Flora Johnston

I am fascinated by uncovering stories which have not been told, and by storytelling which explores the past and illuminates the present. I have had a long professional career in historical research and writing for exhibitions, digital media and publications, and am delighted now to use those skills to explore the novelist’s question, ‘but what did that feel like?’

My debut novel What You Call Free tells the story of two real women and their struggle for freedom in 17th century Scotland. My non-fiction publications include War Classics, the story of pioneering Scots academic Christina Keith’s time in France 1918-9, and Faith in a Crisis, looking at famine, eviction and the church in 19th-century Uist. I am now working on a series of novels which explore women’s lives and political and social change from the end of the First World War to the start of the Second.

I can deliver workshops on researching and writing historical fiction, biography and memoir, and am happy to give talks, readings and participate in panel events on any of the themes covered in my writing.