‘It's beautifully written and I raced through it. Research is filtered through contemporary consciousness and deployed with skill. It's a polished performance’ – Hilary Mantel

Emily Howes has worked as a storyteller, theatre maker, performer, writer and director for stage, television and radio. Emily has a Masters in Existential Psychotherapy and works as a psychotherapist. She is the award-winning author of debut novel with strong East Anglian links. The Painter’s Daughters (2024) fictionalises the fascinating lives of painter Thomas Gainsborough and his family. It was one of the top 10 Sunday Times Historical Fiction Books of the Year and won the 2021 Mslexia Novel Prize. We hope she will talk too about the eagerly-anticipated Mrs Dickens (due June 2026) which tells the story of Catherine, the complex, often forgotten wife of Charles, and their long difficult marriage in all its affection, grief, passion and fury.

Photo of Emily Howes: Katrina Campbell