Where are they now...Gay Longworth

A couple of weeks ago when I was travelling back from London after meeting up with Petrona, I happened to see a fellow passenger reading a battered copy of Dead Alone by Gay Longworth and it got me wondering whether she was still writing.

She'd written four books, most recently Dead Alone (2002) and The Unquiet Dead (2004) which were a series featuring DI Jessie Driver who is, according to the blurb from Dead Alone: "a fast-track motorbike-riding female cop with a colourful love-life, an attitude and more than a few resentful male colleagues".

My internet research turned up at least some of what she's written since 2004. Firstly she's (allegedly) ghost-written a couple of biographies: Next to You: Caron's Courage Remembered by Her Mother by Gloria Hunniford (2005) and Billie Piper's Growing Pains (2006). And secondly that she now writes women's fiction under the name Carrie Adams, having published The Godmother in 2006 and The Stepmother in 2007.

You can read more about those two books on the readthegodmother website.

Incidentally there's no mention of her past crime fiction life on that website but she does refer to it in the epilogue of The Godmother and explains how she got the idea for that book.

Where are they now..Hannah March

Hannah March wrote five Georgian crime novels starring Robert Fairfax which were published between 1999 and 2001. The third one, A Distinction of Blood, was short-listed for the 2001 Ellis Peters Historical Dagger.

Since then Hannah (who is actually a he) seems to have forsaken the crime world. However, I discovered by chance that he is now writing historical fiction as Jude Morgan including the Jane Austen inspired Indiscretion and most recently An Accomplished Woman which is due out in paperback in a few days time.

Synopsis from amazon.co.uk:
As a young woman, clever, self-reliant Lydia Templeton scandalised society by rejecting Lewis Durrant, the county's most eligible bachelor. Ten years later, Lydia has no regrets and, having concluded that matters of the heart need no longer trouble her, she is quite happy to remain unwed. But others still seek Lydia's advice on their love lives, and when her godmother implores her to take her young ward Phoebe's search for a suitor in hand, it's hard to refuse. In truth, the prospect fills Lydia with horror (especially as she must go to Bath of all places to do it), but poor Phoebe, having managed to promise herself to two men at once, rather needs her help. However, finding a solution to Phoebe's dilemma proves far trickier than anyone imagined. As affairs become increasingly tangled, Phoebe more muddled and Lydia's exasperation grows, the confirmed spinster finds that her own heart is not quite the closed book she thought it was!

I haven't read any Regency romances for quite a few years however all this period drama on tv has encouraged me to order this one at the library. I may even get round to reading it, you never know...

Where are they now - Gillian Linscott?

A friend was asking me yesterday about new books by Gillian Linscott. It seems that she's not published anything since 2003. Linscott is probably most well known for her Nell Bray series about a sufragette, which currently numbers eleven. The first in the series, 'Sister Beneath the Sheet' is reviewed here at the women in world history site.

As well as a few standalones, she also wrote three books about ex policeman, Birdie Linnet early in her writing career. The first of the Birdie Linnet books is 'Healthy Body' which revolves around a French naturist centre and is reviewed here from a naturist's perspective.

If anyone can tell me if Gillian Linscott's still writing, please do drop me a note in the comments.

UPDATE Dec. 2007: Gillian Linscott is now writing as Caro Peacock.