Lydia Syson brings history to life in fiction and non-fiction which works on many levels: her books are rewarding for readers new to her varied themes, yet also illuminating for those with deeper knowledge. She’s worked with words and stories all her life, spending her early career as a BBC World Service radio producer before completing a PhD about Timbuktu (2003). Her much cited biography of Britain’s first fertility guru, Doctor of Love: James Graham and his Celestial Bed, was followed by three critically acclaimed historical novels for young adults published by Hot Key Books: A World Between Us, That Burning Summer, and Liberty’s Fire. Set in the Spanish Civil War, World War Two and the Paris Commune of 1871, all were loosely inspired in different ways by her own family’s radical history. Her adult fiction debut, Mr Peacock’s Possessions, is a neo-Victorian Robinsonade which unfolds on a remote volcanic island in nineteenth-century Oceania and was based on a true story in her partner’s family history. Lydia is also a Royal Literary Fund Consultant Fellow and a best-selling and award-winning ghost writer. She grew up in Botswana and London, where she still lives, and has four adult children. She’s currently writing a work of biofiction set in pre-war France.

Contact details:

Email Lydia at lydiasyson@gmail.com

Lydia is represented by Ivan Mulcahy at MMB Creative.