Kate Summerscale – författare

_______________WINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERA RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK_______________'A remarkable achievement' - Sunday Times'A classic, to my mind, of the finest documentary writing' - John le Carré'Absolutely riveting' - Sarah Waters, Guardian_______________On a summer’s morning in 1860, the Kent family awakes in their elegant Wiltshire home to a terrible discovery; their youngest son has been brutally murdered. When celebrated detective Jack Whicher is summoned from Scotland Yard he faces the unenviable task of identifying the killer – when the grieving family are the suspects.The original Victorian whodunnit, the murder and its investigation provoked national hysteria at the thought of what might be festering behind the locked doors of respectable homes – scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing._______________'Nothing less than a masterpiece' - Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday'Terrific' - Ian Rankin'A triumph' - Observer'Gripping, unputdownable' - Sunday Telegraph'A terrific read in the Wilkie Collins tradition' - Susan Hill'The best whodunnit of the year - and it's all true ... Agatha Christie, eat your heart out' - Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler

'Jaw-droppingly amazing' DAILY MAILWINNER OF THE SOMERSET MAUGHAM AWARDTHE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERBorn in 1900 to a promiscuous American oil heiress and a British army captain, Marion Barbara Carstairs realised very early on that she was not like most girls. Liberated by war work in the First World War, Marion reinvented herself as ‘Joe’. She dressed in men’s clothes, smoked cigars and cheroots, tattooed her arms and became Britain’s most celebrated female speed-boat racer – the ‘fastest woman on water’.Yet Joe tired of the limelight in 1934 and retired to the Bahamian island of Whale Cay. There she fashioned her own kingdom, where she threw riotous parties at which Hollywood actresses and British royalty were among the guests. Although her lovers included screen sirens such as Marlene Dietrich,the real love of Joe’s life was a small boy-doll named Lord Tod Wadley, to whom she remained devoted throughout her remarkable life. She died, aged 93, in 1993'A small jewel of a biography' NEW YORKER'Fascinating, hilarious and deliciously subversive' LITERARY REVIEW'A biography that sparkles with enthusiastic research and empathetic writing' SUNDAY TIMES'A wonderful account of a truly extraordinary life' MAIL ON SUNDAYNote: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here

FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER'Extraordinary' PHILIPPA GREGORY, DAILY TELEGRAPH'Grippingly suspenseful' SUNDAY TIMESWhen the married Isabella Robinson was introduced to the dashing Edward Lane at a party in 1850, she was utterly enchanted. He was ‘fascinating’, she told her diary, before chastising herself for being so susceptible to a man’s charms. But a wish had taken hold of her, and she was to find it hard to shake. . .In one of the most notorious divorce cases of the nineteenth century, Isabella Robinson’s scandalous secrets were exposed to the world. Kate Summerscale brings vividly to life a frustrated Victorian wife’s longing for passion and learning, companionship and love, in a society clinging to rigid ideas about marriage and female sexuality.‘I’m all admiration: she has turned a sepia photograph, curling and tattered, into a film that runs through the mind in glorious and unimpeachable Technicolor’ RACHEL COOKE, OBSERVER'Summerscale strikes non-fiction gold for the third time' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY'Moving, compelling and brilliantly executed' DAILY TELEGRAPH BOOKS OF THE YEAR‘Summerscale’s brilliance lies not only in recognising the power of a particular story, but in charting,with beautiful precision, its strange echoes and reverberations’ CRAIG BROWN, MAIL ON SUNDAYNote: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here

FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER'The queen of Victorian true crime is back' MAIL ON SUNDAYSHORTLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONOn 8 July 1895, thirteen-year-old Robert Coombes and his younger brother Nattie set out from their East London home to watch a cricket match. Over the next ten days they spend extravagantly, visiting the theatre and eating out. The boys tell neighbours their father has gone to sea, and their mother to visit family in Liverpool. But when a strange smell begins to emanate from the house, the police are called. What they find throws the press into a frenzy – and the boys into a highly publicised trial.‘An accomplished feat of research and storytelling . . . Wrapping controversial issues into a tense, fluent narrative’ HILARY MANTEL'Riveting . . . Once again the author proves a subtle pathologist, her scalpel slicing away the skin of late-Victorian Britain’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR‘A remarkably heartening story’ JOHN PRESTON, DAILY MAIL‘An extraordinary book which will stay with you’ DAILY EXPRESS‘It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed’ SPECTATORNote: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here

_______________A beautiful new limited edition paperback of The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher, published as part of the Bloomsbury Modern Classics list_______________WINNER OF THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTIONTHE NUMBER ONE BESTSELLERA RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK_______________'A remarkable achievement' - Sunday Times'A classic, to my mind, of the finest documentary writing' - John le Carré'Absolutely riveting' - Sarah Waters, Guardian_______________On a summer’s morning in 1860, the Kent family awakes in their elegant Wiltshire home to a terrible discovery; their youngest son has been brutally murdered. When celebrated detective Jack Whicher is summoned from Scotland Yard he faces the unenviable task of identifying the killer – when the grieving family are the suspects.The original Victorian whodunnit, the murder and its investigation provoked national hysteria at the thought of what might be festering behind the locked doors of respectable homes – scheming servants, rebellious children, insanity, jealousy, loneliness and loathing._______________'Nothing less than a masterpiece' - Craig Brown, Mail on Sunday'Terrific' - Ian Rankin'A triumph' - Observer'Gripping, unputdownable' - Sunday Telegraph'A terrific read in the Wilkie Collins tradition' - Susan Hill'The best whodunnit of the year - and it's all true ... Agatha Christie, eat your heart out' - Sebastian Shakespeare, Tatler

FROM BRITAIN’S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITER'A wonderful book' HILARY MANTEL'Gothic, dark and scandalous' SUNDAY TIMESSHORTLISTED FOR THE 2020 BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZELONGLISTED FOR THE CWA GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONIt is 1938. As the shadow of fascism darkens over Europe, strange things are happening in Alma Fielding’s suburban home in Croydon. Crockery flies off the shelves; stolen rings appear on Alma’s fingers; and white mice scuttle out of her handbag.Nandor Fodor – chief ghost hunter for the International Institute for Psychical Research – arrives on the scene, determined to crack the case. As Fodor’s obsession deepens, and Alma becomes ever more disturbed, the pair find themselves in a treacherous battle of wills . . . 'Prepare not to see much broad daylight, literal or metaphorical, for days if you read this’ THE TIMES'Nobody is better at unpicking stories of ghosts and murder than Kate Summerscale … Will stay with you for weeks’ DOMINIC SANDBROOK, SUNDAY TIMES BOOKS OF THE YEAR'As gripping as a novel. An engaging, unsettling, deeply satisfying read’ SARAH WATERS‘A detective novel, a ghost yarn and a historical record rolled into one . . . Electrifying’ i-PAPER‘It would be impossible to read this dry-eyed’ SPECTATORNote: There is a chance the book cover you receive may differ from the cover displayed here

FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITERWINNER OF THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: The Times/Sunday Times, Financial Times, Spectator, Independent, Tablet and New Statesman'I loved it' Richard Osman'Shattering' Val McDermid'Gripping' Sarah WatersIn 1953, the bodies of three young women are found by a tenant in the walls of a Notting Hill house. He tells the police that he chanced upon them while trying to put up a shelf for his transistor radio.As a series of further horrors are discovered, 10 Rillington Place becomes an address synonymous with murder.A riveting tale of violence, misogyny and tabloid frenzy, The Peepshow lifts the veil on what really happened inside Britain's most notorious house - and suggests a new solution to the case that transfixed a nation.LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

London, 1953. Police discover the bodies of three young women hidden in a wall at 10 Rillington Place, a dingy terrace house in Notting Hill. On searching the building, they find another body beneath the floorboards, then an array of human bones in the garden. But they have already investigated a double murder at 10 Rillington Place, three years ago, and the killer was hanged. Did they get the wrong man?

FROM BRITAIN'S TOP-SELLING TRUE CRIME WRITERWINNER OF THE CWA ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTIONA BOOK OF THE YEAR FOR: The Times/Sunday Times, Financial Times, Spectator, Independent, Tablet and New Statesman'I loved it' Richard Osman'Shattering' Val McDermid'Gripping' Sarah WatersIn 1953, the bodies of three young women are found by a tenant in the walls of a Notting Hill house. He tells the police that he chanced upon them while trying to put up a shelf for his transistor radio.As a series of further horrors are discovered, 10 Rillington Place becomes an address synonymous with murder.A riveting tale of violence, misogyny and tabloid frenzy, The Peepshow lifts the veil on what really happened inside Britain's most notorious house - and suggests a new solution to the case that transfixed a nation.LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN'S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2025

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ALL BIBLIOMANIACSA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND DAILY MAILA WATERSTONES BEST POPULAR SCIENCE BOOK Plunge into this rich and thought-provoking A-Z compendium to discover how our fixations have taken shape, from the Middle Ages to the present day, as bestselling author Kate Summerscale deftly traces the threads between the past and present, the psychological and social, the personal and the political.'Fascinating' Malcolm Gaskill, author of the No. 1 bestseller The Ruin of All Witches'Fascinating' Observer'An endlessly intriguing book ... All the bibliomanes (book nutters) I know will love it' Daily Mail

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ALL BIBLIOMANES A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND DAILY MAILAS HEARD ON BBC RADIO 4 WOMAN'S HOUR AND START THE WEEKPlunge into this rich, surprising and stunningly designed A-Z compendium to discover how our fixations have taken shape, from the Middle Ages to the present day, as bestselling author Kate Summerscale deftly traces the threads between the past and present, the psychological and social, the personal and the political.'Fascinating ... Phobias and manias create a magical space between us and the world' Malcolm Gaskill, author of the No. 1 bestseller The Ruin of All Witches'Fascinating' Observer'An endlessly intriguing book ... All the bibliomanes (book nutters) I know will love it' Daily Mail

Summer 1860, an elegant country house, a young boy is found dead in an outside privy. All clues point towards the murderer being a member of the grieving household.Called to the scene is the most celebrated detective of his day, Jonathan Whicher from Scotland Yard. But this case challenges him in ways he's never been challenged before.Over twenty years later, still haunted by the case, Whicher visits the murderer. As they replay the past, they start to question the nature of truth, the desire for certainty and the possibility of redemption.This compelling stage adaptation of Kate Summerscale's gripping bestseller opened at The Watermill Theatre, Newbury, in May 2023.This ensemble piece provides rich opportunities for companies looking to intrigue their audiences with a fresh take on a dark Victorian mystery.