Emma Darwin was brought up in London, except when the family was in Manhattan or Brussels. Her childhood travelling often inspires the background of her fiction, while history is how she thinks; photography, time, food, words and horses also tend to come into the equation. Her latest book, Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction, was published in March 1016. Drawing on her fifteen years' experience teaching and mentoring writers of all types and levels, Emma has designed Get Started in Writing Historical Fiction to be used in many different ways. Both experienced writers making the transition from writing about the here and now, and for those who've simply fallen in love with a particular era or character will find help to realise their ambitions. The builds chapter by chapter into a complete course in writing historical fiction, but is also stuffed full of ideas and exercises which stand on their own as a source of inspiration, technical help or simply fun a bit of writerly fun. Emma's debut novel, The Mathematics of Love, was nominated for, among others, the Commonwealth Writers and Goss First Novel awards, and so far has been translated into eight languages. It intertwines the stories of a veteran of Waterloo in 1819, and a disaffected teenager in 1976. "Hauntingly beautiful" - Washington Post Book World. "A book that works on every conceivable level" - The Times (London). Her second novel, A Secret Alchemy, re-imagines the world of the Princes in the Tower through the eyes and voices of their mother and uncle. "Breathtaking drama" - Publishers Weekly. "Sorcery... Spellbinding" - The Times (London). Emma is the great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma Wedgwood, but has no plans (at the moment) to write about them.
