non-fiction, as well as giving illustrated talks at literary festivals, libraries, schools, community groups, bookshops and museums. I've taught on a non fiction tutored retreat with Arvon, and will be tutoring a fiction tutored retreat in 2020.

I have run workshops on topics including Turning History into Fiction, Using Artifacts to Inspire Fiction, Writing Ghost Stories, and Creating Characters in Historical Fiction.

I have also run several longer, school based writing and performance projects including Discovering the History of Your School and History Detectives. I am a former member of Speakers for Schools, and was co judge for the City of London’s 2016 short story competition for young people.

As a journalist I’ve worked as editor of a national newspaper in Botswana and as a stringer for a regional news agency in Zimbabwe. In the UK, I wrote education and careers features for The Independent, as well as the column Postgraduate Queries.

I’ve written education, travel and health features for The Sunday Times, The Telegraph, Sunday Express, Mail on Sunday, Prospects Magazine, and the Open University Alumni Magazine. I've also written features for a range of magazines, including Town and Country, Tate Etc., and Discover Your History, as well as blogs for sites including VisitLondon, BBC History, the Museum of London and Genes Reunited.

I'm currently writing a history of female criminals, Queens of the Underworld, to be published by the History Press in 2021.

For more information, please see my website: http://www.caitlindavies.co.uk/ @CaitlinDavies2

Qualifications

Foundation in Fine Art (Sir John Cass School of Art, UK) BA in American Studies (Sussex University, UK) MA in English (Clark University, USA) PGCE in English (Sussex University)

Publications

Fiction: Jamestown Blues, Penguin 1996 Summer Magic, Bloomsbury 2003 (short story contributor) Mums - in celebration of Motherhood, Ebury 2007 (short story contributor) Black Mulberries, Simon & Schuster, 2008 Grandparents, Ebury, 2009 (short story contributor) Friends Like Us, Simon & Schuster, 2009 The Ghost of Lily Painter, Hutchinson, 2011 Family Likeness, Hutchinson, 2013 Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World, Unbound, August 2018

Non-fiction: Communities in Crisis: Violence against women in Botswana's Northwest. WAR/Skillshare Botswana. 1999 The Return of El Negro, Penguin, 2003 Place of Reeds, Simon & Schuster, 2005 Taking the Waters, Frances Lincoln, 2012 Camden Lock & the Market, Frances Lincoln, 2013 Downstream: A history of Swimming the Thames, Aurum, 2015 Bad Girls: A History of Rebels & Renegades, John Murray, March 2018 Botswana Women Write (contributor), University of KwaZulu-Natal Press (2019)

Radio appearances include: Woman’s Hour, BBC World Service, Midweek, Radio 4 PM, the Robert Elms Show, Radio 5 Live Victoria Derbyshire Show, Radio 4 Open Country, Monocle 24, Radio France Internationale, BBC Open Book, The Jo Good Show,The World This Weekend.

TV appearances include: Newsnight, BBC London TV News, Sky News, BBC 1 Country Tracks, Channel 5 Inside Holloway (Wildfire TV), SABC Africa.