M. Battle Jackson

Growing up, Battle was, and still is, a voracious reader. Her favorite authors were Georgette Heyer, Phyllis Whitney, and Jane Austen, as well as Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Drew mysteries and Franklin W. Dixon’s tales of the Hardy boys. Battle wrote romantic short stories as a teenager, and a college professor urged her to consider writing as a career. As an adult, her writing mostly consisted of artifact descriptions and exhibit labels and text for the state history museum and then state historic sites. She managed the state’s artifact collections—first as a registrar and later as a curator—and received numerous leadership awards in the museum field. After retirement, her sister suggested that Battle take up writing again and write in a similar fashion to Georgette Heyer, an English author whom they both admired. Mrs. Heyer’s research of social conventions and language of the times was meticulous and serves as an inspiration to Battle. As a historian, Battle continues to research the fascinating Regency period and represents it as accurately as possible.