Caitlin Davies is a novelist, non-fiction writer, teacher and journalist. She’s the author of six novels and eight non-fiction books, many of which are inspired by forgotten women from history.

Her early books are set in Botswana, where she started her writing career as a human rights reporter, including her memoir Place of Reeds. 

Some of her books have a watery theme, such as Taking the Waters, Downstream, and Daisy Belle: Swimming Champion of the World.

Others have a criminal theme, including The Ghost of Lily Painter, based on a true tale of baby farming, Bad Girls: The Rebels and Renegades of Holloway Prison, nominated for the Orwell Prize for Political Writing 2019, and Queens of the Underworld, a history of professional female crooks from the 17th century to today.

Her latest non-fiction book, Private Inquiries: The Secret History of Female Sleuths, tells the story of the UK’s female private eyes from the 1850s to the present, interspersed with her own training as a Professional Investigator.

Caitlin is currently writing a series of cozy historical crime novels, The Seaside Detective, featuring Victorian sleuth Louisa May and set on the Isle of Thanet, Kent. The first in the series, Mr Dickens & the Mystery at Fort House, will be published in April 2027.

Caitlin is also Writer in Residence at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, part of the Royal Literary Fund’s social sector programme.

‘Private Inquiries is a must-read – a riveting mythbuster, with its revelations of the real histories of women PIs’

– Val McDermid

‘Caitlin has a particular gift for capturing an individual’s physical presence.’

– Hilary Mantel

Caitlin is an executor of the literary estate of her mother, Margaret Forster.